'The writing on the wall'Insurance industry blamed for Hotel Pharmacy's end

BY CHRIS M AYS Vermont News & Media

BRATTLEBORO - Mary Giamartino tried to hold on to Hotel Pharmacy as long as she could.

"The low reimbursements from the insurance companies forced me to do this, as you can't run a business when your gross margin on a majority of your prescriptions is -16 percent," Giamartino, owner of the downtown pharmacy, said of the decision to close the business and sell it to Walgreens. "And this has been going on for years."

Giamartino also described how insurance companies take out different types of fees in a way that can be unexpected and in large amounts.

Hotel Pharmacy customers were alerted that the business will close at 6 p.m. Tuesday and all remaining files will be transferred to the Walgreens on Canal Street.

"Please know, that despite the chaos and quirkiness of the pharmaceutical world, we have greatly enjoyed our time with all of you," states a sign at Hotel Pharmacy. "So many of you are like family to us and we will miss you greatly. If at any point we have been able to help you with your health care needs, it has been our privilege."

The Reformer made multiple attempts to get information about the acquisition from Walgreens.

Giamartino's hope had been to slowly transition from working full time to part time to retired. She said she was planning to sell the business to a young couple, "but they saw the writing on the wall" and ended up working for chain pharmacies.

"I did everything I could personally, fiscally to make sure that the people there were taken care of the best that I could," she said of employees she considers coworkers. "But then we just kept losing money, losing money and losing more money."

Giamartino said she received some grants and a loan to help. She thought the loan could be forgiven but was not, she said.

At some point after her husband Frank Giamartino died from injuries he sustained in a motor vehicle crash in 2006, Giamartino was advised to file bankruptcy after learning an employee and acquaintance embezzled money from the business. She said she refused to do so because she felt the people who she bought goods from deserved to be paid, and she continues to hold that philosophy now. She also wants to ensure there would be no cut in pay or benefits for employees.

"I was living the dream that they might break the antitrust with the insurance companies and the chains but that still hasn't happened," she said of the National Community Pharmacy Association. "They're working on it."

About five years ago, Giamartino counted 51 independent pharmacies in Vermont. Last she heard, that number is down to 13, and hers is the last in Brattleboro.

Giamartino said she "really wanted to keep it local and keep it going."

"And I tried every means possible," she said, encouraging the Reformer to call her attorney Joe Pieciak, who could not be immediately reached. "He'll tell you. This was my only option because we had bills that I wanted to pay."

Giamartino said she talked to Rite Aid about an acquisition but the company was taking too long and its offer was much lower than Walgreens.

"It's caused a lot of stress because the contract that I signed, I was bound to certain things," she said. "It's very difficult when you can't tell people who have been with you for 30 years anything."

Giamartino expressed gratitude for Hotel Pharmacy employees, calling the majority of them "just excellent." They would learn new things and teach others, she said.

"If I don't know something, I'll ask them," she said. "They go the extra mile. They're never sick. They're never late. I have been blessed to have worked with people like that. If I went away, I never ever worried about the store because they can handle everything."

Giamartino estimated having 270 to 280 employees working with her over the years.

At the time of the interview Wednesday, Giamartino was celebrating 40 years, six months and four days since she and Frank bought the business. She has run it for the last 16.5 years.

"I'm trying to make it a positive thing but it's very, very difficult," she said.

Efforts to advertise that the business was for sale in a national newsletter and elsewhere failed to find a buyer, Giamartino explained.

"My heart is broken over the way the insurance industry has destroyed independent pharmacies, including mine," she said.

She also expressed regret over not being able to be as philanthropic as she could before, showing a sheet of paper filled with organizations she donated to over the years.

The building will be for sale. Joe Pieciak and Peter Falion have owned it for the last year, Giamartino said.

Giamartino said she hopes the patients "get the care they need."

Picking up a prescription Wednesday, Susan Reed of Brattleboro said she is feeling sad about the pharmacy's closing. She recounted coming to the pharmacy as a child as her family would pick up their prescriptions there.

"My family and I are very sad to hear of this," Brattleboro Select Board member Tim Wessel said in a statement to the Reformer. "I feel that a downtown pharmacy is vital to the health of our community."

In a letter to the editor, Gino Palmeri of Putney said the announcement feels like "a gut punch."

"Frank, Mary, and their staff were a part of our community," Palmeri wrote. "Over the years we experienced their successes, such as recycling a small downtown church and moving their growing business inside."

Hotel Pharmacy managed to keep prices low enough to compete with corporate chain stores that opened in Brattleboro, Palmeri wrote.

"Our capitalist system has rendered the independent pharmacy nearly extinct," he added. "No entrepreneurs are rushing in to fill the gap. I've learned that insurance companies collude with the chains, and 'big pharma' to squeeze out most of the small competitors. Now all we have for choices in this town are corporate chains, Walgreens and Rite Aid (or you can drive to Keene for CVS or Walmart)."

In March, Brattleboro Pharmacy on Canal Street closed its doors and sold its business to Rite Aid after serving the area since 2010.