Rite Aid 2014 Annual Report Download - page 9

GNC stores within Rite Aid stores by December 2019. We incorporate the GNC stores within Rite Aid
store concept into many of our new and relocated stores and into many of our Wellness remodels.
GNC is a leading nationwide retailer of vitamin and mineral supplements, personal care, fitness and
other health-related products.
Technology
All of our stores are integrated into a common information system, which enables our customers
to fill or refill prescriptions in any of our stores throughout the country, reduces chances of adverse
drug interactions, and enables our pharmacists to fill prescriptions more accurately and efficiently. This
system can be expanded to accommodate new stores. Our customers may also order prescription refills
over the Internet through our recently enhanced website, www.riteaid.com, or over the phone through
our telephonic automated refill systems for pick up at a Rite Aid store. We have automated pharmacy
dispensing units in high volume stores, which are linked to our pharmacists’ computers that fill and
label prescription drug orders. The efficiency of these units allows our pharmacists to spend more time
consulting with our customers. Additionally, each of our stores employs point-of-sale technology that
supports sales analysis and recognition of customer trends. This same point-of-sale technology facilitates
the maintenance of perpetual inventory records which, together with our sales analysis, drives our
automated inventory replenishment process.
We continue to embrace technology as a way to enhance the customer experience. We completed
the development and implementation of our improved mobile app, which is now available for download
for both the Android and iPhone platforms. This free app allows our customers to use their
smartphones to manage their wellness + account, access the weekly circular to view sale items, order
photo prints and locate a nearby Rite Aid store. We have continued to strengthen our presence on
social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest through unique promotions and contests.
Sources and Availability of Raw Materials
During fiscal 2014, we purchased brand pharmaceuticals and some generic pharmaceuticals from
McKesson Corporation (‘‘McKesson’’). Beginning in fiscal 2015, we will, with limited exceptions,
purchase all of our branded pharmaceutical products and almost all of our generic (non-brand name)
pharmaceutical products from McKesson. If our relationship with McKesson were disrupted, we could
temporarily have difficulty filling prescriptions for brand-named and generic drugs until we executed a
replacement wholesaler agreement or developed and implemented self-distribution processes.
We purchase our non-pharmaceutical merchandise from numerous manufacturers and wholesalers.
We believe that competitive sources are readily available for substantially all of the non-pharmaceutical
merchandise we carry and that the loss of any one supplier would not have a material effect on our
business.
We sell private brand and co-branded products that generally are supplied by numerous
competitive sources. The Rite Aid and GNC co-branded PharmAssure vitamin and mineral supplement
products and the GNC branded vitamin and mineral supplement products that we sell in our stores are
developed by GNC, and along with our Rite Aid brand vitamin and mineral supplements, are
manufactured by GNC.
Customers and Third Party Payors
During fiscal 2014, our stores filled approximately 295 million prescriptions and served an average
of 2.0 million customers per day. The loss of any one customer would not have a material adverse
impact on our results of operations.
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