Rite Aid to close 4 more Long Island drugstores

Rite Aid plans to close 53 more drugstores, including four on Long Island, according to bankruptcy court filings.

The retailer has closed hundreds of stores across the country since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

Since last week, the retailer has added to the list 53 more planned store closings in New York, California, Michigan and five other states.

The four stores closing on Long Island are:

• 1825 Brentwood Rd., Brentwood — pharmacy will close April 22 and the rest of the store will close May 17.
• 1910 Hempstead Tpke., East Meadow — pharmacy will close May 2 and the rest of the store will close May 21.
• 283 West Jericho Tpke., Huntington Station — pharmacy will close April 29 and the rest of the store will close May 22.
• 139 Ronkonkoma Ave., Lake Ronkonkoma — pharmacy will close April 18 and the rest of the store will close May 21.

Rite Aid considers several factors when deciding whether to close stores, including lease and rent obligations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance, the company said.

"In connection with the [bankruptcy] court-supervised process, we notified the court of certain underperforming stores we are closing to further reduce rent expense and strengthen overall financial performance," the Philadelphia-based company said in a statement Wednesday.

Rite Aid Corp. did not respond to Newsday’s inquiry about how many employees would be affected by the store closings.  But the company said about 75% of employees at Rite Aid stores that have closed or will be closing have accepted transfers to other locations.

The retailer is working to try to transfer customers' prescriptions from closing stores to other pharmacies, the company said.

Before filing for bankruptcy, Rite Aid had annual losses for several years and had been trying to cut costs with various measures, including closing about 210 stores in the 12-month period that ended on Sept. 30.

In recent years, the company has paid out millions of dollars in settlements of lawsuits that alleged Rite Aid played a role in an oversupply of addictive opioid prescriptions.

Rite Aid listed $8.6 billion in debts and $7.6 billion in assets in its filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey in October.

At that point, the chain had about 2,100 stores and initially said it would close 154, including 12 on Long Island.

Founded in 1962, Rite Aid now operates 1,690 stores in 16 states, according to the company’s website.

On Long Island, the chain has 23 stores, down from 38 in October.

Melville-based firm A&G Real Estate Partners currently is marketing 37 properties leased by Rite Aid, including the 20,162-square-foot Brentwood drugstore, and six owned by the retailer.

A&G is selling the lease assignments for stores that have at least 10 years of term left on them, including options to renew, and soliciting buyers for the properties that Rite Aid owns, said Mike Matlat, senior managing director at A&G.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.com@ToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.