It’s time to lift a glass (or orca-emblazoned journey mug) to Bartell Medication, the mighty Seattle drugstore chain that has grow to be one other casualty on the intersection of company gamesmanship and consolidation. It was bought by Ceremony Assist in 2020 — the twice-bankrupt chain — and has now offered to CVS, which just announced a rebranding of the remaining 20 or so shops with the Bartell title.
Even newcomers catch on rapidly to the lore of Bartell Medication, based in 1890 in Seattle by George Bartell Sr. and nurtured into what was reportedly the nation’s oldest family-owned drugstore chain. These newcomers quickly study to name it “Bartell’s” for brief. Nobody calls it “Bartell Medication”; that’s akin to referring to the Market as “Pike’s Place.”
Behind the recognizable red-and-white signal is a narrative deeply intertwined with the historical past of Seattle and the Northwest, which makes the rebrand really feel extra important than only a “native chain swallowed up” story.
Born in Kansas in 1878 however not minimize out for farming, Bartell Sr. left residence as a teen. A pharmacist by 18, he went west, landed on the Lake Washington Pharmacy in Seattle and two weeks later, purchased the store for $3,000 (largely borrowed, in line with HistoryLink). He went north to the Klondike Gold Rush, returned and opened a brand new pharmacy. The historical past hits simply saved coming: Bartell opened one of many first soda fountains in Seattle in 1902 and was early to rent feminine pharmacists. He opened a sweet manufacturing unit, a photograph lab and a retailer formed like a triangle. Elvis Presley was a buyer in the course of the 1962 World’s Honest. One of many first Bartell-owned shops was on the streetcar route; the “triangle retailer” was on the terminus of the monorail. One among his shops was leveled to make room for the Smith Tower, which opened in 1914, and one other made method for the Westlake growth. There’s little daylight between the place Bartell shops stood and Seattle’s historical past was written.
The chain fell on exhausting instances within the Sixties and was pressured to shut shops, however rebounded within the Seventies. By 2020, Bartell Medication counted 67 shops in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. However a 135-year legacy was no match for the pandemic. The slide was as a consequence of a few of these issues, or all of this stuff, relying on who’s doing the opining: Downtowns that didn’t rebound. A buyer base that went from working from residence to working from one other state. The rise of pharmacy profit administration that controls an enormous chunk of the market. A dearth of pharmacists. The hollowing out of downtown cores, such that even essentially the most mundane gadgets are saved in drugstores’ locked circumstances, forcing consumers to search for one of many only a few workers nonetheless there to unlock the razors. The scarcity of main care docs and the corresponding increase in telehealth companies and prescriptions.
The brand new proprietor can discuss “retaining the native taste” all it needs, nevertheless it gained’t style the identical. Who has not “stopped off at Bartell’s for a minute” and emerged after a half-hour? Who didn’t stuff stockings with the annual Christmas decoration and well-known native treats like Almond Roca and MarketSpice Tea? What about all that Seahawks-branded merch that symbolized residency within the huge metropolis? Possibly, Bartell’s shopper, you acquired a ghostly faucet on the shoulder from George Bartell Sr., who ditched the farm, went to city and located gold alongside the best way.
The Bartell departure, like a milestone birthday, signifies a sort of mortality. It was one of many landmarks that made this area our area slightly than some generic strip mall. Yet one more firm is not making choices for the great of the communities the place clients dwell. CVS is the world’s second-largest well being care firm. It has the ability to shut lots of of shops at a time and influences well being care prices (it owns Aetna). A shrinking variety of corporations have quite a lot of say over our on a regular basis lives; 50,000 native residents simply misplaced entry to UW Drugs as a result of it couldn’t attain an settlement with Aetna. If consumers need Xanax and a chocolate bar that celebrates the Sounders and a cheese board formed like Washington multi function acquainted, right-sized retailer, it’s as much as CVS, headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I.
We’re dropping decisions and jobs and a few of our tax base due to Ceremony Assist’s dangerous decisions. It took on extra debt than it may deal with attempting to compete with Walgreens and CVS, gambled all of it and misplaced. George Bartell Sr.’s firm bought trampled within the course of. It seems like way over the lack of yet one more acquainted title.
