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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018
Grocer Albertsons
eyes Rite Aid deal
in health care push
By TOM MURPHY
Associated Press
The owner of Safeway
and other grocery brands is
buying the drugstore chain
Rite Aid as retailers continue
to plunge deeper into health
care and adjust to swiftly
changing shopping habits.
Albertsons Companies
executives said today that
their purchase of Rite Aid’s
more than 2,500 remaining
stores will help the combined
company become a “leader
in food, health and wellness.”
The combination will
have 4,892 stores and more
than 4,300 pharmacies with
a stronger presence on both
coasts of the U.S. market.
Leaders of both companies
said the deal will help attract
pharmacy customers who
tend to spend more at Albert-
sons grocery stores.
That comes as the grocer
starts to strengthen same-day
deliveries, a meal-kit busi-
ness and other products that
cater to customers who want
fast service.
Retailers have been push-
ing home deliveries and other
customer-friendly services in
the wake of expanded com-
petition from Amazon. The
online giant bought the gro-
cer Whole Foods last year
and plans to roll out a two-
hour delivery service this
year to customers who pay
for its $99-a-year Prime
membership.
Amazon’s competitors
also are bulking up health
care services, which can-
not be purchased online.
Late last year, Rite Aid rival
CVS Health Corp. said it
would buy the health insurer
Aetna for $69 billion. That
deal could turn many of the
chain’s 9,800 stores into one-
stop-shop locations for an
array of health care needs
like blood work and eye or
hearing care in addition to
their traditional role of filling
prescriptions.
In Rite Aid, Albertsons
Companies is buying a chain
that has already remodeled
more than half of its stores
into a format that includes
expanded pharmacy services
and more health products.
Like its drugstore chain com-
petition, Rite Aid also oper-
ates walk-in clinics that can
deal with cases of the flu,
sinus infections and other
relatively minor complaints.
It also has a pharmacy
benefit management busi-
ness that runs prescription
drug coverage.
Albertsons said it will
continue to run Rite Aid
stand-alone stores, and most
of the grocery operator’s
pharmacies will be rebranded
as Rite Aid. Albertsons also
runs Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s,
Vons and Acme stores.
The deal will create a
company with “a large scale
and diversified revenue base
necessary to compete in
today’s highly competitive
food and drug retail environ-
ment,” Moody’s Vice Presi-
dent Mickey Chadha said in
a statement.
Rite Aid has struggled
with high debt levels and
tough competition from
larger rivals, as narrowing
drugstore networks have
pushed customers away from
its stores.
The nation’s largest drug-
store chain, Walgreens, tried
unsuccessfully to buy all of
Rite Aid last year but scuttled
that deal after encountering
regulatory resistance. Last
September, Walgreens Boots
Alliance Inc. announced a
slimmer agreement to buy
nearly 2,000 Rite Aid loca-
tions and some distribu-
tion centers for about $4.38
billion.
For the remaining Rite
Aid stores, Albertsons Com-
panies is offering either a
share of its stock and $1.83
in cash or slightly more than
a share for every 10 shares of
Rite Aid. The grocer did not
disclose a deal value. But it
said the combined company
would bring in about $83 bil-
lion in annual revenue.
That would rank it just
below the Blue Cross-Blue
Shield insurer Anthem Inc.,
which is 29th on the latest
Fortune 500 list of largest
companies
The companies expect
their combined entity to
trade on the New York Stock
Exchange. Shareholders of
Boise, Idaho-based Albert-
sons, which is currently pri-
vate held, will own more
than 70 percent of the com-
bined company.
The companies say the
deal should close in the sec-
ond half of this year, but reg-
ulators and Rite Aid share-
holders still have to approve
it.
Rite Aid Chairman and
CEO John Standley will
lead the combined company
as CEO, while Albertsons
leader Bob Miller will serve
as chairman. The companies
say they will keep headquar-
ters in both Boise and Camp
Hill, Pennsylvania, which is
where Rite Aid is based.
Shares of Rite Aid Corp.,
which have shed more than
half their value over the past
year, climbed more than 4
percent in midday trading
Tuesday. Broader indexes
were mixed.
AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser
State Sen. Bobby Powell talks with survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and other students from
Broward County, Fla., high schools in his office at the Florida Capital in Tallahassee.
Shooting survivors prepare
to leave for Florida Capitol
By TERRY SPENCER,
CURT ANDERSON
and BRENDAN
FARRINGTON
Associated Press
PARKLAND, Fla. — A
group of students who sur-
vived the shooting at Stoneman
Douglas High School planned
to travel 400 miles to Florida’s
capital today to urge lawmak-
ers to act to prevent a repeat of
the massacre that killed 17 stu-
dents and faculty last week.
The students plan to hold
a rally Wednesday in hopes
that it will put pressure on the
state’s Republican-controlled
Legislature to consider a
sweeping package of gun-con-
trol laws, something some
GOP lawmakers said Monday
they would consider.
“I really think they are
going to hear us out,” said
Chris Grady, a 19-year-old
senior who is going on the trip.
He said he hopes the trip will
lead to some “commonsense
laws like rigorous background
checks.”
The Feb. 14 attack seemed
to overcome the resistance
of some in the state’s leader-
ship, which has rebuffed gun
restrictions since Republicans
took control of both the gov-
ernor’s office and the Legisla-
ture in 1999. However, there is
still strong resistance by many
in the party to any gun-control
measures, leaving the fate of
new restrictions unclear.
Students also have vowed
to exert pressure on Congress
as the aftermath of the ram-
page resonates beyond Flor-
ida. Hundreds of chanting
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Mourners hug Monday as they leave the funeral of Alaina
Petty in Coral Springs, Fla.
protesters converged Mon-
day on a downtown Los Ange-
les park, demanding tougher
background checks and other
gun-safety measures after the
shooting. Some signs held up
by the California demonstra-
tors read, “Your Children Are
Counting On You.”
Sen. Bill Galvano, a Repub-
lican and the incoming Florida
Senate president, said the state
Senate was preparing a pack-
age that would include raising
the age to purchase any firearm
to 21, creating a waiting period
for purchasing any type of fire-
arm, banning bump stocks that
can allow semi-automatic guns
to spray bullets quickly and
creating gun-violence restrain-
ing orders.
The Parkland students
planned to meet Wednesday
with top legislative leaders,
including Senate President Joe
Negron and House Speaker
Richard Corcoran.
But their push to restrict
guns might be a difficult task.
Rebrand: New beers will debut at reopening
Continued from Page 1A
“We’re trying to retire one
piece at a time,” Stephen Allen
said.
In 1995, Seaside residents
Joe Gwerder and Harry Henke
started Wet Dog Cafe at the
Astoria Riverwalk and 11th
Street.
Stephen Allen, a local
accountant, joined as a silent
partner and bought Gwerder
and Henke out in 1997, soon
after adding a separate oper-
ation, Pacific Rim Brewery,
in the same location. In 2005,
the brewery portion of the
business was renamed Asto-
ria Brewing Co., in commem-
oration of Astoria Brewery,
the city’s first, started in 1872.
Astoria Brewing Co., includ-
ing Pacific Rim, is the city’s
oldest active brewery. The Wet
Dog Cafe & Brewery name
remained for the main pub.
The Allens have contin-
ually expanded their local
restaurant and real estate hold-
ings over the years, beginning
with the Desdemona Club in
Uppertown in 2005.
In 2012, Astoria Brewing
Co. expanded on the same city
block as Wet Dog with the pur-
chase of the former Andrew
& Steve’s Restaurant and The
Chart Room Bar on the cor-
ner of Marine Drive and 12th
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Shaun Barrick is head brewer at the Astoria Brewing Co.
Street. The family reopened
Chart Room and punched a
hole in the floor of Andrew &
Steve’s, installing a new com-
mercial brewery in the base-
ment, surrounded by the mez-
zanine of their new taproom.
The family briefly owned
the former Hazel’s Tavern
on Marine Drive and in 2014
acquired and renovated the
Pier 11 Mall and Josephson
Fish Station next to Astoria
Brewing Co.
The Wet Dog was the first
location to host poetry read-
ings with the FisherPoets
Gathering 21 years ago. The
last event under the Wet Dog
Cafe name will be FisherPo-
ets readings Friday and Satur-
day night. The pub will then
close for renovations before
a “brand” opening in early
March.
The reopening will include
the release of three new beers.
One event will introduce the
public to Shaun Barrick, head
brewer for the past year.
Part of a Coast Guard fam-
ily, Barrick spent four years in
Astoria before his father was
stationed in Alaska, where he
attended college and eventu-
ally started working at Alaska
Brewing Co. He has been
brewing for five years, includ-
ing with Alaskan and Ninkasi
Brewing Co. in Eugene. After
learning of an opening through
a friend, he joined Astoria
Brewing Co., where he and
two assistant brewers have
been turning out the regulars
and expanding the brewery’s
palate with nearly 30 new
beers in the last year.
“We’re on track to do 36
new beers this year,” Barrick
said, adding he focuses on eas-
ier-drinking varieties.
Despite some changes,
Kera Huber said, Astoria
Brewing Co. is holding on to
the same identity of a family
and pet-friendly brewpub held
by Wet Dog, while focusing on
growing the brewery side of
the business.
The family’s sprawling
businesses require a collection
of talent to run, Karen Allen
said. She has handled oper-
ations, while Stephen Allen
has done the accounting. All
seven of the couple’s children
have worked at the business
at some point. Kera and Mike
are experienced at operations,
while Andy built the brewery
and handles much of the com-
pany’s maintenance and build-
outs, she said.
“The tables will turn, where
we will then be supporting
them,” she said. “That’s over
the next five years.”
Florida has a reputation for
expanding — and not restrict-
ing — gun rights. Negron
sponsored a 2011 bill that
Republican Gov. Rick Scott
signed into law that banned cit-
ies and counties from regulat-
ing gun and ammunition sales.
Authorities said sus-
pect Nikolas Cruz, 19, had a
string of run-ins with school
authorities that ended with
his expulsion. Police also
were repeatedly called to his
house throughout his child-
hood. Cruz’s lawyers said
there were many warning signs
that he was mentally unstable
and potentially violent. Yet he
legally purchased a semi-auto-
matic rifle.
“We need to make sure
everything is working and to
learn from the experience,”
Galvano said.
The Senate is also consider-
ing boosting spending on men-
tal health programs for schools
and giving law-enforcement
greater power to involuntarily
hold someone considered a
danger to themselves. The
body will also look at a pro-
posal to deputize a teacher or
someone else at school so they
are authorized to have a gun.
Galvano said senators
want to examine ways to pro-
tect schools that do not have
resource officers — often
armed law enforcement offi-
cers — on site.
State House leaders and
Gov. Rick Scott also are con-
sidering possible changes
to firearms rules but have
not given any details. Scott
planned meetings Tuesday
on school safety, and said he
would announce proposals on
mental health issues later in the
week.
Still, some Republicans
questioned whether additional
gun restrictions are the answer.
“I really don’t want to
see this politicized into a gun
debate,” Republican Sen. Den-
nis Baxley.
Referring to gun-control
advocates, he said: “Sometimes
I wish they were right, that this
would fix it, but it won’t ... We
have a terrible problem with
obesity, but we’re not banning
forks and spoons.”
Democrats believe raising
the age limit and creating a
waiting period to buy rifles is
not enough.
“That’s
unacceptable.
That’s a joke,” said Democratic
Sen. Gary Farmer of Broward
County. “I don’t see that as
a restriction. It never should
have been that an 18-year-old
could buy an assault weapon.
No Floridians should be able to
buy an assault weapon.”
Seafood: Public
hearing in Astoria
on draft is March 19
Continued from Page 1A
are located, processors may
struggle to find room for sec-
ondary treatment.
“I don’t think there’s any-
body in the industry who
thinks that the implementa-
tion of this permit is not going
to cost something,” said Lori
Steel with the West Coast
Seafood Processors Associa-
tion, which represents 16 of
the 24 plants in Oregon that
are subject to a renewal of the
permit.
The association maintains
that some of the state’s pro-
posals to ensure water qual-
ity are not feasible for sea-
food processing facilities,
which often handle very dif-
ferent species depending on
the season.
“What’s going through the
wastewater changes,” Steel
said. “It’s not consistent year-
round. … (DEQ) is draw-
ing analogies to other indus-
tries and trying to implement
the same requirements that
a lot of municipal industries
have.”
To her, it is like trying to fit
square pegs into round holes.
Lacy Ogan, with Pacific
Seafood, said the company is
working with industry part-
ners to help the state develop
“an appropriate permit.”
Steel said the industry
isn’t “looking for the status
quo, or no regulation, or to go
back. We’re just looking to
work with the state to create
something that will address
the needs of the water and the
needs of the processors.”
Pacific Seafood retained
its permit coverage even after
a fire burned down the com-
pany’s Warrenton facility
in 2013. The processor will
have to update its application
materials in response to the
new permit, Gleim said.
The Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality is accept-
ing public comments on a
draft of the proposed per-
mit through March 29 and is
holding three public hearings
along the coast, including
one in Astoria on March 19.
That hearing is scheduled for
5:30 p.m. at Clatsop Commu-
nity College’s Columbia Hall,
Room 219.