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Less than a year after Rite Aid finally wrapped up its first bankruptcy proceedings, its now reportedly planning to file for Chapter 11 protection a second time. Based on a new report from Bloomberg, Rite Aid employees received a letter today from CEO Matthew Schroeder stating that the companys negotiations with lenders for more capital have failed. He went on to explain that the pharmacy chain can no longer sustain itself and intends to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Per the letter, the company will start by cutting jobs at its corporate offices in Pennsylvania, a move Schroeder attributed to the dramatic downturn in the economy. An apparent copy of the letter is now making its rounds on Reddit, though Rite Aid has not publicly verified its accuracy. As of this writing, Rite Aid has not officially confirmed a second bankruptcy filing or publicly acknowledged the alleged impending job cuts. Fast Company has reached out to the pharmacy chain for more information on the report and will update this story accordingly. Bitter pills Over the past several years, Rite Aid has struggled with the Sisyphean task of recovering from an initial bankruptcybut now, it seems that its restructuring efforts have fallen short. Rite Aid first filed for Chapter 11 back in 2023, a move that was intended to help the company reduce its debt. As part of the process, the chain received a financing commitment of $3.45 billion from lenders. In the following months, Rite Aid closed hundreds of stores across the U.S. to reduce costs and turn its finances around. As Fast Company reported in April, Rite Aid store closures have continued this year, with local media in New Jersey, California, and Oregon reporting on such closings recently. Emerging from bankruptcy a year ago Last June, Rite Aid asked for court approval of its restructuring plan, which was ultimately granted, allowing the company to emerge from the bankruptcy proceedings in September. At the time, the company reported that it had eliminated $2 billion of total debt and received $2.5 billion in exit financing. Now, though, it looks like that wasnt enough to get the company back on track. According to several previous reports from Bloomberg, the writing has been on the wall for this second Chapter 11 filing for several weeks. Late last month, Bloomberg reported that Rite Aid was low on cash and seeking a debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan, with the end goal of selling itself in pieces as part of this next bankruptcy. Per sources close to the company, Rite Aid will sell certain store locations to bidders, while others will be closed permanently.
Category:
E-Commerce
The effects of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies are already appearing at America’s busiest port, which says shortages could begin showing up on store shelves in as early as five to seven weeks if new deals aren’t made. The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest seaport for container freight in North America, is expecting about a third of its import volume to drop next week, its executive director Gene Seroka says, and CEOs are telling him they’re putting imports on hold because of uncertainty and because Trump’s tariffs are too expensive. “CEOs are telling me, ‘Hit the pause, I’m not going to import any more at these kind of prices. Let’s wait and see,'” Seroka recently said on Bloomberg Surveillance. “Retailers are saying we’ve got about five to seven weeks of normal inventory in the country right now, then we start to see spot shortages if it goes on much beyond this.” Even if the Trump administration reaches deals to lower tariffs, it would take about a month for container freight ships to be repositioned, loaded, and arrive in the U.S., Seroka said, which could impact spring and summer apparel and back-to-school sales. Already, Trump’s tariffs are having an impact on hiring, Seroka said, with CEOs telling him hiring and capital investments are now off the table. And at the Port of L.A., fewer container freights means less work for dock workers and truckers. “Every four containers mean a job, so when we start dialing this back, it’s less job opportunity,” he said. The U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter of 2025, and Trump’s tariffs have added uncertainty for small businesses and publicly traded companies alike. Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday that he thought “the good parts” of the economy can be attributed to him and “the bad parts” can be attributed to former President Joe Biden. “Ultimately, I take responsibility for everything, but I’ve only just been here for a little over three months.” “The tariffs have just started kicking in and we’re doing really well,” he said. “We’re going to be a very rich country.”
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E-Commerce
Warren Buffett’s announcement Saturday that he would be retiring as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway came as a surprise to lots of people, including the person who was elected to succeed him the next day. Greg Abel has been Buffett’s right-hand man for many years and the public heir apparent for the past five, but Buffett, in making his announcement, said he hadn’t told Abel the moment was coming. Buffett, 94, will stay on as chairman at Berkshire Hathaway, but by the end of this year, Abel will be in the driver’s seatand will have a big legacy to follow. Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965. Things began to take off in 1978, when he convinced his friend Charlie Munger to come on board. Together, the two created a company that was the envy of the investing world. The price of Berkshire Class B shares (NYSE: BRK-B), the most widely held shares of the company, has gone up more than 2,000% since they began trading in 1996. The price of Class A shares (NYSE: BRK-A), held by Buffett and institutional shareholders, is up 42,413% since they began trading in 1985. Abel is fairly well known to people who closely follow Berkshire Hathaway, but he’s less familiar to people who only know Buffett. Here’s a look at the man who will try to fill Warren Buffett’s shoes. Who is Greg Abel? Abel, 62, currently serves as vice chair of non-insurance operations at Berkshire. He’s also the chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which Buffett called one of the company’s four “jewels” in his 2021 shareholder letter. (The other three are Berkshire’s property and casualty insurance businesses, Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, and the company’s stake in Apple.) He has been the designated successor to Buffett for at least four years and has joined Buffett onstage at the company’s investor meeting for the past several years, even before Munger’s death in November 2023. Away from the office, Abel is a huge hockey fan and serves as assistant volunteer coach for his son’s team in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. He’s said to have a quick wit and nurtures strong personal relationships. “Hes not loud or bombastic, but hes 500% friendly,” Mark Oman, a retired Wells Fargo executive and friend of Abel’s told Fortune. What is Greg Abel’s background? Abel started his career at the PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting firm in Canada, eventually moving to the San Francisco office. He joined CalEnergy in 1992, which six years later would acquire Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings (which would eventually be renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy). He began running that company in 2009. In 2018, he was asked to join the Berkshire board. Why did Warren Buffett pick Greg Abel to succeed him at Berkshire Hathaway? Abel’s performance with Berkshire Hathaway Energy caught the eye of senior Berkshire executives. Through a series of acquisitions, he transformed that company into a major player in the power industry, with earnings of $5 billion in the first quarter of 2025. In 2023, Buffett told CNBC that Abel does all the work, and I take all the bows. He’s also seen, in many ways, as the spiritual successor to the plain-spoken, non-flashy Buffett, ensuring the culture at Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t change. What is Greg Abel’s investment strategy? Abel, when asked Saturday to compare his approach in dealing with Berkshire’s subsidiaries to Buffett’s, said he saw himself as “more active, but hopefully in a very positive way. Buffett jokingly offered a more succinct answer: “Better.” He added, “You really need someone that behaves well on top and is not playing games for their own benefit. Munger, in 2023, told CNBC that Abel was a tremendous learning machine and one could argue that hes just as good as Warren in learning all kinds of things. Abel’s not expected to pick the companies that go into the Berkshire portfolio. That will be handled by Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who already help Buffett with that.
Category:
E-Commerce
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