“Top 5” Forgotten Drug Stores

For the last few decades, the Pharmacy Store's landscape has undergone many changes as today's customers turn to CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Walmart. It wasn’t long ago before they invested money in now-defunct pharmacies such as Eckerd, Revco, and Thrift Drug. 

With the impacts of COVID-19, pharmacies have seen heavy foot traffic for supplement needs and vaccinations. If you are excited to ride down memory lane, we have a Top 5 list of the most recognizable Pharmacy Stores that are no longer here to develop your photos in 1 hour. 

5. Thrift Drug

Thrift Drug was founded in 1935 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by Phillip Hoffman and Reuben Helfant. It wasn’t until 1968 that the chain was purchased by JCPenney and started to expand rapidly. 

In most of its stores, it offered catalog merchandise pickups for JCPenney as well as accepting JCPenney Credit Cards for purchases.  

The downfall of Thrift Drugs started once JCPenney attempted to purchase the Eckerd store chain in 1996. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) got involved and objected the purchase stating that ownership of Eckerds would give JCPenney a dominant position in the drug store business in North and South Carolina. 

As a result, JCPenney had to divest a total of 164 stores in the Carolinas which became what was known as “Kerr Drug,” before being purchased by Walgreens in 2013. 

After the successful purchase of Eckerds, JCPenney merged Thrift Drug with the larger Eckerd Chain.

4. Brooks Pharmacy

Brooks Pharmacy dates to the 1930s as being founded by the Salmanson Family in 1932 as Adams Drug Company.  Several stores were acquired over the years with some having the Brooks drug banner. 

In 1984, the Adams Drug Company which consisted of 400 stores throughout the Northeast was acquired by the defunct Florida-based chain Pantry Pride. All stores were renamed Brooks by 1986.

Over the years it went through several different ownerships being sold to Hook-Suprax in 1988. By this time, it began to expand in New York City suburbs and Southwestern Connecticut. In 1994 it was acquired by Revco but quickly sold its New England stores to Quebec-based Jean Coutu Group which already operated Maxi Drug and Douglas Drug. 

The Brooks Stores that were kept by Revco assumed the Revco banner, while the ones kept by the Jean Coutu Group, retained the name and rebranded its 2 pharmacies to the Brooks name. In 1995 Brooks acquired Rite Aid’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island store network in exchange for its Maine locations. Brooks would also acquire City Drug and Osco Drugs in 1999 and 2001. 

Brooks Parent Company (Jean Coutu Group) purchased the 1539 Eckerd Pharmacies from JCPenney in 2004 and merged the operations together by moving Eckerd’s HQ in FL to Brook’s Rhode Island HQ. 

By 2006, many difficulties arose operating the two chains and it was in August of that year that Rite aid would be purchasing Both Brooks and Eckerd stores for $3.4 billion. 

The transaction was completed in 2008 ending the Brooks and Eckerd name.  

3. Phar Mor

Phar Mor was a discount drug store based out of Youngstown, Ohio. It was founded by Michael Monus and David Shapira in 1982. They had a business model of selling a large quantity of merchandise with a small profit margin. Also, many products were shipped via direct store delivery.

In 1992, the company had over 300 stores and Micahel Monus and his CFO were accused of embezzlement for hidden losses of the company and moving $10 million from the Phar-Mor to The World Basketball League he had founded. 

Due to the millions Phar-Mor borrowed, it filed for bankruptcy protection that same year and closed 55 stores, and laid off 5,000 employees. Several investors had already filed lawsuits against the company as well as its auditors due to fraud. Micahel was also convicted of 9 years in Prison due to 107 federal counts relating to fraud.  

The chain entered the late 90s with a total of 143 stores and competed with Walmart and Target, which began opening new stores with pharmacies. In 2001 the chain filed for bankruptcy which resulted in the company being dissolved. 

In 2002, a judge in Youngstown approved the sale of Phar-Mor assets valued at (141 million) as a going-out business sale began at its last 3 remaining stores. 

To learn more about the case involving Michael Minus check out the PBS show Frontline, with the episode entitled "How to Steal $500 Million".

2. Revco 

Revco, originally known as Registered Vitamin Company was founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1956. It quickly grew in the course of 30 years to a total of 2,200 locations. 

In 1983, the chain’s vitamins were blamed for the deaths of premature infants in which the founder and CEO Sidney Dworkin purchased a closeout retailer company called Odd Lot Trading Co. to prevent a hostile takeover. 

Its earnings started to tumble, due to management losing focus on the drug store portion due to problems with the recent purchase of the Odd Lot stores. In 1988, Revco was the Target of a leveraged buyout from both competing Drug Stores Eckerd and Rite Aid after filing for Bankruptcy. However, investor Sam Zell stepped in to save the company from being taken over. 

The company emerged from Bankruptcy in 1992 after selling off 221 Midwest Revco stores to Reliable Drug (based out of Cleveland Ohio) and Perry Drugs. The chain had also shrunk to 1,500 store locations after closing many underperforming stores. The chain would eventually grow again in 1996 after purchasing over 800 Hook’s/SuperRX drugstores in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest Region. To help Sam Zell recover his investment, the company’s management was under pressure to sell.

In 1996 it agreed to be purchased by Rite Aid, but the FTC announced it would sue to prevent the buyout stating, “Rite Aid would become a monopoly in many markets because Rite Aid and Revco had many overlapping stores.” 

Rite Aid withdrew the bid and in 1997 CVS entered an agreement to purchase the chain. The FTC once again stepped in using the “Clayton Act” stating it would substantially reduce competition in two markets: the state of Virginia and the Binghamton, New York metropolitan statistical area.

In response, CVS agreed to divest the Virginia area stores to Eckerds and the New York stores to Medicine Shoppe. Revco was then acquired by CVS in 1997 for $2.8 billion. 

1. Eckerd

Eckerd Pharmacy was known to be the oldest of the 4 drug stores founded in 1898 by then 27-year-old J. Milton Eckerd and Z. Tatom in Erie, Pennsylvania. Jack Eckerd who was the son of the founder was responsible for much of the store’s early expansion. 

In 1961, the chain had over 2,800 stores and became a publicly owned company. It also owned the Department store J. Byrons between 1968-1985. 

In 1996, JCPenney and Eckerd agreed to merge, and the merger took place in 1997. Under the agreement, all JCPenney's Thrift Drug unit of drug stores (comprising Thrift Drug, Kerr Drugs, Fay's Drugs, and some Rite Aid stores) were rebranded to the Eckerd name.

During this period Eckerd became the second largest drug store chain in the U.S., with over 2,800 stores stretching from New York and Connecticut to Florida and west to Arizona. JCPenney later came to see Eckerd as a distraction as it was focused on its department stores and wrote the chain on its books as a discounted asset. 

In 2004 JCPenney sold the Eckerd Stores to CVS and Jean Coutu Group (which owned Brooks Pharmacy) for 4.5 billion. CVS bought an estimated 1200 Eckerd stores for $2.15 billion and converted them to CVS pharmacies eliminating the name from markets such as Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi, which had once been among the chain's strongholds.

Jean Coutu Group acquired about 1,540 stores for $2.375 billion and moved its Brooks headquarters from Florida to Rhode Island. The Eckerd and Brooks chains shared many of the same corporate functions.

In August 2006, it was announced by The Wall Street Journal that Rite Aid would acquire 1,858 Eckerd Pharmacy and Brooks Pharmacy stores from Jean Coutu for US$3.4 billion. The deal closed on June 4, 2007, retiring the 109-year-old Eckerd Banner. 

The Eckerd name is still in use today as a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Florida. The name was changed from Florida Presbyterian College to Eckerd College in 1971 after Jack Eckerd donated 10 million to the college. 

Well, that’s all we have on our list of the Top 5 forgotten pharmacy stores. Let me know in the comments below if you have ever shopped at any of these stores or recall any great memories of them.