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Tops Markets to close 27 store pharmacies, including six in CNY

By Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com
on January 08, 2015 at 8:57 PM, updated January 09, 2015 at 9:00 AM

Tops Friendly Markets said Thursday it will close the pharmacies in six of its Central New York supermarkets later this month to make room for more grocery products.

Slated for closing the week of Jan. 19 are the pharmacies at Tops stores in North Syracuse, Fayetteville, Skaneateles, Cortland, Canastota and Pulaski. They are among 27 store pharmacies that Tops will be closing.

The Williamsville-based supermarket chain said the space used by the pharmacies will be used to offer a greater selection of grocery products.

“Tops does not have a one-size fits all approach to our stores, which means our neighborhood locations vary greatly by size and offering,” Frank Curci, Tops’ chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. “Space inside some of our supermarkets is at a premium and some of our locations are not filling enough prescriptions to make the most efficient use of our resources. A business decision was made to close out select pharmacy departments.”

The pharmacy departments in 52 Tops stores will remain open. They include those in the Tops stores on Downer Street in Baldwinsville, 1st North Street in Syracuse, West Genesee Street in Auburn and East State Street in Sherrill.

Tops operates 162 full-service supermarkets — 156 company-owned and five franchise locations — in Upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania and western Vermont. It employs 16,000 people.

The pharmacy departments that are closing account for less than 20 percent of the company’s prescription volume, Tops said.

The chain said it will sell customer scripts and its pharmacy inventory to five CVS and 22 Rite Aid locations near the affected Tops stores.

Kate McKenna, communications and public relations manager for Tops, said the same phone number and electronic communications for each of the pharmacies slated for closing will be transferred to the closest CVS or Rite Aid locations so that customer and physician communications will be “as seamless as possible.”

All registered Tops pharmacists at the affected stores are being considered for employment with Tops’ remaining 52 pharmacy departments, or with CVS or Rite Aid, she said.

Tags:  CVS, Rite Aid, Tops, Tops Markets

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