On Friday morning a customer inside A&B Prescription Shop was stocking up on medications — “as many as insurance will allow,” she said.
The customer was filling prescriptions ahead of the …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, or you are a print subscriber who had access to our previous website, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you have not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
If you are a current print subscriber and did not have a user account on our previous website, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
![A&B Prescription Shop's Toni Rose, Paula Shaw, Tina Brown and head pharmacist David Ham pose at the counter a week before the store's scheduled closing. The Webber Family of Pharmacies has purchased A&B's assets and records. [Dave Faries]](https://epsilon.creativecirclecdn.com/mexicoledger/original/20210723-134924-A%26B%202%20%281%29.JPG)
On Friday morning a customer inside A&B Prescription Shop was stocking up on medications — “as many as insurance will allow,” she said.
The customer was filling prescriptions ahead of the longstanding pharmacy’s closure. A&B will shut down on April 30. On May 3, the records transferred from the shop will be available at the Webber Family of Pharmacies’ three stores.
“Customers won’t lose access to anything,” said Larry Webber.
After the death of A&B owner Jerry Brauer in November, the family could no longer keep up with the business. They offered Webber the opportunity to purchase A&B’s assets.
“They thought of us, which was kind of them,” Webber observed.
Brauer and Webber had a long history. They were neighbors as children and it was Brauer who convinced Webber to attend pharmacy school.
Webber refers to Brauer, who opened A&B in the space now occupied by the Mexico Music Store in the mid-1960s, as a mentor as well as a friend.
The shop’s inventory will be moved to Webber’s Jackson Street Drug location.
The announcement came as a shock to many longtime A&B customers. “There have been a lot of tears shed the last few days,” said pharmacist David Ham.
Brauer and business partner Douglas Alewell moved the shop to the Landmark Building from Mexico’s square in the early 1970s, after Brauer purchased and renovated what was the old McMillan School.
“I’ve devoted my life to this store,” said Ham, who joined the staff 39 years ago, coming straight out of college. “I’ve never applied for a job.”
Ham says the shop simply couldn’t compete as more people turned to national chains or delivered medications, and as insurance changes upset the cost structure. Brauer’s death was the final blow.
A&B has four full-time employees, with another helping part time.
Shirley Brauer thanked the community for supporting the shop through all the years. She added that she understands the anguish of longtime customers, but the family was simply not capable of running a pharmacy after Jerry’s passing.
Webber owns three locations in Mexico – Webber Pharmacy adjacent to Moser’s, Jackson Street Drug and Parkway Pharmacy on Kelley Parkway.
