Announcement comes on 20th anniversary of local ownership for Curt Clarambeau
ABRUPT ANNOUNCEMENT — New Richland Drug owner Curt Clarambeau announced Friday he’s closing the store. The last day to fill prescriptions there is Tuesday, Nov. 19. (Star Eagle photo by Jim Lutgens)
By JIM LUTGENS
Publisher
If you have a prescription to fill at New Richland Drug, you better hurry.
If you want to cash in on some closeout merchandise, time is running out.
In an abrupt bombshell of an announcement, owner Curt Clarambeau said Friday the local drug store would no longer fill prescriptions as of Tuesday, Nov. 19, and the store would close in two or three weeks when inventory is liquidated. All current prescriptions will be transferred to Walgreen Drug in Albert Lea, though customers will have the option of choosing their own pharmacy.
According to Clarambeau, who has owned the store since 1999, those choices are dwindling.
“Fifty percent of pharmacies are expected to close in the next two years,” he said.
Still, it makes the closing of the New Richland drug store no less devastating. The town has had a drug store for many decades, and now people will have to make other arrangements for prescription refills.
“It is awful,” said Clarambeau. “It kind of has been the last couple years.”
Clarambeau was hoping to give people more notice, but he didn’t find out for sure until Thursday, when Walgreen’s completed the paperwork.
“I was hoping to know a lot sooner,” said Clarambeau, who also will close Curt’s Pharmacy in Albert Lea. “Walgreen’s approached me about this. I didn’t think this was going to happen, but Thursday at 4:45 they signed it.”
The local store has been losing money for several years, according to Clarambeau, who said New Richland was probably the only town in the state with a population of 1,200 to still have a pharmacy.
Ironically, the announcement comes one week before New Richland Drug’s 20th Anniversary Customer Appreciation Sale.
Clarambeau will still service long-term care patients such as those at New Richland Care Center. He plans to do that and work part-time for Walgreen’s.
But he will miss seeing the many faces he’s come to know.
“I really appreciate the people in New Richland over the years,” said Clarambeau. “I’ve really enjoyed working in New Richland. I’m going to miss the people in New Richland.”
It goes without saying the people in New Richland will miss the pharmacy.