Multiple April bankruptcy court filings revealed that Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid has plans to shutter 53 additional locations across nine states after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shared it will close 154 locations last October.
The "notice of additional closing stores" filings, obtained by Becker's, revealed the stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia and Maryland.
The drug store chain regularly reviews its retail footprint to make sure it is efficiently operating and meeting overall needs for associates, customers, communities and business, a spokesperson for Rite Aid said in a statement shared with Becker's.
"In connection with the court-supervised process, we notified the Court of certain underperforming stores we are closing to further reduce rent expense and strengthen overall financial performance," the spokesperson said. "At this time, we have not made or confirmed any decisions on additional specific store closures as part of our financial restructuring process."
Rite Aid is working to transfer customer prescriptions to ensure that services are not disrupted. The chain is also looking for employee transfer opportunities to other Rite Aid locations. Around 75% of impacted employees have accepted transfer opportunities to other locations, the spokesperson said.
Rite Aid declined to comment on the specific number of stores closing. It currently has around 1,700 locations across 16 states, according to its website.