http://www.247wallst.com/2008/12/companies-that.html Rite Aid (RAD) trades at $.47 down from at 52-week high of $4.16. The pharmacy company has over 5,000 stores and Wall St. does not expect it to be profitable in the foreseeable future. The chain is a roll-up of the original company and Brooks and Eckerd stores which it acquired. With a debt load of over $6 billion, the firm is likely to falter. Competitors CVS Caremark (CVS) and Walgreen (WAG) would be happy to pick up the pieces.
Congress could learn something from this By allowing one to fail, the others can snap up cheap assets and manage them better. GM should go. F can get the assets.
Rite Aid deserves to fail. Have you ever been in a sampling of their stores? They are miserable. The pharmacies are poorly run, stores are shabby and run down. Service -- what service?
I'm glad to see that people are not ignoring Rite Aid completely, but saying that they deserve to fail, I'm not sure that I completely agree with that statement. However, if you're going to state the negative factors, please don't neglect the positive ones. I've been following Rite Aid off and on since mid 2000, and have found that it has been a great opportunity for the individual investor to make hard cash, provided that you know what you're doing. The stock price dipped to hit a 52 week low of $2 in Feb. 01 and within 7 months stampeded back to $9 ( only 450% growth). During the period between 2002 and 2008 it had many similar cycles - some demonstrating even greater volatility. And most recently Feb. 09 it hit another 52 week low of .21 only to come blazing back within 6 months again to $2.40 (1000% growth this time). I completely agree that they don't offer the best customer service and they need to improve several other business practices, but they've been fighting they're way through the worst economic conditions since the crash of 1922. What I'd like to state enthusiastically is that a savy investor had many opportunities to profit with Rite Aid (RAD) from 2001 - 2009 regardless of how you feel about their customer service or lack therof. Check the numbers for yourself.