Rite Aid Corp posted its seventh straight quarterly loss on Thursday, one that fell short of Wall Street's expectations, as it booked significant non-cash charges and as shoppers continued to curtail spending.

The No. 3 U.S. drugstore chain's net loss was $2.29 billion, or $2.67 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, ended February 28. That compared with a loss of $952.2 million, or $1.20 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding non-cash charges, Rite Aid lost 14 cents per share, worse than the average analyst expectation of a loss of 10.5 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Rite Aid said fourth-quarter sales fell 1.7 percent to $6.7 billion, as it had fewer stores during the period. Sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, fell 0.1 percent.

March same-store sales fell 0.7 percent, Rite Aid said separately.

For fiscal 2010, Rite Aid expects sales between $26.3 billion and $26.7 billion, with a same-store sales improving 0.5 percent to 2.5 percent over the past fiscal year.

It expects a net loss of 26 cents to 53 cents per share for fiscal 2010.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)