ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230055
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
Rite Aid Corp., the nation's largest drugstore chain, will open 10 stores in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market within the next two years, the company confirmed Thursday.
Rite Aid said it has closed deals for its two initial area locations, in Vinton and Salem. The Vinton site is a 1.44-acre tract on Hardy Road directly across from Lake Drive Plaza shopping center. A Hunan restaurant was formerly on the property.
The Salem location is on 1.98 acres at West Main and Chestnut streets, formerly occupied by Old Salem Overstock Store.
Jim Bolling and Dale Poe with Waldvogel, Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group Inc., who are handling acquisitions for Rite Aid sites in the Roanoke Valley, said additional locations in Roanoke and Roanoke County are under contract for purchase, but the transactions are not completed.
The first two stores should be ready to open in six to eight months, said Craig Muckle, spokesman at Rite Aid's Camp Hill, Pa., headquarters.
Both will be new 11,000-square-foot facilities featuring drive-through windows for prescription pickup. The company typically has 10 to 20 employees per store.
Muckle said the move into the Roanoke Valley is part of a three-year strategy that began last year to open 1,000 new stores.
The Vinton location is directly across the highway from a Kroger supermarket at Lake Drive Plaza, one of six Kroger stores in the valley with a pharmacy.
Archie Fralin, Roanoke spokesman for Kroger, said the company does not react publicly to competition. He said Kroger strives to do as well as it can to serve its customers and attract new ones regardless of the competition.
Wonder Drug Southeast is also close to the Vinton site, but spokeswoman Connie Hale isn't worried.
The valley has a lot of drug stores, Hale said, but small pharmacies offer services the chains cannot.
"All of our customers are like family," Hale said. The Wonder Drug staff knows the names of customers' family members - and even the family dog.
She said Wonder Drug's prices are competitive, and the store delivers prescriptions. Customers are given coffee if they must wait for a prescription to be filled.
"I would hope it doesn't hurt," said Jean Willis, spokeswoman for Brambleton Drug. She said her store has done well competing against existing chains, so she believes Rite Aid's entry will simply mean more competition among the chains themselves.
Brambleton Drug serves a lot of families with young children and elderly people who find it hard to get to the store and who, therefore, rely on home delivery. Willis said Brambleton Drug has a lot of personal contact with its customers and offers a senior citizen discount every day.
Last year, Rite Aid announced plans to merge with Revco D.S. Inc., an Ohio company that operates Revco stores, including those in the Roanoke Valley. That proposal was withdrawn in April, however, under threat of an anti-trust lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission.
Rite Aid recently acquired 224 Perry drug stores in Michigan and became a dominant chain in the New York City metropolitan market with acquisition of the Pathmark stores.
Muckle said Rite Aid already operates 159 stores in Virginia. They are in the Northern Virginia, Richmond and Norfolk areas. He said it was natural to expand into Western Virginia.
The company seeks sites on thoroughfares where it can build free-standing stores that are visible from the highway. It does not occupy space inside shopping malls.
Muckle said the goal is to attract people who want to shop on their way to other destinations. The company wants customers to be able to park and walk into its stores quickly.
Rite Aid believes it offers services that are not available from other drug chains, Muckle said.
Besides the drive-through windows, he said, Rite Aid stores have waiting areas for pharmacy customers and a private consultation room where people can discuss their medications with a pharmacist. The stores have departments for convenience foods, one-hour photo finishing, cosmetics and express mail.
Rite Aid includes more than 1,200 store-brand products among its selection for health and personal care.
In addition, Rite Aid operates Eagle Managed Care Corp., a subsidiary that markets prescription plans and sells other managed health care services to large employers and government-sponsored employee benefit programs.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: Rite Aid at a glance. KEYWORDS: MGR