The pending closing of all Rite Aid locations across New York State, including 73 in Western New York, will create a major void with residents having to soon rethink where they’ll fill prescriptions. It follows the second time the chain has declared bankruptcy. Burt Flickinger III, managing director for New York-based Strategic Resource Group, says the shuttering of hundreds of Rite Aids was a matter of when, not if.
“The loss of Rite Aid on the retail front is a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions, not only in the drug chain, but also it's changed from an accelerating retail ice age to what one of our clients called a new nuclear winter for retail across America,” Flickinger said.
Flickinger doubts whether there will be any private equity firm or investor group that will step in and purchase the Rite Aid locations.
“The Rite Aid disaster announced today will create really catastrophic consequences of unprecedented proportions, which cannot be emphasized enough,” Flickinger said.
Flickinger said Rite Aid is the 41st of the nation’s top 100 food and beverage-anchored retailers to either file for bankruptcy or close down completely in the past 15 years.
