Rite Aid - History - Growth and Acquisitions

Growth and Acquisitions

Just ten years after its first store opened, Rite Aid operated 267 locations in 10 states. It was named the third largest drugstore in the United States by 1981; shortly thereafter, 1983 marked a sales milestone of $1 billion. A 420-store acquisition along the east coast expanded Rite Aid's holdings beyond 2,000 locations, as did the acquisition of Gray Drug in 1987. Among the companies acquired was Baltimore, Maryland's Read's Drug Store. On April 10, 1989, Peoples Drug's 114 unit Lane Drug of Ohio was purchased by Rite Aid.

Rite Aid acquired twenty-four Hooks Drug stores from Revco in 1994, selling nine of those stores to Perry Drug Stores, a Michigan-based pharmacy chain. One year later, the 224-store Perry chain itself was acquired by Rite Aid. The 1,000-store West Coast chain Thrifty PayLess was later acquired in 1996. The acquisition of Thrifty PayLess included the Northwest-based Bi-Mart membership discount stores, which was sold off in 1998. Acquisitions of Harco, Inc. and K & B Inc. brought Rite Aid into the Gulf Coast area.

In the 1990s, Rite-Aid partnered with Carl Paladino's Ellicott Development Company to expand the company's presence in upstate New York.