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Guestbook
| On 03/22/2005 Doug Freshner from Milwauke, WI wrote: |
Any notion of when the independent drug store began dying out and what time span was the greatest loss?
When did pharmacies stop making up their own drugs?
I' did a feature video piece on a neighborhood drug store going out of business,(1983) and am attempting an update particularly on the "hang out" aspect for patrons.
Any inofrmation would be greatly appreciated.
Love the site!Doug Freshner
-- Doug,
Great questions!!!
Independent pharmacies began to go out of business in the 1950’s and early 1960’s and now one would be hard pressed to find an independent pharmacy in their area. Prior to the 1960’s most stores and shops of any type were independently owned and very few chains of any type existed. The middle class was strong and class distinctions were loosing ground.
The grocery-store owners became the first group of merchants to form chains followed by fast food restaurants and retail stores. Pharmacists took awhile to follow suit. Once chain retailers like Snyder’s, Snyder Brothers, Walgreen’s, Eckerd’s, etc., started gaining speed they became the place to work for the typical pharmacy school graduate. Many newly licensed pharmacists worked for these relatively small chains until they could afford to purchase their own store.
In the early 1960’s Target and others experimented by putting pharmacies in a few of their stores. This created another reason for people to come in and helped to generate sales. Eventually the grocery stores got into the fray and the rest is history. The overwhelming majority of currently graduating pharmacists have no desire to own their own pharmacy. Rather they all intend to be employees. Dentists have been the only healthcare practitioners that have not succumbed to this paradigm.
Previously newly licensed pharmacists would go to work for an independent pharmacy and over time would make a deal to purchase the store from the owner. Typically an independent pharmacy’s employee pharmacist would work 60 to 70 hours per week. When they saw the chains paying similar salaries to their pharmacists for 45 to 50 hours they decided ownership was not worth all the headaches and time.
As the suburbs sprung up many of the older established pharmacies lost their clientele and were forced to close their doors since they couldn’t find a buyer. Typically there was only three or four parking spots in front of the older pharmacy. So drivers tended to go somewhere that provided ample customer parking in an attractive new building. Further with television people wanted “new and improved” thus the “old fashioned” drugstore lost its appeal.
Another factor to consider is that only druggists could sell OTC medications. It would be illegal for a grocery store or gas station to sell any kind of drug. Once the era of chains began they pushed the envelope and sold OTC’s even though they didn’t have a pharmacy. The boards of pharmacy had no jurisdiction over grocery stores so there wasn’t much that could be done. Unfortunately, licensed pharmacies were forced to comply with the pharmacy boards and thus had to keep their OTC drugs behind the counter or in a locked display cabinet.
Pharmacists slowly quit making their own drugs beginning in the early 1900’s. But the drastic change occurred in the 1950’s. By that era the pharmaceutical companies had acquired enough money that they could start dictating laws to the government. Many of the most constraining laws governing drugs actually began in the 1960’s. Prior to that pharmacists would buy a bulk bottle of a particular drug and then repackage it with their own label. The public perceived that they could only buy this product from their neighborhood pharmacy.
Pharmacists also were eager to have “finished dosage forms” from the pharmaceutical companies to dispense. They could dispense these and charge the same mark-up with much less work. Thus pharmacists contributed to their own exit from drug compounding.
By the 1980’s pharmacy colleges stopped emphasizing compounding in their curriculum. They would have a 1 or 2 credit compounding class but that was about all the experience a student would get. By the 1990’s the ivory tower decided pharmacists shouldn’t dispense prescriptions anymore but rather should be “drug consultants” under the guise of the “Pharmaceutical Care Model”. Graduating pharmacists were told that they would be paid for their “cognitive services” which has proved to be a fairy tale for most.
I could write much more but this gives you an idea of the state of affairs. Thanks again for your terrific questions!!!
Bill Soderlund |
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