ABOVE: Sterling Drug in Fairmont is faced with changes as the gift store will close later this year and an expended pharmacy will take over the space.

FAIRMONT– A press release that came out on Thursday announced big changes to Sterling Drug in Fairmont. An enhanced focus on the store’s pharmacy will come with the closure of its gift shop at the end of this year.

Sterling Drug was founded in 1952 in Austin, Minn. and Fairmont’s store opened in 1970. Today the family-owned company has 12 retail stores, four long term care pharmacies and a specialty pharmacy store in the metro area. Along with Fairmont’s gift store, Austin’s will also be closing as the company shifts to prioritize the pharmacy side of the business.

Sam Ewing, President of Sterling Pharmacy, said the changes at the store in Fairmont are really two fold.

The first is just general struggles that many retailers are facing, especially since the emergence of online shopping.

“Retail has changed unrecognizably over the last 10 years,” Ewing said. “Non-prescriptions now account for less than five percent of our sales as a company.”

However, he said, “what’s really driving the decision is our need to focus on pharmacy because pharmacy is so difficult right now and if we don’t focus 100 percent of our efforts on pharmacy, we would be closing the doors like so many pharmacies around the country.”

According to information in the press release, Walgreens recently announced it will close 1,200 stores, CVS is closing 900 stores and Rite Aid is closing 500 stores.

Ewing shared that 20 years ago in Minnesota, there were over 550 independently owned drug stores and right now there’s less than 150.

“It’s an industry that’s bordering on the impossible right now and we need to focus on that (pharmacy) right now,” Ewing said.

He said that Fairmont’s employees were informed of the changes on Sunday and that letters to pharmacy patients went out on Monday and the press release went out on Thursday.

“The gift store will close at the end of the year but the pharmacy will remain open. We have multiple years left on our lease so our retail pharmacy business is not going anywhere. We have great pharmacy staff in Fairmont and it’s one of our bigger pharmacies,” Ewing said.

He said that after the gift store portion closes at the end of this year, a ‘robotic pharmacy’ will be built in the space. While it won’t be open to the public and will be a separately licensed pharmacy, it will be managed by Jacob Reuter, the pharmacy manger in Fairmont.

The construction for that will take likely about six months and Ewing said that patients won’t notice a difference but will come into the Fairmont store and have the same experience that they always do.

While the Austin store is actually bigger, Ewing said the reason the distribution center is going in Fairmont is because Reuter and his staff are extremely good and that the space,12,000 sq. ft., is the perfect size for what’s needed.

“We’re extremely grateful to the community and to our staff. This is not an easy decision by any stretch of the imagination but we have almost 500 employees and we have to make decisions that are good for our entire workforce. It’s a difficult decision but it’s a business decision,” Ewing said. “Something needs to change because rural communities are losing pharmacies.”

Reuter said, “the loss of our gift department is very disappointing, however necessary due to the sales decline. As we were faced with another empty storefront, we are excited for the opportunity to expand our pharmacy and our staffing in creating a cutting-edge central pharmacy.”

Initially the space in Fairmont will serve as a distribution center for Sterling’s other pharmacy stores, but further down the road the plan is to come up with a mechanism to fill prescriptions for other independent pharmacies.