Though it’s been owned by several families and partners, Valley Prescription & Compounding Pharmacy in Merced has always been independent, and incredibly, this local business can trace its roots in town back more than 100 years.
To highlight this accomplishment, the pharmacy is having a 100th Anniversary Celebration on May 14, from noon to 3 p.m., outside its location at 330 E. 13th St. There will be raffle prizes, pizza and hot dogs, and several community outreach booths that partner with the pharmacy. Several top local dignitaries are expected to be at the event to present certificates of recognition in honor of the milestone.
The story of this business actually started back in 1924 when the Valley Drug Company was established by George P. Keller and William. E. McDermott of Martinez, who also operated drug stores in Martinez and Pittsburg, in the Bay Area. There was also a Merced partner named J. Harold Houlihan.
They located the business on the ground floor of the Hotel Merced at 560 W. Main Street, where the District Attorney’s Office (the former County Bank building) now stands.
Valley Drug Company originated as a “compound pharmacy” — one which prepares customized medications by mixing ingredients to meet specific patient needs. That’s the way things worked in those days. A decade would pass before manufactured or commercial drug development began to grow as an industry.
Pharmacist Ernest Green of Merced joined the drug company in 1930, and became a partner several years later. In the late 1950s, Stanley Thomas, also a pharmacist, joined the company. Green and Thomas made a good team, providing excellent medication compounding and home delivery services.
Not just a pharmacy, The Valley Drug Company carried everything else and was best known for the cameras and camera equipment they offered — very convenient for Yosemite-bound travelers staying in the hotel.
To Merced old-timers, the Valley Drug Company was more than a store, but a center of small-town life.
According to the late Mike Bik, author of Bik’s Picks: Midcentury Revisited, “They had a fountain and lunch counter where Erma Porter made her famous sandwiches, pies and old fashion sodas. The fountain was always a favorite of the customers and employees from the businesses in the downtown area. Some of the employees that waited on customers for Valley Drug Company in the late 50s and early 60s included Betsy Hannah, Cecelia Wood, Lotie Shone, Virginia Nordell, Jeannie (Zimmerman) Salvadori and Norma Coleman.”
After 40 years, Green retired in 1970. The drug store was renamed Valley Prescription Pharmacy In 1976, and relocated next to the County Hospital at 330 E. 13th Street. A few years later, in 1979, Thomas passed away at the age of 63. From there, the business continued with family members and partners until 1985 when Pharmacist Ron Krien became the owner.
Today’s Valley Pharmacy
Jeffrey Hill, a Tracy native, has been working in pharmacies since he was a sophomore in high school in the mid-1970s. He started out making deliveries on his bicycle, as well as working as a stock boy.
He was inspired, and so naturally, out of high school, he attended the University of Pacific’s School of Pharmacy in Stockton. He graduated from there in 1982, and was hired right away at Longs Drugs, and work for the prominent pharmacy chain at various locations for 16 years.
After that amount of time, Hill grew tired of working for “chains,” and wanted a change of pace. It was around the new millennium, and there was a shortage of pharmacists all over the Central Valley. Hill and a partner decided to start a “relief service” business that would supply pharmacists to locations in need of help. At one point they had a dozen or so pharmacists working throughout the valley.
The venture lasted until 2006 when Hill found another opportunity — a somewhat rare one: the ability to own his own, independent pharmacy.
Hill was living in Clovis, but he found out that Pharmacist Ron Krien in Merced was thinking about retiring. Hill approached Krien and managed to get hired on with the idea that he could learn the ins and outs of the longtime, local pharmacy, as well as get to know the customer base. Hill commuted to work every day, and the trip became so routine that he just got used to it. A few years later, in 2009, Krien ended up passing the owner-operator torch to Hill who purchased the company.
Today the 68-year-old Hill says he’s happy to be leading an independent pharmacy, even though there has been “a tremendous amount of change and challenges in the industry” over his 52-year career.
“It’s how drugs are paid for — insurance specifically — and how places like CVS own every step of the way. They own Aetna. They own a PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) in between that negotiates contracts with all the pharmacies. They own the whole ladder. They even tried to start some medical clinics, though I think they backed out of that eventually. … But that is the biggest problem. Our competitor decides how and what they’re going to pay, and usually with them, and especially with Medicare, it’s below our actual cost of drugs. We’re losing money on those things. So it’s become harder and harder every year to keep your head above water. … and that’s why it’s so amazing that we have 100 years. I think we’re the oldest independent pharmacy in the valley now.”
Hill said when he bought Valley Pharmacy in 2009 there were 24,000 independent pharmacies across the country. Now it’s down to 18,000.
“But there’s been some inroads, both federally and statewide, on trying to regulate some of the stuff, and so I see a bright future for our pharmacy, but you’ve got to ride the storm and hold out long enough to see that turn.”
Compounding, friendly staff
Valley Pharmacy continues to practice the art of compounding, and Hill says that’s helped support the business.
“It’s kind of a niche,” he says. “We do things that nobody else does.”
For the most part, formulations are used in “non-sterile” compounding to create topical creams for a wide variety of treatments that are prescribed by doctors and in demand by patients. Valley Pharmacy ships compounds throughout the state of California; with prescription orders coming from San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento & throughout. Meanwhile, few pharmacies in the state continue to practice non-sterile compounding.
Above all, Hill says local patients prefer Valley Pharmacy because his staff knows most everyone by their first name. “We have three to four generations of family members coming here. We try to make things easy for them.”
This also means delivering prescriptions from Merced to Atwater. And that also includes having the ability to help facilitate a change in a prescription directly without customers having to deal with multiple “managers” at a chain drug store.
The local pharmacy also contracts and provides prescription services to Hospice as well as Merced County Behavioral Health.
The current staff consist of three pharmacy technicians; Crystal Lopez, Marcella Chavez, & Maria Cienfuegos, one compounding technician; Maria Dominguez, three pharmacy clerks; Blanca Valenzuela, Cindy Sosa and Socorro Velazquez; a delivery driver J.R. Villarreal, along with two relief pharmacists Andrew Keenan and Mark Cholakian.
Sarah Lim, director of the Merced County Courthouse Museum, contributed to this story.