by walgreens boots alliance pending traded as nyse rad industry retailing founded september 12 1962 ; 54 years ago 1962 09 12 as thrift d discount center 1968 ; 48 years ago 1968 as rite aid corporation scranton pennsylvania u.s. headquarters east pennsboro township cumberland county pennsylvania united states number of locations 4 553 sep. 2016 1 key people john standley chairman & ceo ; ken martindale president & chief operating officer ; frank vitrano chief financial officer & chief administrative officer products pharmacy revenue us 30.26 billion fy2015 operating income us 721.26 million fy2014 net income us 249.41 million fy2014 total assets us 6.944 billion fy2014 total equity us 2.113 billion fy2014 number of employees 89 346 2014 website www.riteaid.com rite aid is a drugstore chain in the united states and a fortune 500 company headquartered in east pennsboro township cumberland county pennsylvania near camp hill . 2 3 rite aid is the largest drugstore chain on the east coast and the third largest in the u.s. an offer was presented by walgreens boots alliance in october 2015 . rite aid accepted the offer and is currently pending government antitrust committee approval . if and when the deal is approved walgreens will form the world s largest retail pharmacy chain in terms of number of locations . rite aid began in 1962 as a single store opened in scranton pennsylvania called thrift d discount center . after several years of growth rite aid adopted its current name and debuted as a public company in 1968 . today rite aid is publicly traded on the new york stock exchange under the ticker rad . rite aid reported total sales of us 25.5 billion in fiscal year 2014 . as of 6 february 2015 update the market capitalization of rite aid was about 7.15 billion . 4 its major competitors are cvs and walgreens . the latter announced on october 27 2015 that it would acquire rite aid for 17.4 billion pending approval . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 growth and acquisitions 1.2 partnership with gnc 1.3 company troubles 1.4 customer loyalty and rewards programs 1.5 merger with eckerd and brooks 1.6 market exits 1.7 merger with walgreens 2 see also 3 notes 4 external links history edit alex grass founded the rite aid chain in scranton pennsylvania in september 1962 . 6 the first store was called thrift d discount center a health and beauty aids store without a pharmacy . it was an offshoot of rack rite distributors a subsidiary of his father in law s lehrman & sons which alex grass launched in 1958 that rented and stocked racks with health and beauty aids in grocery stores . in 1965 their 23rd store added a pharmacy and the company name was changed to rite aid . 7 through acquisitions and new stores rite aid quickly expanded into 5 northeast states by 1965 . the chain was officially named rite aid corporation in 1968 and made its debut on the american stock exchange . it moved to the new york stock exchange in 1970 . in 2011 rite aid was ranked 100 on fortune 500 largest u.s. corporations . growth and acquisitions edit rite aid in tawas city michigan just ten years after its first store opened rite aid operated 267 locations in 10 states . it was named the third largest drugstore in the united states by 1981 ; shortly thereafter 1983 marked a sales milestone of 1 billion . a 420 store acquisition along the east coast expanded rite aid s holdings beyond 2 000 locations as did the acquisition of gray drug in 1987 . among the companies acquired was baltimore maryland s read s drug store . on april 10 1989 peoples drug s 114 unit lane drug of ohio was purchased by rite aid . 8 rite aid acquired twenty four hook s drug stores from revco in 1994 selling nine of those stores to perry drug stores a michigan based pharmacy chain . one year later in turn the 224 store perry chain was acquired by rite aid . 9 10 the 1 000 store west coast chain thrifty payless was later acquired in 1996 . the acquisition of thrifty payless included the northwest based bi mart membership discount stores which was sold off in 1998 . acquisitions of harco inc. and k & b inc. brought rite aid into the gulf coast area . in the 1990s rite aid partnered with carl paladino s ellicott development co. to expand the company s presence in upstate new york . 11 partnership with gnc edit general nutrition corporation gnc and rite aid formed a partnership in january 1999 bringing gnc mini stores within the rite aid pharmacies . a partnership with drugstore.com in june 1999 allowed customers of rite aid to place medical prescription orders online for same day in store pickup . company troubles edit rite aid in scott depot west virginia rite aid had a major accounting scandal that led to the departure and subsequent jail time of several top ranking executives including the ceo martin grass son of company founder alex grass . former rite aid vice chairman franklin c. brown is serving a 10 year sentence in a medium security facility at federal correctional complex butner near raleigh north carolina . 12 after serving six years in prison martin grass was released on january 18 2010 . 13 founder alex grass died of cancer on august 27 2009 . 14 at the time rite aid had just acquired thrifty payless and was integrating those into the company . as a result leonard green who ran the investment firm that had sold those stores to rite aid took control of the company and installed mary sammons from fred meyer as ceo . in july 2001 rite aid agreed to improve their pharmacy complaint process by implementing a new program to respond to consumer complaints . 15 on july 25 2004 rite aid agreed to pay 7 million to settle allegations that the company had submitted false prescription claims to united states government health insurance programs . 16 in august 2007 rite aid acquired approximately 1 850 brooks eckerd stores throughout the united states in hopes of improving their accessibility to a wider range of consumers . on december 21 2007 the new york times reported that rite aid had record breaking losses that year despite the acquisition of the brooks and eckerd chains . 17 the following fiscal quarter saw an increase in revenue but a sharp fall in net income as rite aid began the integration process . rite aid shares fell over 75 % between september 2007 and september 2008 closing at a low of 0.98 on september 11 2008 . rite aid shares subsequently dropped to 0.20 on march 6 2009 the all time low as of 8 december 2011 update . 4 scott cole & associates apc filed a class action lawsuit against rite aid corporation on behalf of its salaried california store managers . it was alleged that rite aid failed to pay overtime to these workers and denied them their meal and rest periods . in 2009 the action settled for 6.9 million . scott cole & associates rite aid class action in june 2010 john standley was promoted from chief operating officer to chief executive officer with former ceo mary sammons retaining her position as chairperson ; 18 ken martindale previously co president of pathmark was named chief operating officer . 19 customer loyalty and rewards programs edit the wellness plus card officially rendered as wellness is rite aid s shopping rewards card that started nationwide on april 18 2010 . membership is free and benefits include free health and wellness benefits as well as shopping and prescription drug discounts and special prices . earlier in march 2005 rite aid had introduced living more a seniors loyalty program which offered similar discounts and benefits . this program was very similar to the former revco program which was called senior shoppers rite aid had attempted to purchase revco in 1996 . the living more program was being discontinued as of october 31 2010 having been essentially superseded by the wellness plus card . however as of 2013 update the wellness plus card allows seniors to upgrade to the wellness 65 card basically reintroducing the previous living more benefits along with the newly created wellness card . rite aid also holds some surveys for their loyal customers to share praise and complaints . surveys are just like a platform where good and bad estimations are mingled together . upon the completion of the customer satisfaction survey customers are invited to try to win the grand prize and monthly prize as a feedback . 20 in may 2015 wellness plus was integrated into the new american express backed plenti rewards card which rite aid shares with at & t mobility direct energy enterprise rent a car exxonmobil hulu macy s and nationwide insurance ; rite aid was the only one of the group that had an existing loyalty program before the creation of plenti . the new system requires wellness plus cardholders to receive new cards displaying both the wellness plus and plenti logos . 21 merger with eckerd and brooks edit a map of all rite aid stores as of september 2015 on august 23 2006 the wall street journal announced that rite aid would be buying the eckerd pharmacy and brooks pharmacy chains brooks eckerd pharmacy from the quebec based jean coutu group for us 3.4 billion and merging the two chains into one dominant pharmacy system . the company s shareholders overwhelmingly approved the merger on january 18 2007 . 1 after some store closures and the conversion of the two chains was completed rite aid became the dominant drug store retailer in the eastern u.s. and the third largest drug retailer nationwide behind the faster growing walgreens and cvs chains . similar to what cvs experienced in the chicago metropolitan area after its purchase of albertsons drug store chains the deal gave rite aid some locations that were too close to each other . only 23 store locations nationally were sold off to walgreens the medicine shoppe or independent owners in order to meet federal regulations . in many situations especially pennsylvania where both chains were dominant and had roots in those states rite aid originated in scranton while eckerd has roots in western pennsylvania via erie for itself and pittsburgh for converted thrift drug locations there were now two rite aids as close as right next door to each other . however in march 2008 some of these overlapping stores were closed with the locations saying that they moved to a new address when in fact they moved to the other rite aid that was nearby . most of these stores that closed were pre existing rite aids from before the eckerd deal since eckerd had built newer more modern locations with drive thru pharmacies and larger space under ownership of both j. c. penney and jean coutu group and the moved to sites were converted eckerds . employees at the closed stores were transferred to the nearby locations so no layoffs were necessary . rite aid had sold some locations to j. c. penney s thrift drug chain in the mid 1990s shortly before j.c. penney s acquisition of eckerd and had also sold all of their massachusetts stores to brooks in 1995 bringing some existing eckerd and brooks stores that were once rite aids full circle . because eckerd was previously owned by j. c. penney eckerd stores accepted j. c. penney charge cards . since the merger all rite aids accept j. c. penney charge cards a policy also followed by competitor cvs pharmacy which had earlier acquired most of the eckerd chain in the southeastern united states . today new york with 620 stores is home to the