Business Insider/Jessica Tyler Rite Aid had a lot to offer, but the store was a bit messy.
- Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid are drugstore chains that sell everything from groceries to greeting cards.
- All three stores have pharmacies that offer services like flu shots.
- They each offer rewards programs that can earn shoppers major discounts.
- When we visited neighboring locations of Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid in Westchester, New York, we found that the atmospheres were drastically different at the three stores.
Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid are everywhere you go. Some towns have just one of the drugstores, others have two, and some - like where we visited in Westchester, New York - have all three stores less than five minutes apart from each other.
Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid carry everything from groceries and cosmetics to household supplies and greeting cards. Each of the stores has a pharmacy, and they all have rewards cards that offer serious savings.
Both Walgreens and CVS operate between 8,000 and 10,000 stores in the United States, and Rite Aid operates around 2,500.
But the stores' atmospheres couldn't be more different. When we visited a Walgreens store in Westchester, New York, it was bright, clean, and well-organized. Upbeat music was playing, and there were plenty of people shopping around. When we visited a CVS store just five minutes away, it was dark and messy. There were dark gray carpeted floors, empty soda cans, old shopping lists, and no shortage of empty shelves. Security TVs loomed over every aisle, and it was eerily quiet.
Rite Aid fell in the middle - it was mostly clean, but there were bins and shopping carts everywhere and a lot of empty shelves. It was also very quiet.
Same-store sales were down 1.2% at Walgreens in the second quarter, while at CVS, which is in the midst of a merger with Aetna, same-store sales were up 1.6% in the most recent quarter. Rite Aid saw same-store sales decrease 0.7% in its most recent quarter.
Here's what it was like to shop at each store: