Rite Aid Corp.

Walgreens has ended its fiscal year with a mixed set of numbers.

Rite Aid Corp. is accepting mobile payments online.

Rite Aid Corp. appointed a Walgreens veteran to its executive team.   Rite Aid on Thursday named Kermit Crawford as president and COO, effective Oct. 5. Crawford enjoyed a long, 30-year career with Walgreens, most recently as executive VP and president of pharmacy health and wellness. Most recently, he served as a retail and healthcare adviser and consultant for Sycamore Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm.   

Walgreens is relying on data analytics to ensure all of its IT systems are working as efficiently as possible.   Through a partnership with IBM, the drugstore chain is taking steps to drive more IT support across its enterprise. The first step is to integrate hardware and software from different vendors under one roof. This centralization will make it easier to stay abreast of performance.  

Walgreens Boots Alliance secured regulatory approval for a deal to buy stores from Rite Aid Corp. after a reduction in the number of stores and price. The deal will still enable Walgreens to dramatically increase its store footprint, giving it a total of about 10,000 U.S. locations.   

Walgreens Boots Alliance is reportedly tweaking its previously announced deal with Rite Aid Corp.  

Ken Martindale has stepped down as chief executive of Rite Aid Stores to take the reins of the struggling GNC Holdings.   The specialty retailer of vitamins and supplements on Wednesday announced that Ken Martindale would succeed GNC interim CEO Bob Moran, effective Sept. 11. As part of the transition, Moran will become chairman, replacing Michael F. Hines, who will remain on the board.   

The news that Walgreens is to scrap its $9.4 billion merger with Rite Aid is unsurprising. The glacial pace of the Federal Trade Commission investigation and increasing signals that the federal government would disallow the merger have forced a rethink.