Rite Aid is a major contributor to the
Children's Miracle Network . Rite Aid's contributions to CMN directly benefit hospitals in the markets where Rite Aid operates stores.
Major competitors include
CVS/pharmacy and
Walgreens .
The Rite Aid chain began in
Scranton ,
Pennsylvania , as Thrif D Discount Center. The first store opened in September
1962 . Through acquisitions and new stores, Rite Aid quickly expanded into 5 northeast states by
1965 . The chain was officially named Rite Aid Corporation in
1968 and made its debut on the
American Stock Exchange . It moved to the
New York Stock Exchange in
1970 .
Just ten years after its first store opened, Rite Aid operated 267 locations in 10 states. It was named the third largest
Drugstore in the
United States by
1981 ; shortly thereafter,
1983 marked a sales milestone of $1 billion. A 420-store
Acquisition along the east coast expanded Rite Aid's holdings beyond 2,000 locations. Among the companies acquired was
Baltimore, Maryland 's Read's Drug Store, which had the slogan "Run Right to Read's".
Rite Aid acquired the Michigan chain Perry Drug Stores in
1995 and the 1,000-store west coast chain
Thrifty PayLess Holdings , Inc. in
1996 . Acquisitions of Harco, Inc. and
K & B Inc. brought Rite Aid into the
Gulf Coast area.
General Nutrition Companies (
GNC ) and Rite Aid formed a
Partnership in January
1999 , bringing GNC mini-stores within the Rite Aid pharmacies. A partnership with drugstore.com in June
1999 allowed customers of Rite Aid to place
Medical Prescription orders online for same-day, in-store pickup.
Rite Aid has a long-running monthly
Rebate s program known as "Single Check Rebates."
Beginning in March
2005 , Rite Aid introduced , a
Seniors' Loyalty Program ; offering 10% off of
Prescription Drug s purchased with cash, generic products, as well as other items. Additional benefits also include discounts on certain days of the week, as well as unadvertised sales on merchandise. This program is very similar to the former
Revco program which was called "Senior Shoppers"; Rite Aid attempted to purchase Revco in 1996. This might be attributed to the fact that Revco's former Vice President of Marketing, James Mastrian, now holds the same position at Rite Aid.
Early in 2005, the
UAW announced that its members prescriptions would be filled through mail order. This decision by the union disproportionately affected Rite Aid as it has predominant market strength where the UAW has its highest union density nationally.
In July 2005, Rite Aid completed its acquisition of Shelley's Pharmacy, a chain pharmacy in Philadelphia.
Rite Aid reported total sales of
USD $16.5 billion in
Fiscal 2004 .
As Of 2005 , its
Market Capitalization was about $2 billion.
Rite Aid is traded publicly on
NYSE with
Ticker Symbol RAD.
