DEERFIELD, Ill. & CAMP HILL, Pa. -- As they do every holiday season, convenience store and drug store chains are positioning themselves as last-minute gift and holiday supply destinations.
Last week, Dallas-based 7-Eleven touted itself as a "great place to multi-task" for the holiday season (see Related Content below for previous CSP Daily News coverage). This week, drug store chains Walgreens and Rite Aid followed suit.
Walgreens is touting itslef as "Your Neighborhood Holiday Headquarters," and said that its locations will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to help shoppers with everything from last-minute presents and stocking stuffers such as toys and gift cards to candy, gift wrap, batteries, party supplies and remedies for untimely illness.
Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2011 sales of $72 billion. The company operates 7,811 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
And Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid has gone a step further, extending its hours. It said that nearly all Rite Aid stores are open early and late to help last-minute shoppers find gifts and stocking stuffers including toys, electronics and bath and beauty gift sets.
More than 4,500 Rite Aid stores will be open 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily through December 23, with many locations open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Rite Aid has expanded holiday hours in recent years, it said, "to tempt busy shoppers tired of crowded malls and endless big-box store parking lots."
Rite Aid also caters to last-minute shoppers, who are more numerous in 2011, it said, citing a recent National Retail Federation survey indicating that 38 million Americans--17% of the population--had not even started shopping by the second week in December.
Rite Aid has approximately 4,700 stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia and fiscal 2011 annual revenues of $25.2 billion.
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