Airport
Pharmacy Closes Its Doors |
By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer
August 28 -- Airport Pharmacy,
along with its Post Office Annex,
is closing its doors Tuesday, another
family-owned business disappearing
from Sunset Park.
Robert Sakamoto’s pharmacy has
served generations of his neighbors
since he started working at the corner
of Pico Boulevard and 33rd Street in
1958 as a student at USC.
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Airport
Pharmacy in Santa Monica (Photo
by Ann K. Williams) |
Nearly 50 years later, he’s
shutting down for good, unwilling
to extend the lease
Sakamoto said he didn’t want
to wait “for the hammer to come
down,” instead using the time
he had left on his lease to find a
buyer for his client files and make
sure his employees had jobs lined
up.
“We’re not selling out,
making a lot of big bucks,”
he said. Instead, his files and much
of his inventory has been bought by
Rite Aide, where he’ll work
for three months making sure there’s
a smooth transition. His employees
have been offered jobs at Rite Aide.
His landlord, Jim Spear, confirmed
Sakamoto’s story.
“I gave him an extension at
the same rate, he didn’t take
it,” said Spear, who, with his
father Edward, bought the Airport
Pharmacy building along with the Trader
Joe’s building next door back
in 1968.
“He’s been there for
a long time,” Spear said. “It’s
too bad, but time moves on.”
Some of Sakamoto’s customer’s
are more upset.
“I think it’s lousy that
they’re closing,” said
Jane Schneider, who was stocking up
on the plastic cups she could only
find at Airport Pharmacy for a local
school’s annual Jogathon. “I
hate Walgreens and stores like that,”
“This has been my family’s
pharmacy for many, many years,”
said Schneider. “We’re
just heartbroken to see it go.”
Barbara Inatsugu, whose husband Seiji
suffers from kidney disease, doesn’t
want to lose such a “supportive,”
“caring” pharmacist who
takes the time to carefully track
her husband’s changing medications.
“He’s been so helpful,”
Inatsugu said of Sakamoto. “It’s
really important when you have a major
medical issue to have a pharmacist who
really cares about your medication and
we’ll really miss that.”
“He has that personal touch,”
she said. “He’s never
too busy or frazzled to give you a
smile and say hi.”
For his part, Sakamoto said he’s
going to miss “seeing all the
familiar faces. . . seeing their families
grow up.”
He’s gotten used to being a
neighborhood confidant and advisor.
“They bring their problems
to me, I lend an ear” Sakamoto
said. “I’m like a sounding
board.”
He said he doesn’t necessarily
have much to say, but when his customers
share their problems, “maybe
by doing so they figure a way out.”
“We’ve been part of the
neighborhood, part of the community,”
Sakamoto said. His senior customers
are especially going to miss Airport
Pharmacy not only for his personalized
service but because it’s within
walking distance for many of them.
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| Airport
Pharmacy employees Lisa Angelich
and Donna Walden with owner
Robert Sakamoto |
Sakamoto noted a “diminishment
of smaller local businesses”
as the years have gone by.
“Services drop down when a
large corporation comes in,”
he said.
Long-time customer Joanne Leavitt
shared his concerns.
“We’re losing a sense
of community. It’s not just
a pharmacy,” said Leavitt, who’s
been a customer since 1979. “It’s
a place where a kid can go in and
get a single ice cream bar. It’s
where you can stand in line with your
neighbors at the post office.
“We’re losing another
independent business from the community,
and there are so few of them,”
Leavitt said.
She pointed out the increasing number
of “quality restaurants”
that have opened on Pico Boulevard.
“As they’re coming into
the neighborhood, they’re going
to attract other businesses like them,”
Leavitt said. “I’m just
wondering if it’s going to be
neighborhood-serving or serving the
people who go to those kind of restaurants.”
Whatever the future holds, Sakamoto
plans to look for a job.
“It’s unusual for me
to be on the other side of the fence,”
he said.
His sons, daughter and daughter-in-law
have followed in Sakamoto’s
footsteps and are all trained pharmacists
working at hospitals and health centers
around the County.
“Maybe I’ll go get a
job with them,” Sakamoto said
with a chuckle.
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