The Excelsior’s Central Drug Store is joining a growing list of independent city drug stores to bid adieu. The nearly 60-year-old family-run business will shut down on July 15. The owner, pharmacist Jerry Tonelli, announced on Monday that he will retire.
“We’ve had a good run,” said Tonelli, who started working in his family’s pharmacy in 1978. Walking into the pharmacy, alongside baseball memorabilia, a photo of the teenaged Tonelli sits behind the counter in the shop with the caption, “The delivery boy.”
Central Drug Store, with its jaunty neon sign, has been a mainstay on the corner of Mission Street and Santa Rosa Avenue since 1965. In that time, it has “outlasted Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and mail-order services,” Tonelli said. “Going out, I have no regrets. I think we did all we could for the neighborhoods and community.”
Tonelli has been pondering retirement since last year. As no family member is interested in taking over, Tonelli decided to close the business, and might sell the building, too.
Running a pharmacy comes with its fair share of frustrations, Tonelli said, such as dealing with the State Board of Pharmacy, insurance headaches and coping with pharmacy benefits managers, entities responsible for reimbursing pharmacies which is notorious for under-reimbursement. “For one person, it’s a lot of work,” Tonelli said. “It’s tough for a small pharmacy to keep going.”
This is the latest in the wave of pharmacy closures across the city, both independent and corporate. Last month, Reliable Rexall Sunset Pharmacy, another independent pharmacy in the Inner Sunset, closed its doors after being evicted by its landlord. Earlier this year, a dozen Walgreens pharmacies shuttered across San Francisco, part of a nationwide culling by the drugstore giant.
Tonelli’s shop felt anything but corporate. Until the Roundtable Pizza across the street recently closed, customers who couldn’t make Central Drug’s closing time might go pick up their medicine there after hours. Sometimes Central Drug employees would even drop by customers’ homes, free of charge, to deliver prescriptions.
For customers of his pharmacy, Tonelli suggests transferring their prescriptions to Daniel’s Pharmacy, another independent drug store on Geneva Avenue near Mission Street, a 10-minute bus ride away.
In almost 50 years of serving the Excelsior, Tonelli has seen “customers, their kids and their kids’ kids” grow up. After July, when the drug store closes its doors for the last time, Tonelli said it’ll be time to “start a new phase in our lives and spend more time with our families.”
And, after the stress of running an independent pharmacy, “It’s time to take it easy, probably.”
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Wow, we live in excelsior district for many years right off of Silver Avenue. My brother still lives in that area. My mom and dad were loyal customers of Jerry pharmacist I remember going there myself picking up some prescriptions for them. All good things come to your name all good things don’t ask forever. Good luck.
I am so sad to be losing my favorite pharmacy ever! Jerry and his crew are the best. Enjoy your well – deserved retirement!
Thank you Mr. Tonelli for your long-standing commitment & service to our local Excelsior community. You and your family are a real treasure. Would love to see if there are prospective buyers with a succession plan to continue the much needed pharmacy service. Supervisor Fielder’s efforts on exploring Pharmacy Buyer Coops would be a much needed solution for keeping these vital services in our neighborhoods.
Thank you for everything – only been a customer for a few months but still grateful. Helped my dad through a tough time without even expecting reimbursement.
It is sad news to us who have been Central Drug Store clients to
learn of its closure, however, I wish them well in the next chapter of their lives, ( Doctor Jerry , Toni and Gus).
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