Bankrupt Twice in Two Years: How Rite Aid Disappeared

Описание: In 2008, Rite Aid ran 5,059 stores in 31 states and D.C. By October 2025, every one had closed. This is the story of how a discount store in Scranton, Pennsylvania became one of America's biggest pharmacy chains, and how an accounting scandal, a giant acquisition, failed mergers and two bankruptcies in two years took it apart.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open: The last night
1:11 Chapter 1: A store with no pharmacy (1962–1995)
2:37 Chapter 2: The biggest restatement (1999–2004)
5:30 Chapter 3: Buying Eckerd (2006–2009)
7:00 Chapter 4: The deal that never closed (2015–2020)
8:49 Chapter 5: Cameras and pills (2012–2024)
11:37 Chapter 6: Twice in two years (2023–2025)
13:39 Chapter 7: What disappears with it

Narration is an AI-generated voice. Visuals are real archival photos, documents and built graphics; some photos are captioned stand-ins.

KEY SOURCES
• SEC Litigation Release No. 17577 (June 21, 2002) and the SEC complaint, SEC v. Martin L. Grass et al.: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litig...
• Rite Aid filings on SEC EDGAR (1995 10-K405 annual report; 2008 10-K store counts; 8-Ks on Eckerd/Brooks, Walgreens and Albertsons): https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-ed...
• In re New Rite Aid, LLC, No. 25-14861 (MBK) (Bankr. D.N.J.), Kroll docket, incl. sale orders Docs 469, 470 and 472 (May 21, 2025) and Doc 24: https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/Ri...
• FTC v. Rite Aid Corp., No. 2:23-cv-05023 (E.D. Pa.), complaint and stipulated order: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_...
• U.S. Department of Justice, complaint (Mar 13, 2023) and settlement (July 10, 2024): https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/...
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine, riteaid.com, Oct 16, 2025: https://web.archive.org/web/202510161...
• CVS Health, Oct 15, 2025: https://www.cvshealth.com/news/retail...
Legal claims are presented as what the SEC, FTC and DOJ alleged or what courts recorded.

CREDITS
Music: "Heartbreaking", "Dreamer", "Lightless Dawn" and "Long Note Four" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Photos: Random Retail via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Via Wikimedia Commons: Mike Kalasnik (CC BY-SA 4.0); Han Zheng (CC BY-SA 4.0); Gayest Frogs (CC BY-SA 4.0); Ildar Sagdejev/Specious (CC BY-SA 4.0); Rick Obst (CC BY 4.0; CC BY 2.0); Downtowngal (CC BY-SA 4.0); Youngamerican (CC BY-SA 3.0); Michael Rivera (CC BY-SA 4.0); Ser Amantio di Nicolao (CC BY-SA 4.0); Chris Light (CC BY-SA 4.0); Dough4872 (CC BY-SA 4.0); David/dbking (CC BY 2.0); Mike Mozart (CC BY 2.0); JJBers (CC BY 2.0); Diego Cupolo (CC BY 2.0); APK (CC BY 4.0); Jakub Hałun (CC BY 4.0); Jgera5, Pubdog, Wobbanight, UpdateNerd (public domain/CC0); Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress (public domain); Rite Aid footprint map by Magog the Ogre (CC BY-SA 3.0). Archival: HABS/Library of Congress; Ewing Galloway, Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921). Maps: U.S. Census Bureau boundary data. Documents: U.S. SEC/EDGAR, FTC, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Bankruptcy Court D.N.J. (Kroll docket), CVS Health. Web page: Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Licences: CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... · CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Share-alike: the CC BY-SA photos and the footprint map appear in adapted form (crops, colour grade, added markers and labels). Those adapted images are shared under the same licence (CC BY-SA 4.0 for the 4.0 items, CC BY-SA 3.0 for the 3.0 items), with attribution as above. The film is a collection that includes them. Highlights on documents were added by us.
Thumbnail map: US Census Bureau cartographic boundary files (public domain); 2008 store states from Rite Aid's FY2008 10-K.
Thumbnail photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., cropped and edited.