After September, Howard’s Rexall Drugs won’t handle Penney’s merchandise.
FARMINGTON – Rob and Jim Witt are making some changes at Howard’s Rexall Drugs on Main Street.
The Witt brothers, both pharmacists that own and operate the store, are closing the JC Penney Catalog Store on Sept. 30, Rob Witt said Friday, due to continued reductions in commissions. They’ve operated the catalog store in the back portion of their drugstore for about 10 years.
He said they’ve seen a need for groceries since the only grocery store downtown, Don’s AG, closed in May 2003. So they decided to put in more groceries.
They’ve switched to an independent wholesaler from Vermont, who will help them keep prices down, Rob Witt said.
“We’re sitting back and watching what’s happening in the world like JC Penney reducing commission but still wanting us to do their dirty work, and wholesalers continually raising their prices” Witt said.
So the Witt brothers decided to make changes.
More Penney customers are ordering items on the Internet and having them delivered to their homes, Rob Witt said. The Witts’ employees handled problems with customers’ orders, returns and questions from customers.
“We’re going back to the way it used to be done,” he said. “We’ve found an independent wholesaler, just a basic hard worker, straightforward like us, with no hidden fees, no hidden costs.”
The only thing that will be updated is the addition of scanners in the store so that prices can be scanned into the cash register rather than manually punched in.
They added some dairy products earlier this year. And on Friday, Cherie Harrison of Temple and Eileen Glidden of Farmington were putting new grocery items on the shelves: microwave and instant macaroni and cheese, soups, pet food, condiments, Hamburger Helper.
“The macaroni and cheese is selling like crazy,” Witt said. College kids love it, he added.
The store has been rearranged so that rental movies are in a different location, so groceries can go where the movies were. The Witts also purged the VCR tapes that weren’t being rented and are offering those for sale at a reduced price.
There will be about 35 feet of groceries compared to the 18 feet before, he said. They’ve added more cereal, and bread will be coming in soon.
The brothers haven’t decided what they’re going to do with the back section of the store once Penney’s is gone.
Penney’s regulated everything from the amount of space required to the colors of the carpet, he said.
“When they’re gone, we can do whatever we want,” Witt said.
Closing the catalog store won’t affect the staff. “I don’t think there will be any reduction in staff,” Witt said. Employees who work in that section, he said, will do other jobs. One will be in charge of the scanners.
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