Rite Aid

A $50,000 reward was announced Thursday for the capture of a drug store desperado who robbed 13 Philadelphia area pharmacies of prescription drugs and money. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) announced a $10,000 reward Thursday for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible. " Rite-Aid posted an additional $40,000 reward, administered through the Citizens Crime Commission, for the robberies at Rite-Aid locations. The collected value of the drugs and money stolen were not immediately available.

Rite Aid Corp., the nation's largest drug retailer, yesterday announced record fourth-quarter and year-end sales and earnings. Alex Grass, chairman and chief executive officer of the Shiremanstown company, said same-store sales for Rite Aid drugstores, including the large number of units it acquired in 1987 and after, continued to grow. Rite Aid drugstores achieved gains of 7.8 percent in comparable-store sales in its fourth quarter and 7.3 percent for the year. Comparable-store sales are business at stores that were open in the same period the year before.

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.

Two suspects escaped with money and cigarettes after robbing an Elkins Park Rite Aid store at 1401 W. Cheltenham Ave. at gunpoint early Tuesday morning. The robbery was caught on a surveillance camera. It pictures two men walking into the store and one of them at a counter, pointing a handgun. Police say the pair entered the store together. One man picked up a cold medicine and, after paying for it at a cash register, threatened employees with a semiautomatic handgun and demanded money from the cash register and cigarettes, police said.

Two suspects escaped with money and cigarettes after robbing an Elkins Park Rite Aid store at 1401 West Cheltenham Avenue at gunpoint early Tuesday morning. The robbery was caught on a surveillance camera. It pictures two men walking in the store and one of them at a counter, pointing a handgun. Police say the pair entered the store together. One man picked up a cold medicine and, after paying for it at a cash register, threatened employees with a black, semi-automatic handgun and demanded money from the cash register and cigarettes, police said.

The 80-year-old woman from Bellmawr was getting into her car Sunday morning, having finished Easter breakfast at the Metro Diner on Route 130 in Brooklawn. It was around 10:40 a.m., her family had just left when a man ran up, dragged the woman out of her vehicle by an arm, and drove off in her car. He was apparently fleeing after being recognized by employees at a nearby Rite Aid where he had shoplifted twice in two days, Brooklawn police said.The man had stolen merchandise around 6 p.m. Saturday at the Rite Aid directly adjacent to the Metro diner, and then returned early Sunday to do it again, Brooklawn officer John Gundle said.

Lauren Bianco took a taxi to rob a Rite Aid store in Gloucester Township on Tuesday night, police said. Maybe, for a fleeting moment, it seemed like a good plan. About 8:45, police said, Bianco, 28, pulled a gun and demanded money from the cash register at the store on Chews Landing Road. She grabbed about $100 and tried to flee, police said. The store manager watched the robbery on a surveillance monitor and tackled Bianco by the entrance, police said. Bianco got away and tried to jump back into the taxi, police said.

In the Region Region's manufacturers upbeat Manufacturers in the Philadelphia region this month reported the best business conditions since April, along with an improved outlook for the next six months, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported. The closely watched Philadelphia "Business Outlook Survey" by the Fed followed reported declines in business activity in late October and early November due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Firms responding to the survey reported increases in overall activity, new orders, shipments, and employment compared to the declines reported in November after Sandy, the bank said.

Linda A. Kerns has been confirmed to a seat on the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing by the state Senate. She is principal at the law offices of Linda A. Kerns.   Ari Rabban , founder and chief executive officer of Phone.com, Mount Laurel, has been named to the board of the New Jersey Technology Council .   Greenwood Racing Inc. , owner and operator of Parx Casino and Parx Racing in Bensalem, appointed Thomas C. Bonner to its board. He is group vice president/legal and chief counsel of the company.

Federal charges were announced Tuesday against two men charged in a string of drugstore holdups in the Philadelphia area. Edward Schaeffer, 29, of South Philadelphia, was charged Monday with the Sept. 4 armed robbery of a Rite Aid pharmacy on Chester Pike in Glenolden, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said in a release. William A. Webb, 50, of Northeast Philadelphia, was charged with aiding and abetting the June 11 armed robbery of another Rite Aid, on Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia.

A 50-YEAR-OLD MAN was held on $1.6 million bail Wednesday in a nearly yearlong alleged robbery spree of pharmacies throughout Northeast Philadelphia. William Webb - who was nabbed Monday after police say he robbed a Rite Aid in Rhawnhurst and stole a bottle of narcotics embedded with a GPS tracking device - faces charges of aggravated assault, robbery, possession of drugs with intent to distribute, violation of the Uniform Firearms Act and related offenses in 16 robberies from December until his arrest Monday.

LUCK HAS RUN OUT for two men who may be responsible for a rash of drugstore heists in the Northeast and who unwittingly swiped a bottle of pills embedded with a GPS tracking device Monday night, police said. The pair allegedly robbed a Rite Aid on Roosevelt Boulevard near Solly Avenue in Rhawnhurst at gunpoint about 9:30 p.m. and took off with pain pills, as robbers have in several similar incidents over the last few months, police said. But Rite Aid and police outsmarted the pair: The pharmacy, investigators said, had placed a GPS tracking device in at least one of the pill bottles the gunmen allegedly stole, giving cops a way to track them down.