Projo Biz Blog

Rite Aid Corp., the third-biggest U.S. drugstore chain, this morning posted its fourth straight quarterly loss after integrating the 1,800 Brooks and Eckerd locations bought last year.

Rite Aid reported a net loss of $156.6 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with profit of $27.6 million, or 4 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose to $6.61 billion from $4.43 billion, the Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based company said.

Consumers have cut back on non-essential purchases as they contend with record gasoline prices and the worst housing market since the Great Depression. Rite Aid has said it will spend about $110 million this year to integrate the stores it bought in 2007 from Canada's Jean Coutu Group Inc. as it tries to win customers from larger Walgreen Co. and CVS Caremark Corp.

Excluding some costs, eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated an average loss of 10 cents a share.

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