Discount DrugMart---very interesting concept

[Romr123]

Just back from a little trip to Ohio west of Cleveland---noticed yesterday (Thanksgiving) that all the Discount Drug Mart was open and mobbed...interesting old-school West Coast drug concept with lots of general merchandise, a deli and limited fresh fruit/veg, relatively complete if compact grocery section.

Stopped in today--saw (reasonably priced canned goods/staples----Essential Everyday canned beans $1/can, Bush's $1.33/can). Deli was staffed in the rear of the store---at entrance was display of store-sliced-and-packaged ham/cheese (they will slice fresh at the back of the store, but this was for convenient grab and go) that was exceedingly tidy and appealing looking (faced, neatly labeled and categorized--way better than the usual that you see at Meijer/Kroger)

Nice mix of seasonal impulse-type clothing (fleece jackets, flannel shirts which fits with the season), some pallet loads of bulk things (wild bird food). Beer/wine

Honestly felt like an old-school West coast (full-line) drug store.

Between DDM and Marc's (close-out grocery), Cleveland has an interesting mix (remember that Drug Emporium was out of Youngstown as well) of local retail.

[storewanderer]

Just back from a little trip to Ohio west of Cleveland---noticed yesterday (Thanksgiving) that all the Discount Drug Mart was open and mobbed...interesting old-school West Coast drug concept with lots of general merchandise, a deli and limited fresh fruit/veg, relatively complete if compact grocery section.

Stopped in today--saw (reasonably priced canned goods/staples----Essential Everyday canned beans $1/can, Bush's $1.33/can). Deli was staffed in the rear of the store---at entrance was display of store-sliced-and-packaged ham/cheese (they will slice fresh at the back of the store, but this was for convenient grab and go) that was exceedingly tidy and appealing looking (faced, neatly labeled and categorized--way better than the usual that you see at Meijer/Kroger)

Nice mix of seasonal impulse-type clothing (fleece jackets, flannel shirts which fits with the season), some pallet loads of bulk things (wild bird food). Beer/wine

Honestly felt like an old-school West coast (full-line) drug store.

Between DDM and Marc's (close-out grocery), Cleveland has an interesting mix (remember that Drug Emporium was out of Youngstown as well) of local retail.

Wasn't Phar Mor out of Youngstown too?

I wonder why Ohio was the central point of those larger format discount drug chains. Maybe some distributor supported all of them or something?

Not all of their locations have the produce/deli but the rest of the mix is consistent.

[buckguy]

[quote=Romr123 post_id=66101 time=<a href="tel:1732908043">1732908043</a> user_id=3175]
Just back from a little trip to Ohio west of Cleveland---noticed yesterday (Thanksgiving) that all the Discount Drug Mart was open and mobbed...interesting old-school West Coast drug concept with lots of general merchandise, a deli and limited fresh fruit/veg, relatively complete if compact grocery section.

Stopped in today--saw (reasonably priced canned goods/staples----Essential Everyday canned beans $1/can, Bush's $1.33/can). Deli was staffed in the rear of the store---at entrance was display of store-sliced-and-packaged ham/cheese (they will slice fresh at the back of the store, but this was for convenient grab and go) that was exceedingly tidy and appealing looking (faced, neatly labeled and categorized--way better than the usual that you see at Meijer/Kroger)

Nice mix of seasonal impulse-type clothing (fleece jackets, flannel shirts which fits with the season), some pallet loads of bulk things (wild bird food). Beer/wine

Honestly felt like an old-school West coast (full-line) drug store.

Between DDM and Marc's (close-out grocery), Cleveland has an interesting mix (remember that Drug Emporium was out of Youngstown as well) of local retail.

Wasn't Phar Mor out of Youngstown too?

I wonder why Ohio was the central point of those larger format discount drug chains. Maybe some distributor supported all of them or something?

Not all of their locations have the produce/deli but the rest of the mix is consistent.
[/quote]


The deep discount model started with Bernie Schulman’s back in the early 70s. Low prescription and HBA prices and whatever they could get as closeouts. Schulman was a founder of Revco, which was an early discount drug store chain with no frills and no GM. My sister-in-law knew him from his last days at Revco—he was much respected and beloved. After his death in the 80s, his wife ran the chain and then it was sold to Marc Goldman who rebranded it as Marc’s and went more into a grocery direction, although the stores still have a small section devoted to closeout stuff from who knows where. There were other, similar concepts in Cleveland, Jotes which was a one-off founded by John Fazio who had run Fisher Foods which came after a smaller scale trial of a similar concept. Bernie Schulman’s first store was a Fisher castoff as were several other early locations. Discount Drug Mart started after Schulma’s also began in castoff super markets. They seem mostly to have gone into small towns of late.

Phar-Mor started in Youngstown, also after Schulman’s, but got as far as California before it went kaput. The later stores were too big and far flung. The founder was a an embezzler and they had a couple bankruptcies before being liquidated.

Marc’s has a more interesting selection than Discount Drug Mart, with surprising numbers of high end items at low prices, mixed in with normal and cheap brands of groceries. There are other examples of eclectic drug stores in other places, like Rodman’s in DC—-their suburban stores are less interesting than the original on Wisconsin Ave in DC—that store is famous for having low prices on Belgian chocolates and other gourmet items (often brands no one has ever seen). They used to have all kinds of odd ball GM items, like 220V appliances, which have a market in DC, but they have less of that now and recently got a liquor license. Rodmans goes back to the 50s but started as a more conventional drugstore.

Drug Emporium started in Columbus, after Schulman’s. Seaway Foodtown in Toledo had something similar called The Pharm, that they used to fill redundant Foodtown super markets. Those stores were closed by Spartan after their abortive purchase of Seaway Foodtown.

[Super S]

I stopped at a Drug Mart when I was in Ohio earlier this year when I was driving near Cleveland and needed something quickly. I was pleasantly surprised by their prices which were reasonable for a drug store, and it does in fact remind me of what PayLess Drug used to be before Rite Aid. I didn't really look for groceries though.

I remember The Pharm as well. I only went to one location, in 1992 in Port Clinton, which oddly lacked a pharmacy because, at the time, a Revco was still open in the same shopping center. That location was a Food Town which closed with no replacement. That particular location had no remodeling and you could tell where the various departments were, it honestly looked kinda junky.

[HoustonRetail]

I loved DDM when I used to spend time in Ohio. They still had one-hour photos until pretty recently. One of the coolest things I'd come across from them was reopening an old Rego's. https://maps.app.goo.gl/M4wqHb4JWLLWQZHv5