A Better Pharmacy – A Thing of the Past?

hen was the last time you stepped into a local pharmacy? By local I don’t just mean the closest. I’m talking about a home grown, community-oriented, “mom and pop” pharmacy. Today they’re few and far between, with “mega pharmacies” like CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens opening in more locations all the time. But in a similar vein to our January post on Baltimore’s growing market for smaller, more accessible restaurant/dry goods stores, city residents would also embrace a pharmacy that caters to the community instead of a national brand it operates under.

In addition to sprouting new locations on a regular basis, these national brands are buying up the little guys simultaneously. Two of JBL Real Estate’s listings, 801 W 36th Street in Hampden and 8500 Harford Road in Parkville, were previous locations for locally-owned Burke’s Pharmacy, recently acquired by Rite Aid.

Urban retail is lacking the true local pharmacy, where service is unmistakably better and the person behind the counter isn’t a gum-chewing, ipod-listening college student with an attitude. And having your pharmacy nestled nearby among your other local stops is what living in the city is all about.

Big-name pharmacies have their place in modern-day America (try any major thoroughfare). But maybe we’d rather go to a pharmacy…some other place.

  by Jeremy