This will come as a shock to absolutely nobody who has been in one of their stores over the last couple of years.
New York (CNN Business)Fry's Electronics suddenly closed all of its stores overnight, ending a nearly four-decade run in business.
The company, which had 31 stores across nine US states, said in a statement on its website that it "made the difficult decision to shut down its operations and close its business permanently" because of changing consumer shopping habits and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Based in San Jose, California, the privately held company was a family business. It was founded in 1985 by the three Fry brothers with the goal of being a "Silicon Valley retail electronics store to provide a one-stop-shopping environment for the Hi-Tech Professional."
"It is hoped that undertaking the wind-down through this orderly process will reduce costs, avoid additional liabilities, minimize the impact on our customers, vendors, landlords and associates, and maximize the value of the company's assets for its creditors and other stakeholders," Fry's explained on its website.
Other details about its sudden disappearance were scarce.
Many of its retail locations had wacky themes. For example, its Burbank location was inspired by 1950s sci-fi movies and had a UFO decoration crashing through the exterior of the store. Its Phoenix, Arizona, location had an ancient Aztec temple and its Houston, Texas store was inspired by the state's oil history.
The retailer didn't innovate its online operations as rapidly compared to its larger rivals. Best Buy (BBY), for example, recently reported its best quarter in 25 years as home-bound customers snapped up laptops, home theater systems and kitchen appliances.
Rite Aid, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, weighed down by billions of dollars in debt, declining sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits claiming it filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey. Its largest creditors include the pharmaceutical company McKesson Corporation and the insurer Humana Health. The pharmacy has raised $3.45 billion to fund its operations while its in bankruptcy, during which it expects to continue to operate its stores and serve its customers.
The company also appointed a new chief executive, Jeffrey Stein, to lead its restructuring. Mr. Stein is the founder of Stein Advisors, a financial advisory firm that focuses on fixing troubled companies. Elizabeth Burr had been serving as Rite Aid’s temporary chief executive since January.
Rite Aid is one of many drugstore chains dealing with lawsuits stemming from the deadly abuse of opioids in the United States. In March, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Rite Aid and its various subsidiaries asserting that the company filled prescriptions for excessive quantities of opioids “that had obvious, and often multiple, red flags indicating misuse.”
The location I've gone to for at least 30 years (formerly a Thrift and Eckert) closed two weeks ago. There is another one a mile away that we are now using, So far, I'm not happy with it.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
Rite Aid is one of many drugstore chains dealing with lawsuits stemming from the deadly abuse of opioids in the United States. In March, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Rite Aid and its various subsidiaries asserting that the company filled prescriptions for excessive quantities of opioids “that had obvious, and often multiple, red flags indicating misuse.”
The location I've gone to for at least 30 years (formerly a Thrift and Eckert) closed two weeks ago. There is another one a mile away that we are now using, So far, I'm not happy with it.
And yet they have no qualms about refusing to fill birth control, emergency contraceptive and HRT prescriptions.
We saw this one coming. Our local Rite-Aid has been slowly becoming a ghost town over the last year as aisle after aisle has been cleared of products, and the lanes blocked by signage.
Yep. In Seattle, the pharmacy of choice for the last 125 years was family-owned Bartell Drugs, which had 50 or 60 stores in the area. I have been using the same store for almost 20 years. Four or five years ago, the Bartell family sold out to Rite Aid. Sadly, the quality went down after the sale. The bankruptcy makes me fear the worst. I really do not want to have to drive further to get to a Walgreens or a CVS.
Bartell sold? Bummer. I used to go to the one at 132nd and Seattle Hill Road out in the Mill Creek area. They were the best pharmacy in the area at the time.
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MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 7:12 pm
I've never been in a Rite Aid, so I downloaded this map from Wikipedia. It shows all Rite Aid locations as of September 2015 -
Rite_Aid_footprint.png
They got gutted in 2015. Originally Rite aid was going to be acquired by Walgreens but the government stepped in and stopped a full acquisition. They then bought half the stores and the rest of the company was looking for a buyer ever since.