Rite Aid

Rite Aid Corp. reported a loss yesterday for its third quarter compared with a profit in last year's quarter. The drugstore chain also lowered its outlook for its fiscal year. "This was a difficult quarter," said Mary Sammons, Rite Aid's chief executive officer. "There has been a very slow start for the cough, cold and flu season. " A benefits change by the United Auto Workers, establishing mandatory mail-order prescriptions for union members, also trimmed sales, she said.

Rite Aid Corp. has asked that a Cleveland prosecutor be removed from handling a grand jury investigation of Rite Aid president Martin L. Grass on the ground he made improper statements to the media. Rite Aid charged in a motion that William R. Caine, an assistant prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, violated Ohio rules of legal conduct concerning grand jury secrecy. The grand jury is investigating allegations that Grass tried to bribe a member of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. In the motion, Rite Aid, based in Harrisburg, also questioned a decision by the prosecutor not to call the pharmacy-board member, Melvin Wilczynski, to testify before the grand jury.

A Cleveland judge yesterday lifted a temporary restraining order that had blocked county prosecutors from serving Rite Aid Corp. and its president with an indictment. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Greene, who issued the order Wednesday on a motion by Rite Aid lawyers, gave no reason for rescinding it, said John Chmielewski, a deputy court clerk. Rite Aid's lawyers have challenged the method by which the indictment was issued and unsealed. The Shiremanstown drugstore chain and its president, Martin L. Grass, are charged with bribing a member of the state pharmacy board to resign.

Rite Aid Corp., in a revised proposal, yesterday offered about $675 million to buy Revco D.S. Inc., a privately owned drugstore chain based in Ohio, and bring it out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Rite Aid, a drugstore chain based in Shiremanstown, near Harrisburg, and five Revco bondholders jointly submitted the plan. It calls for giving Revco creditors $542 million in cash and distributing about $133 million worth of Rite Aid common stock to creditors. In addition, Rite Aid would assume about $80 million of Revco liabilities.

Rite Aid Corp., making its largest single acquisition ever, yesterday said it agreed to buy the 356-store Gray Drug Fair Inc. for between $115 million and $120 million. The seller is Sherwin-Williams Co., the Cleveland-based paint manufacturer, which has been trying to dispose of its drugstore holdings since last summer. With the acquisition, the fast-growing Rite Aid will operate 2,048 stores, putting it neck-and-neck with D.S. Revco Inc. for the distinction of being the nation's largest drugstore chain.

Rite Aid Corp., emboldened after its vindication on bribery charges, said it would retaliate with a lawsuit against the Cleveland prosecutor who handled the case. "They dragged my name and Rite Aid's name through the mud," Martin Grass, Rite Aid's president and a defendant in the bribery case, said yesterday. In an interview from Rite Aid headquarters in Shiremanstown, Pa., Grass said that Rite Aid would take legal action within two weeks against William Caine, the assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor who handled the case, and other foes of Rite Aid. Grass would not say on what grounds the suit would be brought, acknowledging that claims of prosecutorial abuse are difficult to win. "Just wait and watch and see," he said when asked about the legal strategy.

Rite Aid Corp. said yesterday that it wanted to sell its 46.8 percent interest in Super Rite Foods Inc., a wholesale and retail food business, to channel its efforts into its core business of drugstores. Alex Grass, chairman and founder of Rite Aid, is leading a group of family members and Super Rite management that plans to make a proposal to buy the food business. Rite Aid, based in Shiremanstown, Pa., near Harrisburg, is the nation's largest drugstore chain with 2,142 stores.

Rite Aid Corp. said yesterday it had agreed to sell its stake in a profitable British drugstore chain for $102 million. Rite Aid, the second-largest drugstore chain in America, said it decided to sell its interest in Superdrug Stores PLC after receiving an unsolicited but generous offer from Woolworth Holdings, a British retailer. "We got a tremendous price for it," said Martin Grass, executive vice president. Rite Aid owns 28.2 percent of the British chain, which it helped to establish in 1971.

Rite Aid Corp. and its president yesterday entered not-guilty pleas in a Cleveland courtroom to charges that they tried to pass a $33,249 bribe to a member of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. The pleas were made at an arraignment in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Few words were exchanged during the brief court appearance. Shortly afterward, however, Rite Aid released a three-page statement denouncing the county prosecutors who brought the case, their key witness and the Ohio Pharmacy Board.

We've been focusing lately on finding products to accommodate "improvements" in technology. What that sometimes means is that ideas make it to the market before they are ready for prime time. The latest of these, of course, was dishwasher detergent. Makers reworked their formulas a couple of years ago to be phosphate-free, but the result was filmy glasses. I took all your recommendations to heart, and we began using one, Cascade Complete, when we ran out of the Wegman's-brand powder.

Man shot, killed in G'town * Tacoma Street near Seymour A 43-year-old man who was shot and killed on Tacoma Street near Seymour in Germantown yesterday afternoon was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital about 6:45 p.m., homicide detectives said. The shots rang out about 4:15 p.m., and homicide detectives were working last night to determine the circumstances that led to the shooting. A description of the killer was not immediately available, and no arrests were made.

CAMP HILL, Pa. - Drugstore operator Rite Aid Corp. said Thursday that its sales improved in October as revenue at its pharmacy counters increased. The company said its total sales grew 2.8 percent to $1.96 billion from $1.91 billion. The results cover the four-week period that ended Oct. 22. Sales at stores open at least a year grew 2.9 percent. At those stores, pharmacy revenue rose 3.6 percent, and sales of nonpharmacy items like food and cosmetics increased 1.3 percent. Prescriptions filled at those stores rose 1.3 percent.

When Chuck Kohlerman was growing up in the 1980s, his first after-school job was sweeping his father's drugstore in Malvern. Later, he worked behind the counter and delivered prescriptions. Eventually, he decided to become a pharmacist himself, as did his sister. Now 42, Kohlerman owns and operates Kohlerman's Pharmacy, a business that has been in the family since 1966 and is in a small strip shopping center on King Street. The challenges of running an independent pharmacy are different today.

Rite Aid thief sought * Rising Sun Avenue near Lima Street, Northeast Police are hoping that surveillance footage and help from the public will lead them to a man being sought in connection with an armed theft at a Rite Aid in Olney on Sunday. The man walked into the store about 7:20 p.m. and began stuffing goods into a black bag, police said. When a cashier asked him to pay, he pulled a knife from his back pocket and left without paying, police said. Police described him as Hispanic, about 5 feet 7, in his mid-30s.

CAMP HILL - Pennsylvania-based drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. said Thursday that an important revenue measurement rose in September as its pharmacy business improved. The company said revenue at stores open at least a year grew 1.3 percent over the four weeks ended Sept. 24. Revenue at its pharmacies rose 2.1 percent, and revenue from other items sold at the front end of stores fell 0.5 percent. The company said Hurricane Irene helped its sales in August as shoppers stocked up ahead of the storm, but in early September, the effects of the storm kept shoppers away from stores and hurt its revenue.

Rite Aid Corp. said its fiscal second-quarter loss narrowed to $94.7 million from $199.3 million in lastr year's period as a customer rewards program improved sales and Hurricane Irene brought the drugstore operator more business at the end of the quarter. The Camp Hill company also trimmed its projected loss for the current fiscal year to a range of $345 million to $495 million. That is down a previous estimate of $370 million to $560 million.    -AP

In the Region DuPont in talks on pollution cases DuPont Co. is negotiating with state and federal environmental regulators to settle claims of alleged pollution discharges into the Delaware River. The News Journal of Wilmington reported the settlement talks were disclosed in a financial statement that DuPont filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . They concern discharges from 2005 to 2010 at the company's Edge Moor manufacturing facility north of Wilmington.

An East Germantown drugstore robbed at gunpoint earlier in the month was held up again Tuesday night, police said. The Rite Aid at 1315 E. Washington Lane was robbed at gunpoint about 8:30 p.m., police said. The same Rite Aid was hit by three bandits, one wearing a Halloween mask, on July 10. They handcuffed three employees before stealing $3,000 in cash, lottery tickets, cigars, and cigarettes. - Robert Moran