AUSTINTOWN Snyders to open Drug Emporium by end of year

A spokesman said the chain is looking for other Youngstown- area sites.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Less than a year after opening a distribution center in Austintown, Minnesota-based Snyders Drug Stores is making plans to introduce local shoppers to its discount drugstore concept.
Snyders, which operates traditional and discount drugstores under several names, will open a Drug Emporium at Raccoon and Kirk roads.
Rich Juliano, executive vice president of marketing and a Canfield resident, said the store will open by year's end.
Snyders first venture in the Mahoning Valley was the Western Wholesale Distribution center, in the former Tamco Distribution Center on Victoria Road. The facility opened late last year and employs about 140.
Juliano said the 28,000-square-foot Drug Emporium will occupy a part of the former Ames Department Store. Big Lots will move from Raccoon Road to occupy the rest of the space.
Having the distribution center so close will greatly reduce shipping expenses, he said, making the new Austintown store cost-effective.
Drug Emporium will feature a drive-through pharmacy and will employ between 40 and 50 full- and part-time workers. Pharmacy services are the chain's biggest strength, he said, but the store also will offer health and beauty aids, cosmetics, hair care products, over-the-counter medications and a line of 99-cent products.
The chain's stores also offer close-out items, usually first-quality goods that vendors want to liquidate.
Juliano said Snyders has no other local store sites in mind yet but is always looking for other opportunities. The company has few areas where it operates one store, he said
Efficiency
Opening the Austintown distribution center greatly improved Snyders' efficiency, Juliano added. Before the facility opened, the company relied on distributors around the country and had to ship, then reship its inventory.
Now Western Wholesale Distribution serves all of Snyders' 160 corporate stores and more than 100 independent retailers it supplies around the country. The building had been a warehouse for Phar-Mor, but it closed when the Youngstown-based discount drugstore chain went bankrupt and liquidated its merchandise in 2002.
State and local government officials put together a grant and tax-abatement package to win the Snyders warehouse deal. Incentives included a $100,000 business development grant and a $75,000 industrial training grant, both from the Ohio Department of Development, and a 10-year, 60 percent property tax abatement approved by Mahoning County and Austintown Township officials.
Giant Eagle said it also contributed about $1.5 million in incentives by reducing its rent and offering Snyders bargain prices on the Phar-Mor inventory.
vinarsky@vindy.com