Pharmacy closing doors after 63 years
09-Mar-2006: Alta Hauser didn't know Frisco Pharmacy was closing until Wednesday, when she walked in just as she has done for 18 years to pick up her prescriptions.
Hauser said she wasn't happy to hear the news, adding that she liked being greeted by the same people all those years.
"I don't like those other stores," Hauser said of larger pharmacy retailers. "Every few years they change pharmacists, and I've had the same one all these years. I walk in the store and they say, ‘Good morning, Alta.' They were always so sweet to me, and that meant a lot to me."
Tonight, Bob Davidson will close the doors of Frisco Pharmacy at 2501 S. Jackson Ave. for the last time. The longtime Joplin pharmacist said bureaucratic complications and the move toward larger retail chains have changed the industry into something he no longer wants to be a part of.
His father, R.P. Davidson, opened Frisco Pharmacy in the Frisco Building on April 11, 1944. It was the definition of a family business, with Davidson, his father and two older brothers serving as pharmacists at times. His mother kept the books.
Davidson said the business was built on fast service and knowing the customers, but times have changed, and the old prescription for success won't keep him in business anymore.
The problem, as he sees it, is government and insurance programs that restrict not only how much pharmacies can charge for medications, but also how much they can be reimbursed. Davidson also is critical of the Medicare program, especially Part D, which he said was created with input from the insurance industry and drug manufacturers to benefit them without much thought for small, independent pharmacy owners.
Davidson said that since Medicare's prescription-drug program went into effect in January 2006, he has spent hours on the phone and in his office, helping confused seniors understand their medical coverage and listening to their frustrations when they fell into the so-called "doughnut hole," a gap in the federal coverage that leaves seniors paying for much of their medicines themselves.
"It goes on and on, and I'm just physically and mentally beat," Davidson said.
He said everything has changed since Medicare Part D went into effect. He cut his budgets and his staff until all that remained on the payroll with him were his son and daughter.
Meanwhile, large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, with pharmacies featuring $4 prices for certain prescription medications, also have hurt. Davidson called himself a "victim of big business."
"We could not survive," Davidson said. "We had to trim our budgets and our staff. ... I've been fighting it for a year now, and I'm tired."
At age 69, Davidson said he has been thinking about retiring for some time, but recent changes pushed him over the edge. He said the ones who may pay the price are customers such as Hauser.
Source: Joplin Globe
