RUMFORD – John Bartash Jr. remembers going to his father’s pharmacy after elementary school classes let out to help.

In those days, nearly 50 years ago, paregoric, an anti-diarrhea medicine, came in gallon jugs. John’s mission was to pour it into 1-ounce vials. He’s sure there was a huge amount of waste.

He also remembers his first day as a pharmacist. His father had died only a few hours before, just as he graduated from the University of Rhode Island.

And now he will face the hurt of locking the doors on the drugstore that had been located on Congress Street for more than a century.

“It’s like having a death in the family,” he said.

The Rumford Drug Store was sold to Rite Aid, a chain with a store just up the street, and closed on Wednesday.

The move was purely a business decision.

For the past few years, although he has filled more prescriptions than ever, the profits have gone down.

A year or two ago, his other businesses, Canal Street Video and Bartash Card and Gift, began supporting the pharmacy.

His drugstore, which he has owned since 1971 and his father owned since 1934, is the last of nearly a half-dozen independently owned drugstores that once served the needs of the Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield area. The last, he believes, closed in the early 1990s.

To last as long as he did, Bartash diversified.

At one time, the drugstore carried record albums and stereo equipment. Office supplies were added, and his three businesses tried to meet the demands and needs of the public.

“As something became popular and as tastes and needs changed, we’ve flowed with that,” he said.

And like so many other neighborhood drugstores, Bartash’s once had a lunch counter and soda fountain.

In the 1960s, there were 12 stools and two booths, and pies and cake baked by Annie Radcliff served along with sandwiches and coffee.

Personal touch

Bartash believes an independent pharmacist can provide more of a personal touch than huge chains.

He remembers the amazement of people from outside the area when he was willing to open his pharmacy to fill a prescription on Christmas afternoon. A local dentist had seen the person just before that and had prescribed antibiotics.

“They kept saying they can’t believe a dentist saw him and a pharmacist filled his prescription,” Bartash said.

He has also unlocked the doors at 2 a.m. when an out-of-town hospital called to get a listing of prescriptions for woman who had just entered the hospital. Or to fill prescriptions for others who had forgotten their medicine when they were visiting friends or relatives.

Hates to leave

Bartash said he feels terrible about leaving his loyal customers.

“I feel bad for the people who have stuck with me and wanted to support an independent pharmacy,” he said. “I feel like I’m abandoning them.”

Since the sign was posted in the window announcing the closing of the pharmacy, many have come to him, some with tears in their eyes, telling him that no one would take care of them as he has.

He and his wife, Barbara, receive Christmas cards every year, thanking him for the extra effort.

He won’t be going far. He will be for Rite Aid just up the street.

That, he said, will feel very different.

The only other job he has ever had was working part-time as a pharmacist at Rumford Hospital before the hospital got its own, in-house pharmacist.

Bartash blames the state for the loss of profits in his line of work. He said paperwork has greatly increased, and reimbursement has been redirected.

“They aren’t looking at the end product. The state is saying you’ll get your drugs where the state says you will. This could be a problem in the future because of a lack of pharmacy service,” he said.

Rumford Drug Store offered some of the lowest drug prices in the state, according to a survey conducted last year.

Bartash Card and Gift and Canal Street Video will continue to do business, under the management of Barbara Bartash.

The 25-by-75-foot drugstore will eventually become something else owned by the Bartash family. The drugstore’s doors will be closed for a couple of weeks, then reopen, said Barbara Bartash.

Two or three part-time employees will lose their jobs, along with pharmacy technician Bob Child, who is also going to work at Rite Aid.

Having the gift and video shops, though, is important.

“The Bartash name will still be in town,” he said.