HYANNIS — Richard "Rick" Gregg celebrated his pharmacy's 30th year in business last Thursday. On Monday, he closed up shop for good.
The Medicine Store, located on West Main Street, closed on Monday. Starting today, customers calling the shop are redirected to the nearby West Main Street Rite Aid, which bought the independent pharmacy.
Gregg, a pharmacist for 40 years, has retired. One of his pharmacists and two technicians will likely be working at the Rite Aid, he said. Three part-time pharmacists will focus on their full-time jobs elsewhere, he said.
Customers can get their prescriptions at the nearby Rite Aid store, Gregg said.
The pharmacist started alerting customers last week about the impending closure.
"It's my time," Gregg said about retiring.
Gregg bought the Medicine Shoppe on Seaboard Lane in 1983 as a franchise. He moved to the current spot on West Main Street in 1992. When his contract as a franchise business ran out 10 years ago, he renamed it the Medicine Store.
The shop's pharmacists would compound drugs for patients on an individual basis. It stopped compounding injectables and sterile eye drops last fall after the state enforced new guidelines for the industry. The increased oversight came after New England Compounding Center in Framingham made medicines linked to the 2012 fatal outbreak of fungal meningitis.
The Medicine Store continued to compound non-sterile products like hormone creams and pediatric products, Gregg said. Many pharmacies in the state take orders online for these compounds.
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