September will see the loss of at least three Bartell locations in the Seattle metropolitan area, adding to the wave of closures that began just over a year ago.
Bartell Drugs stores in Des Moines and White Center are closing this month. The Des Moines location will close Sept. 14, and White Center will close Sept. 28.
The Seattle Times previously reported another Bartell store in Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood will be closing Sept. 10.
The White Center location is at 9600 15th Ave. S.W. The Des Moines store is at 21615 Pacific Highway S. Uptown’s Bartell is at 600 First Ave. N.
These three closures bring the total to eight known closed stores out of the 67 Bartell Drugs locations that Rite Aid acquired in 2020.
Rite Aid spokesperson Alicja Wojczyk confirmed the Des Moines closure on Friday and provided a statement, nearly identical to previous statements about store closures, that Rite Aid considers “business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability and store performance” in deciding to close a store.
White Center Bartell employees confirmed the location was closing.
Wojczyk declined to disclose if Rite Aid will close more stores.
Besides the Des Moines, White Center and Uptown stores, Rite Aid has closed Bartell locations in downtown Seattle, the Chinatown International District, South Lake Union, Ballard and the University District.
Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid, which bought Bartell for $95 million in 2020, has been struggling with changing market conditions, an oversupplied pharmacy market and competition from rivals CVS and Walgreens.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Rite Aid was planning to file for bankruptcy due to its debts and to delay lawsuits claiming it contributed to the opioid epidemic.
In its most recent first-quarter earnings filed in June, Rite Aid reported a narrower-than-expected loss of $306.7 million and revenue of $5.6 billion.
Matthew Schroeder, Rite Aid chief financial officer and executive vice president, told investors in June that the company continually evaluates store performance, especially at locations that have lease agreements expiring soon. He said Rite Aid considers how to “drive as much profitability as we can while still maintaining a presence in communities and providing access to our customers.”
Even before the Bartell acquisition in 2020, Rite Aid had reviewed its store portfolio. In 2018, it transferred 1,932 stores and three distribution centers to Walgreens for $4.4 billion after a failed merger.
Rite Aid comes third in the U.S. pharmacy industry behind giants CVS and Walgreens. Since the Bartell acquisition was announced on Oct. 7, 2020, Rite Aid’s stock value has fallen 94%.
Rite Aid stock was at 66 cents Friday, compared with $7.63 a year ago.
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