Rite Aid Wants Customers to Know It’s Got Their Backs. Will That Cure Its Many Ills?

A troubled history

Of course, only time will tell whether that positioning pays off for the 61-year-old brand. What’s clear for now is that Rite Aid needs to differentiate itself clearly—and quickly. While 2023 saw Rite Aid’s retail comparable same-store prescriptions increase by 5.2%, it still reported a net loss of $749.9 million.

Rite Aid is working its way through the bankruptcy protection it filed for in October 2023, one that had been opposed by its creditors and also litigants that have filed suits stemming from the opioid crisis.

In May 2023, the Justice Department filed a complaint alleging that, between 2014 and 2019, the chain filled “thousands” of controlled-substance prescriptions that, now-former Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement at the time, had “obvious red flags.” Gupta also contended that “Rite Aid intentionally deleted internal notes about suspicious prescribers. These practices opened the floodgates for millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Rite Aid’s stores.”

According to Reuters, Rite Aid faces some 1,600 lawsuits connected to the country’s opioid epidemic.

Its legal woes aside, Rite Aid has also struggled with some $4 billion in debt as it tries to compete against the likes of grocery stores like Kroger, big-box giants like Walmart, Amazon Pharmacy and any number of newcomer online dispensaries that’ll deliver medications straight to customers’ front doors.

Rite Aid’s losses have forced it to close underperforming stores, but its shrinking footprint has only made it harder to hold its own against competitors with a larger market presence.

Detaching from reality?

For all of these reasons, veteran brand consultant Allen Adamson believes that while a new campaign and positioning are a good idea, the theme that Rite Aid has chosen isn’t.

“The ad looks lovely,” he said, but it’s “detached from reality.”

In Adamson’s analysis, Rite Aid’s only feasible differentiation lay in touting its troupe of seasoned pharmacists—“somebody to be there to help you pick the right drug or help you with a health problem,” as he put it. “Their problem is not going to be solved by smiling people in the store.”

Contrary to the scenarios presented in the new ads, “people don’t go to Rite Aid when they forget something and need something at the last minute­—that’s not a relevant positioning,” Adamson continued. As its system has shrunk, Rite Aid “has fewer stores, and if [consumers] want last-minute things, Amazon or Target can do it.”