Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

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Romr123
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Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by Romr123 »

Wow what an interesting place. Felt very 1960s-1970s, with useful selections of hardware, basic clothing, grocery, a service deli. Teeming with people mid-day Saturday and Sunday; open til 10 in Oberlin (small college community SW of Cleveland). Smiling friendly people even at 9 at night. Cleveland's weird, with Marc's (in the CVS thread) feeling like this place's big brother. Good promo pricing, without need for cards. Seems the locals are very loyal.
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by Super S »

Romr123 wrote: December 21st, 2021, 4:50 pm Wow what an interesting place. Felt very 1960s-1970s, with useful selections of hardware, basic clothing, grocery, a service deli. Teeming with people mid-day Saturday and Sunday; open til 10 in Oberlin (small college community SW of Cleveland). Smiling friendly people even at 9 at night. Cleveland's weird, with Marc's (in the CVS thread) feeling like this place's big brother. Good promo pricing, without need for cards. Seems the locals are very loyal.
While it isn't a place I always visit when in Ohio visiting family, I did stop in at one last time I was there. It kinda reminded me of a Pay 'N Save or PayLess Drug years ago as far as variety went. Ohio has seen its share of drug store chains disappear including Revco, Lane's, and Perry to name a few. Drug Mart seems to hang in there.
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by storewanderer »

Romr123 wrote: December 21st, 2021, 4:50 pm Wow what an interesting place. Felt very 1960s-1970s, with useful selections of hardware, basic clothing, grocery, a service deli. Teeming with people mid-day Saturday and Sunday; open til 10 in Oberlin (small college community SW of Cleveland). Smiling friendly people even at 9 at night. Cleveland's weird, with Marc's (in the CVS thread) feeling like this place's big brother. Good promo pricing, without need for cards. Seems the locals are very loyal.
Back in the 90's there were numerous little chains like this all over the US doing their thing...

Then CVS and Rite Aid bought all of them out...

it is funny to see chains like this, or Kinney in NY, still around.
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

storewanderer wrote: December 22nd, 2021, 12:36 am it is funny to see chains like this, or Kinney in NY, still around.
Kinney is employee owned and is one of those chains that goes where the majors wouldn't even consider. They're a good store.
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by Romr123 »

So is DDM---this seems like a new thing for them.
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by buckguy »

Cleveland had two chains that sold a little bit of everything: Gray (later part of Rite Aid) and Detroit-based Cunninghams. They also had Revco which had radically altered a third chain that once had been like this. Gray gradually phased out all the slow moving stuff and became more like People's, Walgreen's, etc. which were their competition in markets outside of Cleveland. Cunningham's embraced selling all kinds of stuff but failed because they weren't very good at anything--you could rely on them to have expired offers and that sort of thing and their pricing wasn't competitive. They left the market and gradually went out of business about 40 years ago.

DDM, in some ways, is closer to the small independent grocers that used to be in Cleveland. There were several co-ops whose members operated in first generation super markets or even last generation little chain groceries. One operated in African-American inner city neighborhoods and advertised in the Black press, another was in mostly white inner city neighborhoods, while a third had stores in the suburbs and the city----I think all these co-ops are gone and the remainder operate under Bi-Rite which had always been the most varied co-op. DDM actually operates in some of the old co-ops' stores and picked-up those places in the 90s when chains were merging and old families were leaving the business. These were places where you "filled-in" between trips to a big chain store. DDM has tons of small town locations and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have similar lineage. They also have newer, purpose-built locations. Recently, they pivoting toward what drug store competitors are doing by partnering with the safety net public hospital in Cleveland to open in-store clinics.
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by veteran+ »

buckguy wrote: December 23rd, 2021, 5:31 am Cleveland had two chains that sold a little bit of everything: Gray (later part of Rite Aid) and Detroit-based Cunninghams. They also had Revco which had radically altered a third chain that once had been like this. Gray gradually phased out all the slow moving stuff and became more like People's, Walgreen's, etc. which were their competition in markets outside of Cleveland. Cunningham's embraced selling all kinds of stuff but failed because they weren't very good at anything--you could rely on them to have expired offers and that sort of thing and their pricing wasn't competitive. They left the market and gradually went out of business about 40 years ago.

DDM, in some ways, is closer to the small independent grocers that used to be in Cleveland. There were several co-ops whose members operated in first generation super markets or even last generation little chain groceries. One operated in African-American inner city neighborhoods and advertised in the Black press, another was in mostly white inner city neighborhoods, while a third had stores in the suburbs and the city----I think all these co-ops are gone and the remainder operate under Bi-Rite which had always been the most varied co-op. DDM actually operates in some of the old co-ops' stores and picked-up those places in the 90s when chains were merging and old families were leaving the business. These were places where you "filled-in" between trips to a big chain store. DDM has tons of small town locations and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have similar lineage. They also have newer, purpose-built locations. Recently, they pivoting toward what drug store competitors are doing by partnering with the safety net public hospital in Cleveland to open in-store clinics.

Is that the same Gray Drugs that was in S. Florida?
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by buckguy »

veteran+ wrote: December 23rd, 2021, 8:33 am
buckguy wrote: December 23rd, 2021, 5:31 am Cleveland had two chains that sold a little bit of everything: Gray (later part of Rite Aid) and Detroit-based Cunninghams. They also had Revco which had radically altered a third chain that once had been like this. Gray gradually phased out all the slow moving stuff and became more like People's, Walgreen's, etc. which were their competition in markets outside of Cleveland. Cunningham's embraced selling all kinds of stuff but failed because they weren't very good at anything--you could rely on them to have expired offers and that sort of thing and their pricing wasn't competitive. They left the market and gradually went out of business about 40 years ago.

DDM, in some ways, is closer to the small independent grocers that used to be in Cleveland. There were several co-ops whose members operated in first generation super markets or even last generation little chain groceries. One operated in African-American inner city neighborhoods and advertised in the Black press, another was in mostly white inner city neighborhoods, while a third had stores in the suburbs and the city----I think all these co-ops are gone and the remainder operate under Bi-Rite which had always been the most varied co-op. DDM actually operates in some of the old co-ops' stores and picked-up those places in the 90s when chains were merging and old families were leaving the business. These were places where you "filled-in" between trips to a big chain store. DDM has tons of small town locations and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have similar lineage. They also have newer, purpose-built locations. Recently, they pivoting toward what drug store competitors are doing by partnering with the safety net public hospital in Cleveland to open in-store clinics.

Is that the same Gray Drugs that was in S. Florida?
One and the same.
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by BillyGr »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: December 22nd, 2021, 2:06 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 22nd, 2021, 12:36 am it is funny to see chains like this, or Kinney in NY, still around.
Kinney is employee owned and is one of those chains that goes where the majors wouldn't even consider. They're a good store.
They are in some smaller areas but also in others where the majors are as well. For instance both Saranac Lake and Lake Placid (they were in Saranac for many years, wound up in LP buying out the Eckerd when they merged with Rite Aid). In both there was a Rite Aid in town (which are now Walgreens) as well.

One of their new(er) spots is in Queensbury (between Lake George and Glens Falls) - that area has a (small) mall, along with all the other usual stores (PC, Hannaford, other drugstores, a couple Walmart locations, even had one of the few Super Kmart stores in the region when those were around).
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Re: Discount Drug Mart-NE Ohio

Post by pseudo3d »

I've always felt that in many ways analysts are completely wrong about the way the American B&M retail works. There's enough healthy, if small, chains that help disprove just about everything that's been claimed: large 150k+ stores are perfectly viable and popular if they're properly merchandised; trained, well-dressed salespeople can make a decent living and not burden the price the customer pays; Amazon and Walmart are not the end-all be-all when it comes to general merchandise.

I don't think the "discount drug store" model caught on everywhere. Fazio's (same family from Ohio but different merchandise mix) opened in Dallas with the concept of a huge discount drug store operation (half the size of a Kmart, I'd say) but it only made it to three stores.
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