Medic to sell, close its drugstores

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Medic to sell, close its drugstores (From Crain's Cleveland Business)

By SHANNON MORTLAND

11:53 am, October 18, 2005


Mayfield Village-based Medic Discount Drugstores has announced plans to close 15 of its 23 stores and to sell the remaining eight to Walgreen Co. of Deerfield, Ill.

The pharmacies at the 15 stores that are slated to close will be shut down this Saturday, Oct. 22, and pharmacy records there will be transferred to nearby Walgreen stores. The retail portion of the stores will remain open during an inventory liquidation sale, according to a news release from Walgreen. Officials at Medic and Walgreen were not immediately available for comment this morning.

The other eight stores will remain open during their transformation into Walgreen stores. That transformation will begin Oct. 28.

Dave Bernauer, chairman and CEO at Walgreen, said in a statement that the national chain of nearly 5,000 drug stores typically doesn’t buy competing stores.

“Our focus continues to be on organic store growth, but Medic offered us an opportunity to fill gaps in the Cleveland market,â€Â￾ he said. “Medic has a reputation for strong service, and we’ll continue providing that to their customers and pharmacy patients.â€Â￾

Thomas R. McWilliams, vice president for operations at Medic, said in a statement that Walgreen previously bought the pharmacy patient records from three other Medic stores that closed during the last three years.

The purchase of eight Medic locations will boost Walgreen’s store count in Greater Cleveland to 65 from 57, an increase of 14%. The eight stores that will be converted into Walgreen stores are in Bay Village, Bedford, Brecksville, Chagrin Falls, Cleveland, Euclid, Mentor and Shaker Heights.

The fall of the Medic drugstore chain will not put Medic completely out of business. Medic will continue to run its home health care division.

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