1 MA Rite Aid Store To Close

FALL RIVER, MA — Rite Aid plans to close one Massachusetts store and another 52 stores nationwide, adding to the roughly 200 stores that Rite Aid has closed across the country since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year.

According to recent court documents, the lone Massachusetts store set to close sometime this year is located at 10 Stafford Rd., in Fall River.

The closures come after the struggling drugstore chain filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy last October and announced plans to close 150 stores. Since filing for bankruptcy, Rite Aid has said it would close 431 stores.

The Philadelphia-based company has been reporting losses for several years and, like its competitors, faces financial risk from lawsuits over opioid prescriptions.

The chain said on its website it has 1,704 stores in the United States. That number was about 4,600 in 2013, according to Business Insider. About 2,000 stores were sold to Walgreens in 2017 after a deal to sell the drugstore chain to its rival was nixed by federal regulators.

"Rite Aid regularly assesses its retail footprint to ensure we are operating efficiently while meeting the needs of our customers, communities, associates and overall business," a Rite Aid spokesperson told Business Insider. "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."