Local family builds new drug store in Uniontown
For Bob Gabler, the development on South Mt. Vernon Avenue means returning to his family’s roots. “The Gablers have been involved in the drug store/pharmacy business for three generations. The history started with the Fayette Drug on Main Street, Health Mart as a multi-regional operation, and lately Gabler’s Drug in Carmichaels, Charleroi and Masontown,’ Gabler said.
But the name will grow when the Gabler family opens its newest drug store/pharmacy in about three months at the corner of South Mt. Vernon and Easy Street in Uniontown.
“Uniontown was the origin of this family’s presence in the retail prescription/pharmacy business. We felt we should re-enter this town instead of going a long way off. We had stores in Lancaster, Carlisle and up north and all that but that’s history now.
“Certainly we would want to come back to our roots,’ Gabler said.
Those roots span 90 years and were planted by Gabler’s father, Alexander, who first got into the drug store business. The family business continues under Gabler and his son, Charles.
But Bob Gabler has 60 years of his own in the business and is credited with taking what his father began and growing it into a company that once operated numerous stores. At 74, Gabler entered the business before he graduated from pharmacy school. He began Health Mart in 1963 and sold it in 1968 to Lane Drug in Ohio, which became part of People’s Drug Co. Ultimately, Health Mart became part of CVS.
“We have a strong support system and individuals we rely on every day. We hope to be at our new Uniontown site for a long time.’
The new store will have a complete pharmacy with walk-in, drive through and delivery facilities.
“Being a locally-based organization the management, pharmacists, technicians and store personnel bring a depth of experience, coupled with the best technical support available in today’s modern pharmacy,’ Gabler said.
“All members of the Gabler organization welcome back its many customers that had made the original Health Mart such a success story.’ He added a local contractor constructed the new property. The Gabler family owns the property.
“We should be open within three months,’ Gabler added.
However, Gabler has noted changes in the drug store/pharmacy business since he began his career.
“The pharmacy or prescription business by far represents the overwhelming majority of the sales, by dollar volume and that’s a change from 10 or 20 years ago in a merchandising type store such as ours.
“However, we do run full service drug stores which means we carry a depth of products seen in most major chains as opposed to just being a prescription store. But the prescription business in stores such as ours can represent as much as 70 percent of the sales. Obviously that is the main thrust of our business,’ he explained.
Even what he calls the “majors’ (large chain drug stores), “their approach is the same as ours.’
Gabler credits some of the change to human longevity.
“People are living longer, they are taking multiple medicines instead of one. The medication, although we all recognize the expense problem, is less expensive than hospitalization.
“The modern pharmaceutical manufacturing business has produced and is continuing to produce a stream of (miracle drugs). The public demand is overwhelming. And although the price is obviously in the newspaper every week, it’s a great controversy, our efforts are going to be to minimize as best we can what we recognize as a price structure that none of us are happy with,’ he said.
“We will continue to work with third party insurance companies, government agencies and the manufacturers to make every effort to keep costs down and that includes use of generics, which is very important, to continue our effort to deliver an unwavering, first class product at a price that we all would work to diminish.’