The last year has been a bad one for independent drug stores in the area, as behemoth Walgreens continues expansion, and a new competitor in the St. Louis area - CVS has been going strong on expansion with plans for several more stores; unfortunately the site of the AAA Building on Lindell, and possibly the former Del Taco building on S. Grand could soon become new CVS Pharmacies.
In the last year or so, more independent drug stores have went by the wayside... The small chain of Standard Drug stores in St. Charles County is now gone after operating since 1931. Also gone is Rinderer's a longtime area staple, which sold out to Shop n' Save, and now the Evers Pharmacies in the Metro East are shutting down.
Only about 20 years ago, several independent chains were still going strong, such as the aforementioned, and also the Coleman's chain with stores at General Grant Village in Sappington, on New Halls Ferry in Florissant, and their last store in St. Charles at Cave Springs. The deep-discount drug store trend was hot then...
In the later 80s, St. Louis saw Phar-Mor, Drug Emporium, and Dot Drugs (Walmart's brief entry to the standalone drug store business) come into the area, and all vanish nearly as quickly as they came. Phar-Mor could have been a real competitor had they not been embezzled out of business in a $300 Million scam, but instead ended up shutting down despite respectable business. Out of all the discount drug chains, only Drug Emporium had any staying power, and enjoyed almost a 20 year run in St. Louis before the chain went out of business.
Walgreens has been a player in St. Louis for the last century, but grew greatly with the acquisition of the Skaggs Drug Stores in the area in 1982. Skaggs only operated the stores about 2 years - they were acquired from the Katz chain in the 1980s. Skaggs would stay in business out of the market for a few more years before the chain liquidated.
Another big player in the drug store field was Gasens - originally an independent Rexall pharmacy, the chain was purchased by Kroger in the 1970s, and very often a Gasen's was right next door to a Kroger. In 1986, Kroger rolled all their drug store brands into Drug World, which closed when Kroger exited the St. Louis market in 1987.
The final big player in the St. Louis Drug store game was Medicare Glaser, who also sold out to Walgreens, in 1991. Walgreens, however quickly closed all but two Medicare Glazer stores, which they converted to Walgreens. The transaction was primarily to purchase their inventory and pharmacy records.
So now, its looking like pretty soon the last drug stores standing will be only Walgreens & CVS Stores.
I really miss the discount drug stores. LOVED Drug Emporium and Phar-Mor. Went into serious withdrawal when they closed down.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have Dot Drug in Des Moines. I went to the Eastgate location till it closed; loved that store. They actually came to Des Moines before Walmart did. They also had one in Lincoln NE but I didn't understand why there were none in Omaha or Council Bluffs. I really miss Dot.
ReplyDeleteLoved Coleman's discount store in Florissant Mo
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