Rite Aid Won’t Be Missed If It Disappears
The drugstore chain’s bankruptcy filing comes after years of piling on debt and alienating shoppers.
Rite Aid has long neglected its stores.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Retail bankruptcies typically stir nostalgia among shoppers or sighs that e-commerce has claimed another life. Don’t expect similar chagrin over Rite Aid Corp.’s bankruptcy filing Sunday. The indifference reflects a hard truth: Some retailers deserve to die.
The Pennsylvania-based drugstore chain has a history of financial missteps that ultimately forced it to enter Chapter 11. In the 1990s, Rite Aid loaded up on debt to expand the company’s store fleet. As the company bled cash, Martin L. Grass, the chief executive officer at the time and son of the company’s founder, famously misled shareholders about the company’s income and was sentenced to eight years in prison.