The remaining Rite Aid prescription lists and stores may soon have new owners, including Boise-based Albertsons.
The company announced it would sell more than 1,000 remaining stores or pharmacy assets in a series of transactions to Albertsons, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Kroger, Giant Eagle, and others.
Rite Aid & CVS
Rite Aid operates eight stores in Idaho – including two in Boise, and one each in Caldwell, McCall, Lewiston, Hayden, Coeur d’Alene, and Moscow.
Yesterday, an auction of much of Rite Aid’s remaining assets was held. Most of the sales involve only the pharmacy assets – lists of customers and the like. In many cases, that means the pharmacy customer will be transferred to a Rite Aid competitor nearby, like Walgreens, Albertsons, or Fred Meyer. However, CVS Pharmacy has said it will buy 64 Rite Aid store locations — all in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Right now, Rite Aid operates a total of 151 stores across the three states, and yesterday announced it would close 20 of those in Oregon and Washington. That leaves 131 Rite Aid locations remaining, and CVS said it will only buy just less than half of those.
Neither Rite Aid nor CVS has identified which stores it will take over. CVS will buy the prescription files of another 625 former Rite Aid stores. Because Rite Aid and CVS didn’t identify how many stores would be sold in Idaho, it could be as few as one, and as many as all eight.
“A key priority for Rite Aid is to ensure that as many of our loyal customers as possible continue to receive the pharmacy services and care they require without interruption,” CEO Matt Schroeder said. “These agreements ensure our pharmacy customers will experience a smooth transition while preserving jobs for some of our valued team members.”
Albertsons, and what’s next
Albertsons didn’t immediately respond to a question from BoiseDev about what assets it plans to purchase from Rite Aid.
The auction results will be presented to the bankruptcy court next Wednesday. The sale is expected to go through by the end of June.
Rite Aid shuttered several Idaho stores in a previous bankruptcy proceeding that ended last year. CVS currently operates just three stores in Idaho – in Boise, Nampa and Twin Falls.
