Rite Aid announced Wednesday that it has converted nearly all its stores in the Buffalo, N.Y., area to the Wellness store format, breaking the news with an event in the nearby village of Williamsville that included president, chairman and CEO John Standley, COO Ken Martindale and fitness expert Denise Austin.

Just as writers find their voices, Rite Aid has paved its road with wellness. Evidence of that was clear when it announced its latest last month, raking in a $123.1 million profit for the fourth quarter and a $118.1 million profit for the fiscal year, its first profitable year since 2007.

Rite Aid's revamped website will offer a "more personalized and engaging" experience for customers, the company said.

Drug stores, especially chain drug stores, brand themselves differently. But once customers step through the doors, they tend to only see slight variations of the same thing: the same shelves, too tall for mere humans to reach the top without a ladder; the same product categories every other drug store carries; the same pharmacy counter in the back of the store; and the same cash registers in the front. Some stores have carpets, others have tile floors.


With the dispute between Walgreens and Express Scripts over, one of the biggest challenges for Rite Aid will be retaining the customers it won over during the impasse.

The first thing one notices upon entering Rite Aid’s new Wellness concept store in Mechanicsburg, Pa., is how bright, airy and open it looks, compared with a typical retail pharmacy, thanks to a new paint job and lower shelves that left some customers with the mistaken impression that the store had new lighting.

Rite Aid's SVP category management Tony Montini has been promoted to EVP merchandising, the pharmacy retailer said Monday.

Rite Aid on Thursday promoted Ken Martindale to COO, succeeding John Standley who was promoted...