Rite Aid (RAD) Expands With Store Reopening At Harrisburg, PA

Consistent with its efforts to expand clinical services and remodeling the concept of wellness stores, Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) recently announced the grand reopening of the Harrisburg Market Street store in Harrisburg, PA. The store is located inside Strawberry Square (NYSE:SQ), at Market Street.

This new store is designed as per Rite Aid’s popular wellness store format. The store is approximately 14,000 square feet large and is designed to have a street level entrance, which directly leads customers to the pharmacy department. Such wellness stores of Rite Aid are equipped with well trained pharmacists to provide care for patients suffering from diabetes, pneumonia, flu and other common ailments. Adjacent to the pharmacy section is a private room for consultation, wherein pharmacists can consult with patients and provide immunization services.

The store also houses an in-store form of The Hershey Company’s (NYSE:HSY) Sweet Shop, offering a variety of chocolates, candies and gift items. Another important aspect of the store’s design is the inclusion of overhead departmental rings that differentiates each section of the store which includes beauty, food, home care and others. This makes the store quite navigable.

As part of the reopening, a variety of events would be held which includes, free health check-ups, sample distribution and beauty events. To commemorate this grand reopening, Rite Aid has announced to donate $10,000 to Joshua Group, a non-profit entity that works towards the betterment of the youth, living in harsh financial and lifestyle conditions.

With such social initiatives, combined with products, services and resources to provide better healthcare, Rite Aid proves its age old commitment to the people of Harrisburg. Notably, the company is also awaiting green signal for its merger with Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) . In fact Fred's, Inc. (NASDAQ:FRED) has also been working in close collaboration with the two companies to obtain the Federal Trade Commission’s approval for this deal.

The delay in the merger deal has negatively impacted the company’s shares that have underperformed the Zacks categorized Retail–Drug Store industry in the past six months. In the said time period, shares of the company plunged 61.3% compared with the industry’s decline of 5.1%.

Nevertheless, strategies of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company toward constant product and service upgradation within their stores to elevate consumer experience is worth praising. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

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