Let's hope Phar-Mor is able to reorganize and prosper

We can only hope that Phar-Mor is able to emerge from financial reorganization as a strong, regional chain of discount stores.
It's glory days are in the past.
Phar-Mor had 25,000 employees and more than 300 stores in 33 states when it filed for Chapter 11 protection in August 1992. The former Strouss department store building on Federal Plaza was bulging at its seams with Phar-Mor employees a decade ago.
Looking back: Now, with the company involved in its second bankruptcy reorganization, it will be scaling back again. The Tamco warehouse in Austintown, which had nearly 1,000 employees at its peak, has laid off 70 of the 350 that were working there when the latest bankruptcy was announced.
Phar-Mor will close 65 of the 139 stores it has in 24 states. Exactly how many states will remain Phar-Mor markets won't be known until the final decisions are made, but it is certain to be a tighter, more manageable chain.
Phar-Mor, the eighth largest pharmacy chain in the nation based on sales, is likely to drop out off the top 10. Its stock, which sold at $12 just three years ago and at 61 cents last week, is worth the paper it's printed on.
And there will be fewer than 200 people in its downtown offices, though how many fewer isn't known.
Still, we have to root for this much smaller company to make it because it remains a Mahoning County enterprise. Youngstown area residents have to acknowledge that when they'd visit Florida, or Georgia or Illinois and see a familiar Phar-Mor sign they'd boast, "That's a Youngstown company."
Future shock: If we don't support this new, smaller company, it will be gobbled up by another chain, and all we'll see is more empty offices, more empty store fronts and more empty warehouse space.
Surviving as a smaller, tougher competitor in a business that sees drug store chains build new buildings across from each other just to see which one goes out of business first isn't going to be easy. But maybe while the giants are dueling, a little guy can survive.