Issue date: February 17, 1999
By MARJORIE MADER
The Ladera Pharmacy quietly closed last month at Ladera Country Shopper, another in a trend of vanishing independent pharmacies.
Owners Larry and Dian Karabian moved merchandise and prescription information to their Portola Valley Pharmacy, a few miles up Alpine Road to the shopping center at the intersection of Alpine and Portola roads.
After putting five years into modernizing and operating the Ladera Pharmacy, which they purchased from original owner George Bull, the Karabians decided it was time to make a change.
The days of the independent, neighborhood pharmacy are vanishing, say the Karabians, because the large drug chains -- Walgreen's, Long's and Rite-Aid -- now dominate the market.
Mr. Karabian, a pharmacist for 34 years, explained independent pharmacies are "caught in a squeeze between the outrageous prices for drugs from the manufacturers and the insurance companies that are paying" for the prescriptions.
Federal law prohibits cooperative purchasing of single-source drugs, known by their trade names, he said. As a member of the "Good Neighbor Pharmacy" group, however, he and other independents are able to purchase generic drugs at favorable prices.
"Big chains treat the pharmacy department as a convenience for customers and a draw to get people in the store" to buy merchandise, he said.
With great optimism, the Karabians purchased Ladera Pharmacy as a convenience for the Ladera community and nearby customers. They completely renovated the store, with Mr. Karabian doing about 90 percent of the work himself; installed needed air conditioning; and brought in new merchandise, trying to offer as much variety as in their Portola Valley store.
Five years later, they decided to close the store because they didn't have enough space for merchandise to offset the financial problems behind the pharmacy counter.
Fortunately, all the employees at the Ladera store now are working in the Karabians' Portola Valley Pharmacy. Pharmacists Marcia McIntosh and Claude Hughes are filling prescriptions in Portola Valley, and Silvia McCavitt is helping customers with their merchandise purchases. Students Jason Varga and Azad Jacobs are helping out, too. They join longtime employees in Portola Valley: Joyce Johnson, Miriam Hogan and Bon Bensi.
The Karabians purchased their Portola Valley store in January 1982 from Clifford's Pharmacy, which had a store in Menlo Park and also Los Altos. They lease space in the building from the Jelich family.
Running the Portola Valley store was a family enterprise with the Karabians' two sons, Skip and Cub, helping out after school at Woodside Priory School.
The sons did not follow in their father's footsteps. Both graduated from the University of California, Davis. Skip is an operations manager for a ranch south of Fresno; Cub, who graduated from law school, is operations manager for an audio-technology company that he started in Davis.
"I jokingly told my sons I wouldn't pay for their college education if they wanted to be pharmacists," said Mr. Karabian. He noted that students coming out of pharmacy school today have no interest in owning a pharmacy: They know they will be working for Long's, Wagreen's, Rite-Aide or a hospital pharmacy.
If people want to have a corner pharmacy with its convenience, they have to support it, said Mr. Karabian.
"So far, Portola Valley has been wonderful," said Mr. Karabian. He appreciates the support the store has received over the past years from customers, including residents of The Sequoias retirement community. "There's pleasure in coming to work in the store where, between the whole crew, we know everybody's name and their children."
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