In business for 133 years, an historic pharmacy in downtown Benton has left the building. In a merge purchase, pharmaceutical titan Walgreens recently purchased Smith-Caldwell Drugstore.
“Walgreens is pleased to serve customers from Smith-Caldwell and we welcome several of their employees to our company,” said Marty Maloney Senior Manager, Media Relations at Walgreens.
The website, social media and all of Smith Caldwell’s signs have been taken down.
You may still see movement at the now former Smith-Caldwell building, at 414 N. Main Street, over the next month or so. The remains and relics of the business are not fully moved out yet. All of the prescriptions and most of the staff went with the merger. They will be at the Walgreens location at Military and Carpenter in Benton.
More story below. 👇🏻
Smith-Caldwell was leasing the building, so it will be empty for a minute. No word on what will happen next. Smith-Caldwell has been known for their boutique, makeup counter, and soda fountain and diner.
-
- Soda Fountain & Diner
-
- Boutique, makeup, bridal registry
-
- Locally made items.
Owners at Smith-Caldwell could not comment, but another pharmacy in the downtown Benton area stated that they are “shocked but not surprised.” Blake Torres and Zack Haley are pharmacists and partners at West Side Pharmacy at 620 W South Street. Torres detailed some reasons that are making it difficult for pharmacists to stay in business for themselves.
More story below. 👇🏻
“Name another industry where your direct competitor sets your reimbursements? I’ll wait.” said Torres, speaking about the giants of the industry, such as Walgreens, CVS and Express Scripts. Torres had good things to say about Smith-Caldwell, “generations of patients can trace their prescription history back to this pillar of Saline County.
Walgreens is so slow & there are often long lines at the drive thru. I’m not blaming their pharmacists because it’s the nature of the beast (a big box chain) but it’s so impersonal. And they don’t deliver!
Already transferred my meds to Finley!
For those that are not happy about not getting notice, consider that Smith Caldwell likely didn’t have that option. Very often, it’s part of the contract that the little guy (Smith Caldwell in this case) isn’t allowed to say anything. “All these years and no notice?” Think about it from the other side. “All these years of taking care of you and you think it was our idea not to tell you?” Just something to consider.
I understand contractual obligations & agreements. It’s just shocking especially to those who have prescriptions there. And yes, they served & “took care” of people but these same people also took care of them by patronizing their business rather than going to a big chain. Again, I get mergers & mums the word but I also think loyal customers for decades deserve some grace in for feeling like it was abrupt & “now what?” if they don’t want to go to Walgreens.
Just something to also consider.
I’ve been to Walgreens before, and they don’t deliver in a speedy way. I have also been with Smith Caldwell for years. Now I will have to transfer my drugs to a new store Not Walgreen’s, Reason they are a chain store, and we don’t need any more chain stores. To set and wait on. I can’t drive anymore so Smith Caldwell always delivered to my home with great service that you can’t get with a chain store.
I agree! liked Smith-Caldell. used them for over 30 years or more. it’s a mess now or my scripts were. never got all of them in 2 trips and over 1 1/2 wait. I’ll use Westside or Finley’s for mine!
So this is a surprise to the entire community? I wonder how much they sold out for? Not telling loyal customers who have stuck w/a family-owned pharmacy rather than a big chain seems like a betrayal. I loathe Walgreens- they take so long, are closed at lunch, & are just impersonal by nature of a big box chain.
I just wanna know if there is gonna be a big blowout sale????/
Yeah and thanks for the heads up to your customers!!!! Definitely won’t be using Walgreens! Wouldn’t have before this and definitely won’t now!
Holy cow, not even a heads up for customers? This is how I find out?!!
Oh wait it gets better. We called in meds yesterday and was told nothing.. Talked to an actual person. They took our list and never said a word.. Even had one called in by a doc yesterday, received the text that the one was filled. Went this morning to pick them all up. Went to Walgreens had to register with them and then had to give them the list again to be filled. The one that was supposedly ready yesterday was not brought over and because it was a new script they could not get it. We had to notify the doc to have a new script sent. We are definitely transferring to another pharmacy after this month’s filled. If we didn’t get them filled at Walgreens there was a good chance that all the meds would have had to be redone by the docs.
That a chain for you!!
I will become a pharmacist before i go to Big Pharma,,,, I E walgreens