GLOVERSVILLE - Del Negro Pharmacy, the city's last independent drugstore, will close its doors Monday.
"It's the end of an era," said pharmacist Tom Wojciechowski, who has been associated with the 47 S. Main St. business for 36 years and has owned it for the past 20.
Del Negro Pharmacy had been filling prescriptions for Gloversville residents for more than 70 years, he said.
Wojciechowski said Del Negro has been bought out by Rite Aid Corp., which operates a drugstore on North Main Street that had previously been Eckerd Drug.
Wojciechowski said he and the national drugstore chain worked out a "mutually beneficial agreement" in which his customers' prescrition information will be transferred to Rite Aid. He did not disclose the financial particulars of the arrangement.
He said Rite Aid agreed to continue offering services that Del Negro customers appreciate, including home delivery and charge accounts. He said the Gloversville Rite Aid will be the only chain drugstore in this part of the state that offers home delivery.
Wojciechowski and most of the staff from Del Negro will be employed at the North Main Street Rite Aid store. He said he will work there for at least a year to ensure a "seamless transition" for his customers.
"My customers have been terrific over the years," he said. "Very loyal."
The time was right to accept an offer for the business, Wojciechowski said, because at age 60 he's starting to think about retirement.
"It's getting to be a very difficult business for an independent," he said. "The fact that [Gloversville's] last independent is closing is sad."
The Glove Cities area has seen numerous changes in drugstores in recent years:
After Rite Aid Corp. bought out the Eckerd and Brooks chains, the former Eckerd Drug store at the Johnstown mall was closed. A Rite Aid store remains on the corner of Routes 30A and 29 (Briggs Street) in Johnstown.
A CVS drugstore at 40-42 E. Main St. in
Johnstown closed in January. Its customers' prescription information was transferred to a CVS store that remains at the former Ames Plaza on Route 30A just outside Gloversville.
Walgreens, the country's largest retail pharmacy chain, recently opened a store on Route 30 in Amsterdam. Another is under construction on Route 30A outside Gloversville.
Longtime Del Negro customer Lenora Evans of Pearl Street said Friday she was disappointed to learn the store will close, and on such short notice.
"They've been so dependable for so many years," she said. "Small [business] people seem to care more."
Evans said she won't feel as comfortable patronizing Rite Aid.
"It's not a hometown store," she said. "It's sad that another big box is going to swallow another little box."
When Del Negro closes at the end of business Monday, only two independently owned drugstores will remain in Fulton County: the Broadalbin Pharmacy and Palmer Pharmacy at 2 E. Main St. in Johnstown.
Carole Deyoe, a pharmacist at Palmer, said it's unfortunate the area will lose one of its few remaining independent drugstores.
But business is good at Palmer, she said, and that pharmacy's owners, Tom Friello and Tina Mylott, have no plans to relinquish its spot on the corner of Main and Perry streets.
"We're rockin'," Deyoe said. "In fact, we just hired another pharmacist."
Wojciechowski said he isn't sure what will be done with the Del Negro building, which he owns with his wife.
He said most of Del Negro's medical supplies business, in which it sold and rented wheelchairs and other equipment, will not continue at Rite Aid.
He said he has been negotiating with another party to take over that part of the business.
Wojciechowski if he weren't approaching retirement age, he would have liked to continue running the independent pharmacy.
"I've loved it," he said. "It was hard to sit down and actually sign the papers."
