Less than four months after acquiring 63 former Rite Aid and Bartell Drug stores in the Pacific Northwest, CVS Health Corp. has completed its store conversions.
The final transactions involving former Rite Aid stores closed September 30, with stores in Bend, Oregon, and Bainbridge Island.
The first Washington store conversion began in July with a former Bartell location at 6939 Coal Creek Parkway Southeast in Newcastle. In total, 49 former Rite Aid and Bartell locations now operate under the CVS brand.
Rite Aid, which acquired Bartell Drugs in 2020, officially closed all of its locations October 3.
It marked the close of another chapter for Rite Aid, which filed its second and final bankruptcy in May. The drug store chain operated more than 2,000 stores nationwide as of 2023, but financial struggles, including $2.5 billion in debt, led to its sell-off.
Before the Rite Aid acquisition, CVS operated 70 stores throughout Idaho, Oregon and Washington. By comparison, rival Walgreens operates nearly 250 stores in the area.
With its purchase of 63 Pacific Northwest locations, CVS nearly doubled its footprint in the region. It hired around 3,500 former Rite Aid and Bartell employees to work the new stores, including more than 1,150 in Washington.
The company also acquired the prescription files for 626 former Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs pharmacies across 15 states.
“We’re helping maintain and expand access to convenient and trusted pharmacy care across the U.S. and growing our retail footprint and presence in local communities,” said Len Shankman, CVS Health executive vice president. “From our innovative pharmacy care programs to our exclusive store brand products, we look forward to showing Rite Aid and Bartell Drugs patients and customers all that CVS has to offer.”
The store conversion process, for many of the locations, required new signage, converting the store’s technology systems, removing products and moving its own products to shelves. Elements like point-of-sales systems were also modernized to ensure customers can utilize the CVS Loyalty Program.
The four-month conversion timeline represents rapid execution considering the complexity of rebranding 63 locations, transferring prescription files, training thousands of employees, and integrating technology systems while maintaining continuous pharmacy operations.
CVS’s decision to retain approximately 3,500 former Rite Aid and Bartell employees, including more than 1,150 in Washington, addresses community concerns about job losses while preserving institutional knowledge about local customer preferences and prescription histories.
The acquisition of prescription files for 626 pharmacies across 15 states extends far beyond the 63 physical store conversions, allowing CVS to serve former Rite Aid and Bartell customers who now must fill prescriptions at existing CVS locations rather than nearby former competitors.
Bartell Drugs’ 2020 acquisition by Rite Aid proved disastrous for the 130-year-old Seattle family business, as Rite Aid’s bankruptcy barely four years later resulted in the complete dissolution of a beloved local chain that once operated 67 stores across Western Washington.
CVS’s doubling of its Pacific Northwest footprint from 70 to 133 stores still leaves the company far behind Walgreens’ nearly 250 regional locations, suggesting continued market consolidation may occur as CVS seeks competitive parity with its larger rival.
The Coal Creek Parkway location in Newcastle serving as the first Washington conversion reflects the store’s strategic importance in the affluent Eastside market, where CVS likely prioritized demonstrating successful rebranding to skeptical former Bartell customers loyal to the historic Seattle brand.
The modernization of point-of-sale systems to enable CVS Loyalty Program participation represents crucial infrastructure for capturing customer data and driving prescription refills through targeted promotions, the lifeblood of pharmacy retail profitability.
Rite Aid’s $2.5 billion debt burden and second bankruptcy filing illustrate how the pharmacy retail sector’s thin margins and pressure from pharmacy benefit managers created financial fragility that opportunistic acquirers like CVS exploited to expand market share at distressed prices.
