Drug Stores

Rite Aid Corp. said Friday that it is sticking with plans to sell as many as 350 stores on the West Coast, denying it plans to sell all its stores in the region. The Wall Street Journal on Friday said that the company plans to sell most or all of its 1,000 stores on the West Coast, citing a person familiar with the situation. There is "absolutely no truth that the company is looking to sell all of the West Coast stores," said Rite Aid spokeswoman Karen Rugen.

As part of an aggressive nationwide expansion plan, Walgreen Co. plans to open as many as 200 full-size pharmacy and retail stores in Southern California within the next 10 years, looking to take advantage, analysts say, of growing consumer demand for convenience and the changing competitive landscape in the region's drugstore industry. Southern California is already dominated by the likes of Sav-on and Rite Aid, which respectively operate 330 and 280 area stores.

Harking back to the days of the Main Street apothecary shop, some retail pharmacists are turning to compounding specialty prescriptions for patients as they compete in a market dominated by managed care companies and chain-owned drug supermarkets. Corner drugstores across the country have closed at an astounding rate this decade.

Harking back to the days of the Main Street apothecary shop, some retail pharmacists are turning to compounding specialty prescriptions for patients as they compete in a market dominated by managed care companies and chain-owned drug supermarkets. Corner drugstores across the country have shut at an astounding rate this decade.

Rite Aid Corp. stock rose 17% Wednesday amid speculation that the nation's third-largest pharmacy chain is about to sell off some of its poor-performing stores or, in a less likely scenario, merge with a bigger company. Shares of Rite Aid rose $3.44 to close at $22.88 on the New York Stock Exchange. After the market closed, the Camp Hill, Pa.-based company said it is "in discussions involving possible corporate transactions that, if consummated, would be material."

Rite Aid Corp. will pay $1.4 million to settle charges that it sold expired products in stores throughout California. The drugstore chain agreed to pay a $700,000 civil penalty; $400,000 in restitution; and $300,000 to reimburse the city of San Diego and Merced, Alameda and Santa Barbara counties, among others. Local prosecutors in California had won a temporary restraining order against the Camp Hill, Pa.-based chain last month, after suing Rite Aid and its Thrifty Payless Inc.

A woman who said she was carrying a gun robbed a Huntington Beach drugstore of painkillers and cash Sunday afternoon, police said. The woman, heavyset and wearing a pink tank top, entered Walgreens Drug Store at 17502 Beach Blvd. shortly before 3 p.m. and walked up to the counter. "She handed the pharmacist a note, which said she had a handgun in her purse. The note also demanded drugs and money," Sgt. Richard Butcher said. The pharmacist complied and the woman fled on foot, he said.

Online drug and health goods retailer Drugstore.com Inc. said Monday that it completed a marketing and e-commerce distribution agreement with Yahoo Inc. The online drug retailer, which launched Thursday, sells pharmaceuticals, personal health-care products, vitamins and cosmetics.

Re "Film Director Elia Kazan to Receive Oscar, Forgiveness," Jan. 15: As a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a once-blacklisted screenwriter who had to work for years, if at all, with the use of pseudonyms, I am appalled though not surprised by the decision of the academy to award honors to Elia Kazan.

Q: If you cross a certain Orange County retailing entrepreneur with a Costa Mesa drug company on an expansion binge in Eastern Europe, what do you get? A: Drugstores in Russia. ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. hired John Ortega this year to explore the possible expansion of its network of 47 drugstores and kiosks in Russia and Eastern Europe. Ortega, a co-founder of Clothestime Inc., the Anaheim retailer of off-price women's apparel that fell on hard times in 1995, lives in Newport Beach.