It Bag. Doubled. Rite Aid Joins Food Fight with Save-A-Lot Riding Shotgun

The list of major drug retailers feeding from the It Bag has just grown by one.

Rite Aid has joined Walgreens, CVS and a host of other non-grocery players in the food fray but they're doing it with a twist.  Rather than going it alone and adding food to existing Rite Aid store formats, Rite Aid is partnering with Save-A-Lot to create new ones. 10 Greenville, SC area Rite Aid locations will morph into co-branded Save-A-Lot/Rite Aid Pharmacy stores.  Yep, that's what they'll be called.  Not exactly catchy but leveraging existing (dual) brand equity and pairing up with a retail entity parented by a wholesale/retail powerhouse (Supervalu) is one heckuva way to play catch-up.  So much for speculation that Supervalu would be going on a retail diet in order to feed wholesale.  Manga!