November 11, 2004

No easy Rx

By: CRISSA SHOEMAKER

After 35 years, Shields Pharmacy owner Alan Buck is counting out his last pill.

No longer able to compete against falling insurance reimbursements and increasing competition from mail-order pharmacies and chain stores, Buck will close his Bensalem drug store Wednesday.

Patients will be sent across Brownsville Road to Rite Aid in adjacent Lower Southampton. Rite Aid is buying the patient records and drug inventory.

"It's just one thing after another," the Trevose pharmacist said. "And naturally, because we're a small pharmacy, you can't carry tuna fish and radios, TVs and lawn mowers - whatever they sell at the big chains."

At a time when Medicare rules are changing and pharmacists are becoming more important in patient care, independent and chain pharmacies are struggling with the same problems that are forcing Buck to close.

Chain pharmacies are better able to survive because they can spread out the losses among many stores and can carry other items, like groceries, cosmetics and gifts. Still, the pharmacies have only a 1 percent or 2 percent profit margin, said Kelley Gannon, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

"Independents and retail chains have a lot of very similar issues and are aligned on a lot of the same issues," Gannon said. "What affects an independent is the exact same thing that affects a chain."

Independent pharmacies say they survive by offering more personalized services. They also benefit when there's less competition. For example, Cornwells Pharmacy in Bensalem, which is owned by Buck's brother Arthur, keeps going because it has a good location on Bristol Pike, Alan Buck said.

"Their personal service is what sets [independents] apart," said Deleisa Johnson, a spokeswoman for the National Community Pharmacists Association. "They're offering niche services such as diabetes education, flu shots, compounding specialized medicines. All these specialized services are what is setting them apart and making them financially successful."

The number of independent pharmacies grew by 400 last year to 24,000 nationwide, Johnson said. But each has its own experience with insurance battles and losing customers to mail order companies, she said.

Buck, 66, said he always knew he'd retire someday, just not so soon. In recent years, however, he's been forced to work longer days because he can't find or afford another pharmacist who is willing to work 10-hour days. Only in the past eight months did he decide that it wasn't worth it anymore.

Still, Buck is leaving with a heavy heart.

After all, he met his wife, Millie, at the pharmacy. She worked the register when he started working there 35 years ago as a pharmacist. When they bought the store in 1980, she became the bookkeeper. And he'll miss the customers.

"You get to talk with people about their kids and their families," Buck said. "You know what they're planting in their gardens in spring time. You know their problems. One lady brings us cookies once a week."

Customer Frank Shaffer threatened to picket the store Wednesday and block the exit when Buck tries to leave.

Shaffer said he knows when he goes to a chain store, there won't be someone like Buck who would fight his insurance company for weeks on end to get them to pay for pain medication - or who would be as understanding as Buck was when Shaffer was out of work.

"My whole family depends on this man," Shaffer said. "The Shaffer family will miss these people immensely. Ain't nobody who will take their place."

© Bucks County Courier Times 2004

 

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