There is no pill, salve, panacea, or cure when it comes to the closure of a cherished local business.
For Steve and Abby Buchberg, owners of Colley Discount Pharmacy in Ghent, that day has come.
After nearly 40 years, the couple made the difficult decision to sell their independent pharmacy to Rite Aid. The store’s last day in business is Thursday.
All of the customers’ files will electronically transfer to Rite Aid on West 21st St. in Norfolk. The store’s main phone number — more than 60 years old — will roll over to the new store.
Faced with the possibility of closing several times within the past 10 years and their long-term lease renewal on the horizon, the Buchbergs said now is the right time.
“For the last three years, we were one of the only operating businesses on this block,” she said. “It was quiet down here; it’s amazing we remained open.”
The essential business offered free delivery during the pandemic and always stocked a unique variety of gift items and household needs.
“Even to this day, we never recovered our front-end business because of COVID,” he said.
With a solid core of five employees, Buchberg said finding help has been a constant problem. Reimbursements from insurance companies had also been an ongoing issue.
On top of that, in June last year, Abby Buchberg was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, a sarcoma in her right calf that led to an above-the-knee amputation.
The closure caps a long history of the couple working together to achieve their goal of operating a family-friendly neighborhood pharmacy — the kind where they knew generations of customers by name.
They moved to the area — returning to Abby’s stomping grounds of Portsmouth to settle in Virginia Beach — in 1984.
The original pharmacy, founded in 1960, was just up the block before its then owner relocated it to its current location in 1975. The Buchbergs took it over in October 1984 and renovated it over the years.
It was the same kind of pharmacy Steve Buchberg’s late father once owned. Buchberg’s father died when he was 16 years old and his mother died two years later. Determined to follow in his father’s footsteps, Buchberg worked three jobs to put himself through pharmacy school.
Married 47 years, Abby Buchberg has worked in the store alongside her husband since day one.
“She’s my best sales girl,” he said lovingly.
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Abby’s late mother, Alma Wilgard, worked in the store until she was in her early 80s. “She could sell the Brooklyn Bridge,” Abby Buchberg said.
Between greeting customers and sharing the news of the closure, Abby Buchberg lets the tears flow. She’s not the only one saddened by the business’s closure.
Paula Eisen has been a customer of the pharmacy since 1978 and said she’s dreaded the store’s closing for a long time.
“You could walk in there with confidence that you would be treated like a human being, kindly and compassionately,” she said. “They’ve been a great service to the community.”
Barbara Richardson said she cried as soon as she heard about the pharmacy’s impending shutdown and then picked up the phone to call them.
“They’ve been like family to me and I’m going to miss them,” Richardson said. “They are compassionate people who truly care about others.”
Still unsure if Steve Buchberg will continue his work as a pharmacist one day a week, the couple is sure they are entering a new chapter in their lives. It is one where they will take time to enjoy life, one another and their family, which includes three grown children and eight grandchildren.
“Nothing lasts forever; everything has a window,” Steve Buchberg said. “It’s bittersweet for us and for our customers. We’re just gonna miss our customers.”
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com
