Rite Aid's Second-Quarter Loss Narrows Rite Aid, which is remodeling hundreds of stores and closing others, is stepping up its marketing efforts in the second half of the year to lure shoppers with its Wellness loyalty card and by trying to give more flu shots. The push comes as Walgreen, its bigger rival, is just bringing out its loyalty card and other major chains are trying to win over shoppers with similar strategies. Rite Aid said its loss had narrowed to $38.8 million, or 5 cents a share, in the second fiscal quarter ended on Sept. 1, from $92.3 million, or 11 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected a loss of 7 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. While lower-priced generic drugs hurt sales, they are typically more profitable for drugstores than their name-brand counterparts. Revenue declined to $6.23 billion from $6.27 billion as the company closed stores. Sales at stores open at least a year were flat over all, with a 1.4 percent increase for general merchandise and a 0.7 percent drop at pharmacy counters. Still, Rite Aid filled about 4 percent more prescriptions in its existing stores as it drew some of the patients who could not fill their Express Scripts prescriptions at Walgreens stores during those companies" dispute, now resolved. Rite Aid said it expected a fiscal-year loss of 9 cents to 23 cents a share. In June, it had forecast a loss of 13 cents to 29 cents, and analysts were expecting a loss of 15 cents. The company lowered its 2013 sales forecast, to $25.1 billion to $25.4 billion from a June outlook of $25.3 billion to $25.7 billion. It expected same-store sales to be down 1 percent to up 0.25 percent, compared with a forecast in June of down 0.5 to up 1 percent.