Rite Aid is a regional pharmacy that also sells food, apparel, and various beauty products. Once upon a time, Rite Aid was much larger. However, today, the company has closed more and more of its stores.
In fact, you may have noticed some stores in your community being purchased by other pharmacy chains, which only begs the question as to who really owns Rite Aid. In this article, we’ll answer that question!
Does Amazon Own Rite Aid In [currentyear]?
Amazon has engaged in a partnership with Rite Aid at several locations as of [currentyear]. However, Amazon does not own Rite Aid or has any large stake in the company. In fact, Rite Aid is not owned by any larger company, though there have been many merger deals in the past that fell through.
For more information on Amazon’s partnership with Rite Aid, keep reading below for interesting facts!
Is Amazon a Partner with Rite Aid?
While Amazon does not currently own Rite Aid, the two companies are partners.
In 2019, Amazon announced that shoppers can pick up some purchases at the Amazon counter inside some Rite Aid stores.
At the time, it was announced that about 100 of these counters would be opened.
With that said, this isn’t an entirely unique program. Amazon has had similar partnerships with various companies around the world.
For instance, Amazon has a similar partnership with Next clothing in the UK.
Furthermore, Amazon also announced that this program would expand to other stores, with over 1,500 locations being opened eventually.
Of course, it looks like Rite Aid locations will be included in this amount. However, it is likely that other stores will be, too.
For Rite Aid, this sort of partnership drives more foot traffic from customers.
Because Rite Aid has experienced some financial problems over the last few years, this increase in traffic has obvious benefits.
Who Owns Rite Aid?
Currently, Rite Aid is not owned by anyone. However, there have been potential deals over the years for mergers. Still, none of them have gone through, leaving Rite Aid largely alone.
First, Walgreens offered to purchase Rite Aid in 2015. Shareholders even approved the deal a few months after the offer.
However, there were some complications with the regulatory approval, which is required before mergers.
At first, the talks simply extended into another year. However, the merger was eventually called off.
Instead, Walgreens simply purchased many Rite Aid stores, though not enough to put Rite Aid out of business.
A few years later, Albertsons began talking about a merger with Rite Aid. As a supermarket chain, it appeared that Albertson was going to use Rite Aid as a pharmacy front.
However, this deal fell through when there was a strong pushback from shareholders.
Since then, there have been no further deals, so Rite Aid is still not owned by anyone in particular. Instead, Rite Aid stands as its own company.
Why Did Rite Aid Go Out of Business?
Rite Aid as a whole has not gone out of business. With that said, there are several stores that have gone out of business.
For instance, Rite Aid announced the closure of 63 stores in December, 2021.
Honestly, the store does not really own that many stores to begin with, so the fact that so many are closing does not look good for Rite Aid.
However, the company claimed that the closures were done to reduce costs and drive profitability.
Rite Aid wanted the right stores in the right locations for maximum profit – and evidently, the stores the company closed just didn’t fit this bill.
However, there are larger implications for these closings.
Many pharmacies are closing around the country, especially as giants like Amazon and Walgreens are beginning to offer prescription medication.
Furthermore, the front of the pharmacy that stocks food, beauty items, and apparel aren’t performing great, either, especially as specialty stores become more common.
For instance, customers are far more likely to purchase makeup from Sephora than they are Rite Aid.
To learn more, you can also read our posts on whether or not Amazon accepts Sezzle, if Amazon accepts PayPal, and if Amazon accepts Venmo.
Conclusion
Amazon doesn’t currently own Rite Aid, and it doesn’t look like it will in the future. Instead, Amazon does have a partnership with Rite Aid at some locations that lets shoppers pick up some of its Amazon purchases inside participating Rite Aid stores.
Currently, Rite Aid is not owned by anyone. However, the company has been in many merger deals, though these all fell through.
