William Woodburn 
Jan. 8, 1994 
William P. Woodburn, 86, Of Parrish Street, Wilkes-barre, Died Saturday At 
Home.

3 Plead Guilty 
In Cocaine Case

Saturday, January 08, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 4A QUICK WORDS: RITE AID TO CLOSE 200
STORES 





Rite Aid to close 200 stores; no word on local outlets &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The Camp Hill-based company's restructuring efforts were given positive
reviews by industry analysts &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Staff and wire reports &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rite Aid Corp. will close 200 drugstores, sell four unrelated businesses
and buy back 22 million shares of stock as part of a restructuring that will
refocus the company. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rite Aid said it would close the 200 stores within the next six months. The
closings will be geographically dispersed among the company's 2,681 stores in
23 states east of the Mississippi River, spokeswoman Suzanne Mead said.
Specific stores to be closed will not be made public at this time, the company
said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rite Aid operates nine drugstores in the Wyoming Valley. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The national retail drugstore chain will take a charge against earnings of
$149.2 million during the fiscal year that ends Feb. 26. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We do not want to continue to spend time and money in businesses that
weren't making a major contribution to the entire business," Martin L. Grass,
president and chief operating officer, said Friday in a telephone interview
from the company's headquarters in Camp Hill. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rite Aid will open 75 new drugstores in fiscal 1995, Grass said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We want to position ourselves to do other drugstore business," he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The moves were greeted positively by retail analysts. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It will enable them to channel management's focus on making the drugstore
division as competitive and as profitable as possible," said Linda Morris of
PNC Bank. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "They've been diverted by these other businesses which have had their ups
and downs," said Terry McEvoy of Janney Montgomery Scott. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The businesses being sold are ADAP, an auto parts retailer with 95 stores;
Encore Books, operating 103 bookstores; Concord Custom Cleaners, with 170
outlets; and Sera Tec Biologicals, with 33 centers to collect plasma for use
in therapeutic and diagnostic products. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Grass said he hoped the businesses could be sold within six months. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The company said it planned a $25.6 million reserve for losses on the
discontinued businesses. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Like other drugstore chains, Rite Aid has been buffeted by health-care cost
containment efforts in the private and public sectors, the analysts said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In addition, pharmaceutical companies have slowed the rate of price
increases, leaving retail drugstores less margin to pass along to customers. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "They've been kind of getting hit from all angles," Morris said. "It's been
a tougher business for drug retailers." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rite Aid's new moves "will hopefully position them better in a competitive
light," she said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The company said the stock buyback would be conducted by a so-called Dutch
auction tender offer ranging from $16 to $18.50. Shareholders will be able to
specify a price range at which they would be willing to sell their stock. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The company then will determine the lowest price within the range at which
it can buy back the shares and pay that price for all shares tendered at that
price or lower. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The board did not make any recommendation to shareholders with regard to
the tendering of shares. Shareholders were to be notified of the tender
offer's details by mail next week. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 For the third quarter ended Nov. 27, Rite Aid reported net income of $23
million or 26 cents a share, down from $26.4 million, or 30 cents a share, in
1992. Sales were $1.08 billion, up from $1.01 billion. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 For the first 39 weeks of the fiscal year, net income was $80.7 million or
92 cents a share, compared to $86.6 million, or 99 cents a share. Sales were
$3.18 billion, up from $2.98 billion. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rite Aid has drugstores in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of
Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and
West Virginia.

Rite Aid To Close 200 Stores; No Word On Local Outlets 
The Camp Hill-based 
Company's Restructuring 
Efforts Were Given Positive 
Reviews By Industry Analysts 
Staff And Wire Reports 
Rite Aid Corp. Will Close 200 Drugstores, Sell Four Unrelated Businesses And

Rite Aid To Close 200 Stores; No Word On Local Outlets The Camp Hill-based Company's Restructuring Efforts Were Given Positive Reviews By Industry Analysts Staff And Wire Reports Rite Aid Corp. Will Close 200 Drugstores, Sell Four Unrelated Businesses And