Lynnwood bid farewell to a Bartell Drugs location on Tuesday, in another closure of Washington’s well-loved chain stores.
The closure of the location at 17633 Highway 99 coincides with the closures of stores in Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood and in Des Moines this week, and the scheduled closure of the White Center location on Sept. 28. That will bring the total closures to nine in just over a year.
After the known closures, Rite Aid-owned Bartell will have only 58 locations left.
Rite Aid spokesperson Alicja Wojczyk confirmed the Lynnwood closure but did not provide a statement. She also declined to say what other Bartell locations are closing, and if more are slated to shutter.
The Des Moines store was at 21615 Pacific Highway S. Uptown’s Bartell was at 600 First Ave. N. The White Center location is at 9600 15th Ave. S.W. Past closures included 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. 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. In June, Wojczyk said so far this year the pharmacy chain had closed 195 stores of its 2,214 Rite Aid stores in the U.S.
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.
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 64 cents Thursday, compared with $8.19 a year ago.
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