No More Bartell Drugs

I popped into the Ballard Bartell Drugs the other day in search of some cold medicine. Shelves throughout the store were mostly empty, even in the pharmacy section. It’s been like this for years.

It seemed only a matter of time that the iconic 135-year-old Seattle retailer would cease to exist. Drug store chain CVS announced Friday that the 20 remaining locations across the city would be rebranded as CVS, a Rhode Island-based chain that operates more than 9,000 pharmacies across the United States.

The news was first reported by the Seattle Times.

The demise of Bartell Drugs should surprise no one. The company — founded in 1890 by Geroge H. Bartell Sr. and run by the Bartell family until 2015 — has struggled for at least the last decade. Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid acquired the chain (which had 67 locations at the time) in 2020 for $95 million. At the time, Rite Aid officials praised the brand, saying it would remain.

It’s been all downhill since.

Rite Aid has since filed for bankruptcy twice — most recently last month — and subsequently announced that CVS would acquire a significant portion of its assets.

Kathi Lentzsch — only the second nonfamily member to lead the pharmacy and the last CEO before it was sold to Rite Aid — told Seattle magazine back in 2019 that one of her main goals was to make the chain relevant in the midst of increasing competition. “The challenges of retail today are getting the customers’ attention. How do we stand out?”

Rite Aid bought the chain about a year later. Bartell’s was thought to be the nation’s oldest family-operated drugstore chain before the sale.

After the challenges of the past several years, it has long seemed as if the city had lost something significant and special. And now it’s finally over.

It’s a sad end for a once-proud Seattle retailer.