For decades, Rite Aid was a staple of American neighborhoods, selling prescriptions, shampoo, and Thrifty Ice Cream scoops under the bright blue sign. Its fall wasn’t a single event but a long unspooling: heavy debt, weak margins, missed strategic turns, and mounting legal liabilities from the opioid era. The endgame arrived in two acts of bankruptcy—first in 2023, then again in 2025—culminating this month in a wind-down and the transfer of most remaining pharmacy customers to rivals.
The long slide
Rite Aid entered Chapter 11 in October 2023 to cut debt and shed underperforming stores. Within days, the New York Stock Exchange began delisting the stock (ticker: RAD), pushing it off the Big Board and into over-the-counter trading while the case proceeded.
After months of store closures and asset sales (including its Elixir pharmacy-benefit unit), the company emerged from bankruptcy in September 2024 as a privately held business owned by creditors, with roughly $2 billion of debt eliminated and $2.5 billion of exit financing. Legacy common shares were canceled—existing stockholders were wiped out.
But the slimmer balance sheet couldn’t overcome structural pressures: declining reimbursement rates, shifting shopper habits, tight supplier credit, and lingering litigation costs. Less than a year later, Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 again on May 5, 2025, this time seeking to sell itself in pieces and ensure prescription transfers for millions of customers. A New Jersey bankruptcy judge quickly approved an expedited “fire sale” process to move pharmacy assets to buyers.
What happened to the stores
Through 2024–2025, Rite Aid shuttered waves of locations as buyers cherry-picked the best sites and scripts. In the second bankruptcy, the court approved multiple asset deals; some stores and many prescription files were sold market-by-market. In a closely watched side deal, the Thrifty Ice Cream brand—an institution on the West Coast—was sold out of bankruptcy to Hilrod Holdings, an entity tied to Monster Beverage executives Hilton Schlosberg and Rodney Sacks, for about $19.2 million.
The final chapter arrived in mid-October 2025: CVS announced it had finished acquiring select Rite Aid assets—prescription files from 626 closed pharmacies across 15 states and 63 former Rite Aid/Bartell Drugs stores it will now operate (with many former Rite Aid employees in tow). Associated Press and the company’s own release confirmed the transition, which effectively marked Rite Aid’s exit as a stand-alone chain.
The delisting and what it meant for investors
Rite Aid’s NYSE delisting started in October 2023, immediately suspending trading on the exchange. When the company later emerged in 2024, old shares were canceled as part of the creditor-led reorganization—standard in bankruptcies where equity is out of the money. Any subsequent over-the-counter trading in post-delisting symbols did not represent the old equity regaining value; it reflected a different, distressed security with no claim on the reorganized, private company.
What happens now—for customers, workers, landlords, and the brand
- Customers & prescriptions. If your local Rite Aid closed, your prescription profile likely moved to a nearby buyer (often CVS). CVS says it’s now serving more than 9 million former Rite Aid and Bartell patients after completing the purchase of prescription files and 63 stores. You can fill refills at the designated acquiring pharmacy or request transfers elsewhere.
- Employees. In markets where stores converted, buyers have hired many former Rite Aid staff. Where stores closed outright, workers faced layoffs—typical of piecemeal bankruptcies with selective asset sales. (CVS has stated it’s onboarding former Rite Aid employees at acquired locations.)
- Landlords & vendors. The court-approved sale process prioritized moving prescriptions quickly; leases and trade claims follow bankruptcy treatment. Unassumed leases revert to landlords; unsecured claims are handled through the Chapter 11 claims process.
- Thrifty Ice Cream. The brand lives on under new ownership, with plans for broader distribution and refreshed packaging while keeping the classic recipes. Expect to see Thrifty in supermarkets and independent shops—even without Rite Aid stores.
The bigger picture
Rite Aid’s collapse underscores an industry in transition: fewer front-of-store trips, pressure from online and big-box competitors, reimbursement compression in pharmacy, and higher operating costs. Competitors have been closing stores too—but Rite Aid, smaller and more levered, ran out of moves first. With prescriptions largely transferred and assets sold, there’s no independent Rite Aid retail network left to resurrect. The Rite Aid name may persist on legacy materials, but the business has effectively been dismantled and redistributed to stronger players and opportunistic buyers.
