NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) --

Rite Aid

(RAD) - Get Report

stock will make the biggest recovery in 2011, according to

TheStreet

readers.

According to this week's poll, 28.2% of voters believe the drugstore will experience the largest rally of the most depressed stocks of 2010.

>>10 Retail Stock Losers of 2010: Which Will Recover in 2011?

Rite Aid had, of course, been ailing prior to the recession. After acquiring the Brooks/Eckerd chain in 2007, the company has been suffocating under mounting debt and tepid sales.

Most recently, Rite Aid cut its 2010 outlook, and is now expecting a loss of between 60 cents and 74 cents a share, from previous guidance of a loss of 46 cents to 67 cents. The company also said fourth-quarter same-store sales will miss estimates and it expects to fill fewer prescriptions in 2011 than previously forecast.

In its third quarter, Rite Aid reported a loss of $79.1 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a loss of $83.9 million, or 10 cents, in the same period last year. While the company managed to narrow its loss, revenue still dropped to 2.3% to $6.2 billion and same-store sales slipped 1.3% during the period.

>>10 Top Retail Stocks of 2010

While Rite Aid has blamed a weaker cold-and-flu season for declining same-store sales over the past several months, rival

Walgreen

(WAG)

saw its stock rally on Wednesday, after reporting a 19% jump in first-quarter earnings.

During the quarter, the drugstore chain earned $580 million, or 62 cents per share, compared with $489 million, or 49 cents, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 6% to $17.34 billion from $16.36 billion.

Analysts were calling for a profit of 54 cents per share on revenue of $17.31 billion.

Coming in a close second in our survey was

Office Depot

(ODP) - Get Report

, with 25.2% of the vote. The office supply retailer saw its stock tumble 25% for the year-to-date period, but on Wednesday received a boost on

takeover speculation

.

According to a Securities and Exchange filing, the office supply retailer entered into a new change-in-control agreement with CFO Michael Newman; President of International Charles Brown; and Steven Schmidt, president, North American business solutions; in order to "diminish the potential distraction due to personal uncertainties and risks that inevitably arise when a change of control is threatened or pending."

Supervalu

(SVU)

received 23.9% of the vote, while

Sears

(SHLD)

got 17.1%.

American Apparel

(APP)

was deemed the least likely to return to favor in the New Year, with just 5.3% of readers believing the apparel retailer will see a substantial rally in 2011. That result doesn't come as a surprise, as the t-shirt retailer, which is better known for its eccentric CEO and brazen ads, has warned several times that if it is not able to find alternative sources of liquidity, it may not be able "to continue as a going concern."

--Written by Jeanine Poggi in New York.

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