Rite Aid Corporation · Camp Hill, PA United States ·(NYSE: RAD)

Rite Aid may have found the right aid for its ills: growth. The nation's #3 drugstore chain (behind CVS and Walgreen), the company runs more than 4,810 drugstores in 30-plus states and the District of Columbia. Rite Aid stores fill prescriptions (two-thirds of sales) and sell health and beauty aids, convenience foods, greeting cards, and other items, including some 3,300 private-label products. More than half of all Rite Aid stores are freestanding and about 50% have drive-thru pharmacies. No longer a distant third behind Walgreen and CVS, Rite Aid acquired more than 1,850 Brooks and Eckerd drugstores from Canada's Jean Coutu Group for about $4 billion in 2007, which left Rite Aid with plenty of debt. To read the full description, subscribe now.