drugstore.com with the same pharmacy benefits provided to them by their insurance management companies, as if they were doing business with Rite Aid. These prescriptions may be picked up at the nearest Rite Aid store or delivered directly to the customer’s home. Both companies are planning to undertake co-promotion and co-branding activities.Despite a tough year in 1999 of financial investigations, falling stock prices and lawsuits, Rite Aid has weathered the storm and its position is on an upward course. A newly formed corporate structure combined with smart and capable leaders has guided Rite Aid up from beneath its financial, corporate and legal difficulties. First quarter sales beginning February 27, 2000 and ending May 27, 2000 revealed a 6.2 percent increase for same-store sales, consisting of 9.6 percent pharmacy same-store sales increase and a 1.4 percent increase in front-end same-store sales.CVS CorporationRanked ninety-three in the Fortune 500 and the nation’s No. 1 leader in the pharmacy market with 11.9 percent market share, CVS Corporation fills more prescriptions than any other drugstore chain and has 4,100 locations east of the Mississippi. Sixty percent of their sales come from filling prescriptions, while the rest comes from front-store sections offering additional medications, cosmetics, food, film processing and other general merchandise. CVS was founded under the name Melville in 1892, selling only shoes. It was not until 1964 that the name CVS was first used and not until the early seventies that CVS bought the Clinton Drug and Discount to enter the pharmacy and drugstore industry. By 1981, CVS had acquired more than 400 drugstores and by 1985 their sales had hit $1 billion. CVS was outperforming its Melville counterparts and thus a decision was made to concentrate on the drugstore chain. By this time, Melville’s holdings had grown to include the department chain store Marshalls and the ...
