Nebraska City’s Pamida store and pharmacy are scheduled to close at the end of the day on Monday, Jan. 25.
Russel Lee, district manager for Pamida pharmacies, said pharmacy customers are being transferred to the new Walgreens, 502 S. 11th St., beginning Jan. 26.
He said the pharmacy has remained busy despite the additional competition of Wal-Mart, but the trend on overall store sales and the new Walgreens were considered in the decision to close.
“As I understand it, they looked at the effect of local competition on our store,” Lee said.
He said Walgreens will provide the same services that had been available at Pamida, including mail-order delivery.
Pamida stores in Plattsmouth, Auburn, Falls City, Beatrice, Crete and other southeast Nebraska locations are not affected. The Nebraska City pharmacy has seven employees.
Pamida Holding Corporation listed $712 million in sales and 7,200 employees by 1995, when the discount general merchandise store operated 40 pharmacies in its 181 stores in 15 states.
Arlin Stutheit, retired pharmacist from Family Prescriptions, said the Pamida store had a pharmacy in it when he moved to town in 1977, but it was leased space rather than store-owned.
Charles Eickhoff, pharmacists at Jessups Drug from 1966 to 2000, said he remembers when the store was located downtown across from the county courthouse.
D.J. Witherspoon, who founded the store with Lee Wegener, started Gibsons Discount Stores in 1938. The name Pamida, which had its first full year in 1964, is derived from the names of his three sons, Pat, Mike and David.
