Rite Aid, revisited…
Back in January, I wrote this post about Rite Aid Corporation (RAD), noting that all my neighborhood Rite Aids seemed incapable of consistently stocking mundane items like cleaning supplies and toilet paper. I referred to this phenomenon, rather snidely, as Soviet Economy Syndrome. One of these local stores was, in its former life, a pleasant, well-stocked Eckerd Drugs. I observed that as soon as Rite Aid began to fold in the Brooks Eckerd chain, that location developed the same malaise.
In honor of the unusual number of comments that post has generated over the past few months, and Rite Aid’s recent 10-K filing, an update seems appropriate.
A few days after the post went up, a huge display of attractively priced toilet paper appeared at a nearby Rite Aid. Whether this proves the power of the blogosphere or the randomness of the universe, who knows? Either way, I stocked up my bathroom. Since then, the shelves at local Rite Aids have been slightly less bare, but the problem persists. All too often I walk out of the store without the ordinary item I went in for.
All the commenters criticized the company, with the exception of one person who identified himself as a Rite Aid pharmacist. Others who said they worked at Rite Aid stores complained about low pay, low morale, and yes, low inventory. One said: “I’ve watched customer after customer leave and go to Walgreens because we’re out of stock or our pharmacy is closed. This post would be funny to me too, if my career wasn’t hooked to such an incompetent company.” (Any comments on today’s post will be held and published after Michelle returns on Wednesday.)
According to the 10-K filed last week, the company now has “a customer focused store visit guide that can be used by field management to assess the quality of customer service provided by specific stores.” Let’s hope this “store visit guide” explains that customers generally prefer having merchandise on the shelves.
In an update on the Eckerd integration, the 10-K says: “We…are well on our way to completing systems conversions in all of the acquired stores by the end of May 2008.” So maybe the chain will get its act together soon. If not, Soviet Economy Syndrome will be officially renamed. Hello, Rite Aid Syndrome.
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May 5th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I have written two e-mails to the Board of Directors - No Response. Someone once refered to them (management) as graduating from the Laurel and Hardy School of Business - I think they attended but I question that they graduated.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:29 am
as a cvs pharmacist i am deaing with poorly trained techs and a shortage of tech hours which puts an incredible strain on pharmacy operations, i will be applying to work at a near by riteaid under construction right now in the hopes of working for a more ethical corporation. cvs has totaally under trained supervisory level people (probably growing too fast). A well stocked riteaid should be able to easily compete with CVS.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:09 am
For total laughs check out the one at corner 8th Ave and
W 50th St. Right by Theater District. Once ran into fellow
Pratt grad Harvey Fierstein there. Now with all the tourists flocking in and few cashiers the lines are 20 mins. Just looking at that sent me to Food Emporium on W 49.
Also allows Duane Reade to charge higher prices too as well as buy out all the last few locally owned places.
Now the last few rent controlled and stabilized apts
are going since landlords allowed to jack up turnovers and get 2X to 3X the rent.
Even saw some poor small shopkeeper on NY about the huge increase he faces in Chelsea. Like 2300 month to something
like 13000? Neighbors & pols offering support of his kind as other smalls are forced out.
What RECESSION?
May 5th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Made a complaint with BBB about practices in our local (formerly Brooks) Rite Aid store. Eventually received a note from BBB indicating they contacted RE twice with no response.
At least they are consistent.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Maybe you live in a crappy neighborhood and the locals had a run on the paper…..
May 5th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I believe many of the comments posted here could also be said about any Pharmacy-Walgreens,CVS, Target, Walmart, TAlking to their employees is no different. Underpayed low mirole and yes lost leaders are hard to find at all of the above at one time or another.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I have heard that the “paint & powder-coat” process (making the stores uniform since takeover) has stopped due to finances.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Where in New York City would going to a Rite Aid be easier than finding a Duane Reade? Seriously, there’s like one on every block near where I live.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Comments from Southern CA:
Not many RiteAids here in SoCal (hadn’t even heard of Duane Reed). CVS seems to have the monopoly, though the customer service is quite poor. RiteAid seems to be in the lower income areas. When the areas hit a certain threshold, they seem to convert to CVS. Not sure why this is.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Rite Aid remains the worst managed pharmacy among the 4 in our neighborhood (upper east side). Low inventory, long check out lines, disinterested clerks. We walk the extra block to Walgreens.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I worked for Rite Aid many years ago and my husband has been a loyal employee for over 10 years. He has worked hard and taken on more duties and tasks (without additional pay) only to be passed over for promotion time and time again. Rite Aid always tauts the motto of “promote from within” but all of the recent promotions have been given to employees with no tenure or individuals from competing pharmacies. It makes me sick to no end the dedication my husband gives to this chain as a top notch pharmacist. He makes the same money as less qualified pharmacists that fill fewer prescriptions and who are not capable of customer service and patient care. Many people have thanked my husband endlessly for all his help and his willingness to go the extra mile to help. Because of the shortage of pharmacists in our area any pharmacist with a current license that can breath gets hired. The sad fact of the business is that there are too many holes to fill in every district and there is no longer any advantage to doing an exceptional job. With a set payscale across the board and no promotions for the dedicated and exceptional I expect that Rite Aid’s stock on wall street and with customers will not improve. While my husband is considering quitting he is exploring other options and the grass is not always greener on the other side. All of the big chains have reduced the profession of Pharmacist to a level so low that they should be ashamed of themselves.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Since Rite aid took over the Eckerd stores sales have dropped dramitically. Pharmacy waits are much longer. It is harder to keep stock shelves and and even when the trucks do come in you have no staff to get the merchandise out because of payroll cuts, So for them to say that sales have increased in the Eckerd stores are a severe understatement of the facts. How can you be a customer satisfaction store when all you have running these stores are a cashier and a manager So who exactly is helping these customers.????????? And they wonder why things aren’t going there way. When sales go down you don’t cut payroll you increase it to get more help in to these stores to we can make there shopping experience better.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I am a former employee of rite aid and I completly agree with Marie about the store needing more personnel. This company has no intention of making a difference in the local communities, providing better customer service, or taking care of their employees. Yes they do have a service improvement advisor in place. what it exactly does is beside me. I myself implemented this program on all levels in the store and got nothing but negative feedback fom the staff. The focus of corporate should be more on their prices instead of the constant creation and implementation of policies. The employees that say they enjoy their job are either darn good employees or employees who have little or no responsibilty.
July 14th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I work for Rite Aid, currently going on 5 years with the company. All I can say is most people here are right. The pay is minimum wage, for cashiers. And shift supervisors, like me, only get paid slightly more than that. Not enough to really pride yourself on. But I really try to give Rite Aid the benefit of the doubt sometimes, cause it seems like they have good intentions, at least with the customers. Sometimes I think they have there business thing all backwards though, for instance, they must have 10 different “programs” to “help” boost morale, improve customer service and all. But they seem blind to me, how do you think morale and customer service is going to be when you give the store no hours to work with, only enough to keep it open and a giant list of things that have to be completed in a work week. Stocking Shelves, Price Changes(that never seem to go down), cycle counts, zeros, deposits, checking in vendors, planograms, clearance, cleaning the store, running photo, and doing all the paper work in between. Please! I can tell you right now, we never seem to have Time to check the whole store for out dates! I don’t agree with selling out dates either! But come on, we are expected to do all that in a week!
July 27th, 2008 at 2:25 am
It’s amazing…I work an entire eight hour shift as a cashier with just me and the manager sometimes. Not even the actual manager the assistant manager. We have two hourly assistants and one salaried manager. That’s all. One or two cashiers working at a time. We’ll have three or four associates in the day the truck comes in so we can actually load it out. It’s impossible to provide adequate customer service when you are severely undermanned.
Rite Aid, and when I say Rite Aid in this case I mean corporate, doesn’t get it. They are doing the worst possible thing they can possibly do: they are expanding too quickly, without sufficient resources to do so. They should have taken more time to strengthen its own stores, their customer service, and especially, their business model. Their business model is garbage to be quite frank. It is completely backwards. They ask for the store to have a boatload of things to be done when it’s just impossible. There’s just such a disconnect from corporate all the way down to the sales floor where I try my best to apologize to customer after customer that we don’t have items the circular promised them. They don’t understand this…they promised an item, and they fail to deliver. I can be the nicest person in all of the universe, if we do not stock properly and fail to deliver, no one will continue to shop at Rite Aid. A 19 year old college sophomore making minimum wage in myself can grasp this: but the big wigs with their MBAs apparently cannot grasp simple logic. Nice work, Rite Aid.
It’s simple: you have massive debt. What you must do: scale back. Stores close to each other must be closed. Low traffic, low profit stores must be closed. They are dragging the company down. When the company gets its proverbial feet back on the ground they can open more stores and expand. Walgreens does this: I don’t see them buying out chains on Long Island yet they still find a way to make new stores. All they do is rent out corner lots in high traffic areas. As opposed to spending billions to acquire Eckerd, formerly held by the Jean Coteu group, which was an overvalued property on the east coast. At least in New York where I am, CVS lapped Eckerd, and it is beating Rite Aid by even more thanks to Rite Aid’s faulty business model.
By scaling back, you free up more money to strengthen other Rite Aid locations. This way those locations make revenue, and alleviate the long term debt. Then you move forward and all new locations are run the way when from that point forward. The way stores are supposed to be run: honest, fully stocked, and with a large intent on customer service.
~Rite Aid Cashier making $7.25 in New York
August 9th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I am an assistant manager of a Riteaid store and agree with what is being said here. The list of tasks to be done on a daily basis is daunting and leaves no time to properly take care of the customer. Stores are undermanned, morale is very low and sale items are never available in needed quantities. District managers treat store level management extremely poorly and emails from them are threatening and demeaning. Store managers and salaried assistants get no sick days or personal days. That is ludicrous. When a manager takes a vacation the workload on the rest of the staff is too much to handle. I don’t want to repeat what is being said here but just add my agreement that this Company leaves a lot to be desired.