Bankrupt retail chain closing over 200 more stores | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

The drugstore retail sector has struggled since the Covid-19 pandemic, with fierce competition among brick-and-mortar retailers who compete against each other, as well as online pharmaceutical providers for the prescription dollar.

Major pharmacy chains, including CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid, compete directly with larger big-box pharmaceutical providers, such as Walmart, Target, and Costco, as well as major online players like Amazon and Mark Cuban CostPlus Drug Company, which offers discount prescriptions.

💵💰Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter💰💵

The drugstore chains have also faced economic issues that all retailers have encountered, including rising costs of labor and products, driven by inflation and increased interest rates on debt obligations.

CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid have closed hundreds of store locations over the last four years to eliminate those that do not make economic sense.

Huge drugstore chain CVS in 2021 revealed it would close 900 of its nearly 9,900 stores to reduce costs and cut losses, closing 300 locations each year in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Walgreens, which operates about 8,600 stores with 6,000 profitable locations, evaluated 2,000 stores for potential closure and identified 1,200 locations to shutter, with 500 set to close in fiscal year 2025.

The company took community needs into consideration, such as maintaining access to pharmacy services, local market dynamics, population shifts, a community’s store density, and ensuring there are other geographic access points to meet the needs of the community.

Walgreens closes underperforming stores

Walgreens, which in March agreed to be sold to private equity firm Sycamore Partners, said it will close locations with negative cash flows, underperforming stores where it owns locations, and ones with lease expirations coming due in the next few years to reduce the impact of dark rent.

The drugstore chain might close even more stores, possibly one-quarter of its locations, a recent report said

Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the first time on Oct. 15, 2023, and closed about 800 of its 2,100 stores at the time.

The drugstore chain filed for Chapter 11 protection a second time on May 5, 2025, as New Rite Aid LLC, and has begun a process of closing hundreds of stores.

Rite Aid files bankruptcy court notices to close 232 stores.

Image source&colon; Tom Werner/Getty Images

Rite Aid files notices to close 232 stores

Rite Aid has filed fifth and sixth notices of additional store closing locations with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, seeking approval to close 232 additional stores and liquidate their assets, adding to previously designated locations for closing, for a total of 704 stores.

The debtor’s sixth additional closing notice, filed on June 6, includes 207 store closures in California (70), Pennsylvania (36), New York (21), Washington (17), Delaware (14), New Jersey (14), New Hampshire (12), Oregon (8), Virginia (8), Maryland (3), Massachusetts (2), Connecticut (1), and Idaho (1).

The bankrupt drugstore chain filed a fifth additional closing notice one day earlier on June 5, which included 25 stores in California (13), Washington (7), Oregon (4), and Ohio (1).

More bankruptcy:

Rite Aid already filed notices of store closing locations with the original notice and an additional closing notice on May 9, a second additional closing notice on May 15, a third additional closing notice on May 23, and a fourth additional notice on May 30.

The first five groups of store closings listed locations in 13 states, including Pennsylvania (178), California (98), New York (76), Washington (24), Oregon (20), New Jersey (17), Virginia (16), , New Hampshire (14), Maryland (10), Delaware (7), Connecticut (5), Idaho (4), and Massachusetts (1).

Rite Aid is expected to file several additional store closing notices before its bankruptcy case closes, as it plans to close all of its stores, estimated at about 1,240.

Judge Michael B. Kaplan signed an interim order on May 9 approving initial and additional location closings. Objections to the interim location closing order and any of the proposed store closings must be filed with the court and received by the debtor and their counsel no later than June 16, according to court papers.