“They don’t have medical places in some of these communities where a pharmacy may be,” Stewart elaborated. “So, they go to a pharmacy, and they get questions answered that they can’t [otherwise] Google. They have somebody that they can look at face to face and get answers.”

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Phillips took to social media to tell customers in need of a pharmacy that they don’t have to go to Walgreens or other big chain stores simply because a prescription was transferred there.

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Posted on the doors at Country Mart in Branson and Forsyth is a sign that reads the pharmacy is closed and prescriptions would be forwarded to the customer nearest Walgreens.

“We are willing, and we are welcoming anybody that needs to find a new pharmacy. Sometimes, depending on what insurance they have, I could mail out prescriptions we deliver, you know, within a certain range of miles,” Phillips said. We’re fully stocked. We’re fully staffed. We would love to have you, but like I said, if our location doesn’t work for you, I would highly urge you to try to find a locally independent pharmacy to give your business to.”

“We know our customers by name. You go into a big box store, they don’t want them talking to their customers because they don’t have time,” Stewart said. “They don’t have the staffing to handle it, and that’s a big difficulty for them.”

“Not surprised. The impact that we’ve seen in the industry has really been pretty devastating. The reimbursements have been really low. What we’re finding is that the big fish went around for a while eating the little fish,” Stewart said. “When the big fish exit the market, they’re creating deserts for pharmacies across the state, which is really tragic because what you’re running into is you have the pharmacy, which is the first line of defense in small communities, and they’re disappearing.”

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Stewart and Phillips say bigger chain stores lack a customer-friendly pillar when it comes to the foundation of their service model.

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“We learned that there are prescriptions that were being filled. They were sent to the nearest Walgreens, and I don’t know which location for everyone that closed, but they were being sent to the nearest Walgreens without the customer’s permission. So that, I have a huge issue with,” Phillips said. “This morning I got a prescription from two different patients that were using Country Mart in Forsyth, and they were looking for their medications because we had called yesterday to get those sent to us. However, today, whenever I try to call to figure out where those prescriptions are, it’s already connected to Walgreens. These elderly patients, their medication got sent to Walgreens without permission.”

Phillips tells me she’s just as concerned about the people without a pharmacy as the workers who woke up this week without a job.

“I’m afraid that if these big chains continue to buy the small independents, the small independents are no longer going to exist. I worked for a chain that this happened. I lost my job in the same situation about three years ago,” Phillips said. “Now we’re seeing Price Cutter in Country Mart, and I really just urge these customers, you know, if your prescriptions are forced to another big chain pharmacy like in this situation Walgreens I really encourage you to try to find a local independent small town pharmacy that you can continue to get your prescriptions.

“I just think that it’s starting to become a pattern that we’re seeing,” Libby Phillips, owner of Phillips Pharmacy in Sparta, Missouri said.

“I assume we do have some overlap in some of the markets where they have closed and we’re more than willing to try to help every place that we can,” Stewart said. “We don’t have a problem with that. The inventory and everything that goes along with it just comes with the territory.”

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“Walgreens and CVS, they’re not going to get up in the middle of the night to fill prescriptions that need to be filled for a sick kid. They’re not going to come in on holidays to fill medications for somebody that’s out of insulin,” Phillips said. “A small town independently owned pharmacy, you’re going to have that special relationship with your pharmacist and with the staff.”

“I’m just heartbroken for the employees, especially this time of season,” Phillips said. “Everybody’s Christmas shopping and, you know, getting together with their families. It’s just not a great time to have news like that broken to you. I think it would be less traumatic for the employees if, you know, these big chains that were buying out the small pharmacies if they would actually leave the locations open, and, you know, the employees continued to have a job maybe under different ownership.”

OzarksFirst reached out to the company that owns Price Cutter and Country Mart, as well as Walgreens for more information about the sale and transition and did not hear back.