2 San Diego Area Rite Aid Stores To Close

SAN DIEGO, CA — Rite Aid plans to close 18 more California stores and another 35 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.

Two stores in San Diego County are among the planned closures. The stores in Encinitas and Lemon Grove will close their doors permanently sometime this year.

According to new court documents, the following Golden State Rite Aids will be closed later this year:

• 1208 West Redondo Beach Blvd., Gardena
• 1700 W Whittier Boulevard, La Habra
• 15924 Bellflower Boulevard, Bellflower
• 16491 Lakeshore Drive, Lake Elsinore
• 334 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles
• 5610 Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento
• 37950 47th St E, Palmdale
• 7224 Broadway, Lemon Grove
• 1030 South White Road, San Jose
• 14727 Rinaldi Street, San Fernando
• 7211 Elk Grove Boulevard, Elk Grove
• 439 Santa Fe Drive, Encinitas
• 1650 Decoto Road, Union City
• 888 Lincoln Boulevard, Venice
• 35946 Winchester Road, Winchester
• 3941 Spring Road, Moorpark
• 4037 Ball Road, Cypress
• 2500 North 10th Avenue, Hanford

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."