Pharmacy chain giant Rite Aid is shutting down all operations in Michigan.
Closures had been trickling out for the last couple of years, including 12 Michigan store closings announced this past June.
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Rite Aid confirmed to ClickOnDetroit that it will close all 186 stores in the state. Some haven’t closed yet, but will soon.
Rite Aid will also close its distribution center in Waterford Township on Friday, resulting in the loss of 191 jobs. This closure was announced in June.
Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy last year and announced 19 stores closures in Michigan, including nine in Metro Detroit. The company’s filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last year in New Jersey listed $8.6 billion in total debts and $7.6 billion in assets.
“Rite Aid regularly assesses its retail footprint to ensure we are operating efficiently while meeting the needs of our customers, communities, associates and overall business. While we have had to make difficult business decisions over the past several months to improve our business and optimize our retail footprint, we are committed to becoming financially and operationally healthy.”
Rite Aid
A few years ago, Rite Aid propped up its share price with a 1-for-20 reverse stock split that took more than a billion shares off the market. But the share price has slid for most of last year and tumbled back below $1 in August.
Walgreens attempted to buy Rite Aid for about $9.4 billion in a deal announced in 2015. But the larger drugstore chain scaled back its ambition a couple years later and bought only a chunk of Rite Aid, around 1,900 stores, to get the deal past antitrust regulators.
In 2018, Rite Aid shares plunged after the company called off a separate merger with the grocer Albertsons.