Drug Store(s)-the rest of the story

After we reported that another business in Iron River
bites the dist, I received an email from Bob and Marla
Busakowski that said, in essence:

1. The Corner Drug Store is not closing.

2. The business has been sold.

3. 2 drug stores have always survived in Iron River and as
former owners they believe will continue to do so in the
future.

4. "Please check your facts before posting misinformation."

Had I posted their email as fact I would have been posting
misinformation. After I received the email, I placed a phone
call to the CEO of MK Stores, the owner of Snyder Drugs,
and left a message respectfully asking Mr. Katers to verify
or deny the local rumors that they had purchased The Corner
Drug Store in Iron River.

Mr. Katers, relying on the unnecessary rudeness that we have
become accustomed to receiving from "the pseudo elite" in this
region of the USA, refused to return my call for that civilized
request. For his part, Robert Busakowski didn't do any better,
referring to the new owners merely as "the new owners."

What's the big secret, Bub?

Now that weeks have passed, I sought out an unquestionable
means of verifying the rumors and have discovered that yes
indeed, MK Stores has indeed purchased what has for decades
been known as "The Corner Drug Store" which business has
"bit the dust" precisely as we reported here.

The simple fact is that it became financially advantageous
for Bob and Marla Busakowski to sell assets that brought
them more money than their profits for some period in the
future would be. Whatever the particular reasoning is for
selling, they sold, not to another individual owner as has
been the history of a continuing business in the past, but to
a chain drug store firm that simply makes the facility an
extension of their corporate entity. The individuality of The
Corner Drug Store, passed down from Earl Melstrom to
Jim Sapletal to Robert Busakowski, all local residents for
the duration, is gone forever. The "mom and pop" store so
many folks say they love has closed, and the operation is
an operation that is at the small end of "the big box"
corporation.

That's OK, we cannot live in the past. I don't know how
many years Bob ran his store without so much as a sign on
the door telling folks what his hours of business were. I
noticed one had been placed on his door a while back
and thought that a great improvement in his "service model."
Perhaps it wasn't his improvement after all.

I do have to say here and now that despite Ron Katers'
rudeness towards me, the people who work for him in Iron
River have been exemplary in providing excellent service.
I would hope that seeps down into MK Stores newest
acquisition. Having been on the receiving end of what
passes for Bob Busakowski's friendly service, I don't
think that dog can be taught any new tricks. On the other
hand he's only about 60 years old so he should learn to be
a little more polite for the duration of his working years.

But an interesting fact I discovered in my perusing the historical
records of this now closed business is that Jim's Pharmacy, the
former legal name for The Corner Drug Store, had a very nice
profit sharing plan that supplied some 7 individuals with a pension.
Later, after Jim died, 6 individuals. But of course the origins of
that plan were in 1978 when things in Iron River were a whole
lot different from today. One wonders how that will be managed
now that the fund can no longer grow based on profitability, and
how much of the growth in the value of the business was put
where it rightfully probably belongs, to benefit the people who
helped make that value grow.

Indeed, the profit sharing aspects could be the most interesting
of all.

Bill Vajk