A sale of Zellers pharmacies announced in March will mean the shutdown of the chain store pharmacy in Semiahmoo Shopping Centre by early May.
Clients of the Zellers outlet have been told their files will be transferred to the pharmacy of the PriceSmart Foods store located in the same mall over the next few weeks.
It’s the result of a deal to sell off Zellers pharmacy businesses in B.C. and Alberta, including all patient prescription files.
The buyer is the B.C.-based Overwaitea Food Group (OFG), parent company of Save-On-Foods, Overwaitea Foods, PriceSmart Foods, Cooper’s Foods, Urban Fare and Bulkley Valley Wholesale.
The sale agreement also includes pharmacies operated at Bay stores in both provinces.
Overwaitea Food Group Director of Communications Julie Dickson told Peace Arch News the switchover at Semiahmoo Shopping Centre will be completed in the near future.
“In keeping with BC College of Pharmacists regulations, patient files are being transferred to us in early May by Zellers and they’ll be notifying all these clients in the next few weeks, to ensure they’re aware of the transfer,” Dickson said in a Tuesday, April 10 email in response to a PAN query.
Dickson said the employees of the Zellers pharmacy would not be transferred with the files.
“….our pharmacy team is fully staffed, but we’re always open to receiving applications and if we get an opening, we’d certainly give them utmost consideration,” Dickson said.
The announcement of the pharmacies’ sale comes after the owner of the Zellers chain, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), announced in January it had reached a $1.8 billion deal to sell 189 stores to the Target chain of stores in the U.S.
The Semiahmoo Shopping Centre Zellers was not included in the sale.
It is one of 84 unsold stores that were expected to continue operating as Zellers outlets while HBC considers its options.
When the sale to Target was announced, there was speculation the American retailer would want to sell its Canadian pharmacy customer files to ease the conversion of Zellers stores into Target outlets.
If Target kept the files, it would have to keep filling prescriptions while it was closing down stores and remodeling them.
The pharmacy sale deal HBC negotiated with OFG in B.C. and Alberta covers all Zellers stores, however, not just the ones sold to Target.
