Pharmacy chain with hundreds of NJ, PA stores at risk of closing?

Published reports say a big, national pharmacy chain with hundreds of stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania could be facing bankruptcy for the second time in a year.

Brutal Retail Business Keeps Getting Worse

Sadly, this chain remains on a list of retailers either in serious financial trouble or that have already completely faded into history. Just since this past Thanksgiving, we have seen the following business headlines:

Macy's

Macy's announced it would be closing 66 stores as they try to rebound from sluggish sales. In New Jersey, only the Macy's Backstage store in East Orange closed. In Philadelphia, the historic store in Center City shut down for good.

Kohl's

Much like Macy's, Kohl's is also closing multiple underperforming stores nationwide. Kohl's closed two stores in our area — East Windsor, NJ, and Pottstown, PA.

Party City

The days of running into Party City for birthday balloons and party favors have ended. Party City had 26 stores in New Jersey and 700 across the nation.

Big Lots!

The past several months have been quite turbulent for Big Lots. At the end of December, after closing numerous underperforming stores and then announcing the whole chain was going dark, news broke that an asset liquidation firm was buying the retailer, and some 400 stores would remain open or reopen.

Joann

Crafters won't be able to run into a Joann store for fabric and other materials much longer. That chain is in the process of closing all of its stores across the country.

• POSITIVE BUSINESS NEWS: Big changes coming soon to these New Jersey Walmart stores

More Financial Trouble for Rite Aid

Now, according to Bloomberg, Rite Aid is running low on money and preparing to sell itself in pieces as it possibly heads toward its second bankruptcy filing in less than a year.

What exactly does that mean for the chain? Potentially, regional groups of stores could be sold to a competitor while others could just close.

Rite Aid has 61 stores in New Jersey, including locations in Bridgeton, Deptford, Jackson Township, Edison, and Clinton.

Over in Pennsylvania, their footprint is much larger, with nearly 350 stores. Both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are home to about 30 locations.

To put Rite Aid's regional size in perspective, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, CVS has about 800 stores while Walgreens has about 300.

Officials with Rite Aid have not officially commented on the Bloomberg report.