SHELBURNE FALLS — A little less than a month after it closed amid financial difficulties and staffing issues, Baker Pharmacy is slated to reopen on Monday, Feb. 23.
Owner Tobias Billups said he and business partner Harsh Patel have found a new pharmacist to replace Mark Littlewood, who resigned last month. The Bridge Street pharmacy’s hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays to start, and Billups said he hopes to expand hours and add weekend openings in the future.
“My goal is to have Baker’s open for another 80 years.”
Tobias Billups, owner of Baker Pharmacy
The pharmacy has served Shelburne Falls residents and neighboring communities since the mid-1800s. The announcement of its closure last month sparked a large online discussion, with many residents expressing concern and disappointment that the only pharmacy serving western Franklin County would be closing and that patients might have to drive to Greenfield to fill their prescriptions.
Billups said he hopes community members who expressed these concerns for the business will support Baker Pharmacy when it reopens, adding that the more customers the business has, the more successful and stable it will be. He added that when insurance companies, health care clinics or other organizations recommend one pharmacy over the other, usually big chain establishments, it hurts local businesses like Baker Pharmacy.
“When people decide to go to a chain or big box store for their medications, they are helping them shut me and thousands of other rural pharmacies down,” Billups said. “When agencies, both private and nonprofit, choose to either give their business to chains instead of small businesses or bring in a multi-billion-dollar corporation to open in their offices, clinics and hospitals, they, too, hurt my ability to survive.”
Without a pharmacist, state regulations required Baker Pharmacy to close while it sought a new hire. Additionally, the pharmacy has been facing financial challenges with a limited customer base, although Billups said it was ultimately the lack of pharmacists that caused the temporary closure.
He explained that pharmacy benefit managers, which are third-party administrators that act as intermediaries between insurance providers, medication manufacturers and pharmacies to manage prescription drug benefits, do not reimburse for the full cost of expensive medications such as GLP-1s. Billups, who also owns Springfield Pharmacy, said that smaller independent local pharmacies struggle more with covering these costs compared to large chain pharmacies.
To help combat these challenges and grow the pharmacy’s customer base, Billups said he is hoping to expand services, such as offering medication delivery services, vaccinations and medication therapy management, in which a pharmacist reviews a patient’s full medication regimen in an effort to optimize therapy and manage chronic conditions.
Billups said he hopes residents who were dismayed by the pharmacy’s closure will be longtime supporters, and that customers who switched to other pharmacies will return to Baker Pharmacy. Maintaining and growing the customer base will be key to the local pharmacy’s continued survival.
“Every little bit helps, and my goal is to have Baker’s open for another 80 years,” Billups said. “Hopefully, the area didn’t become supportive because they thought they were losing a vital piece of the area. Continue to support us. We are a vital health resource for the community.”