Saratoga News

Photograph courtesy of Ray Rossi

The Saratoga Drug store has been a fixture in Saratoga since 1904.

A landmark drugstore may be forced out of the Village

By Sarah Lombardo

It's had a presence in the Saratoga Village since 1904, but soon the Saratoga Drug Store may be gone. The same store where Donna Reed was once photographed chatting at the soda fountain is embroiled in a battle to stay in the Village, the lease for the space at 14413 Big Basin Way having expired in May.

Business owner Ray Rossi and building owner and manager Marcelle Bloxham and Michelle Beck, respectively, were scheduled to go to court July 22 to decide the fate of the store. The meeting is an appeal by Rossi of a decision handed down against him two weeks ago.

Rossi said he isn't sure when he must vacate the property, but said that if he loses the case, he'll probably have anywhere from 15 to 30 days to leave.

In dispute is the rent Bloxham and Beck, who own the Golden Mirror, are asking for the space, and the validity of a lease agreement that would have given Rossi the option to keep his business in the same location.

Rossi was notified earlier this year his rent would be increased from about $3,000 to almost $6,000 a month. "[Bloxham and Beck] just felt like my rent had been too low for too many years," he said. Although the amount was surprising, Rossi said he was not surprised to be asked to leave when his lease was up. According to Rossi, the landlords offered to buy him out in 1995 when a popular coffee-chain business offered much more for the space. Rossi refused.

"So, I knew in 1997, when my lease was up May 1, that we would be in trouble," he said.

But Rossi is reluctant to discuss the case or his landlords.

Repeated phone calls to the Golden Mirror were not returned.

Rossi said he considered moving the business to another location in the Village.

"There were a few places I did look at, but they were either just not big enough or didn't have the access to parking," he said, adding that finding a new home for his business was a daunting task. "It's a big job to move a pharmacy."

Barbara McLaughlin, an employee at the store who came in looking for part-time work almost five years ago and now puts in a full week, said that although the end of the store means she'll be out of a job, she feels badly for the customers.

"I think it's the saddest thing because of the people who depend on us," she said. "It breaks my heart."

"It's really going to hurt this town," she said. "It's going to hurt this Village."

Rossi said loss of the store will affect merchants and shoppers alike.

"It's bad for the Village. If they get $2.82 [per square foot] for this place, what is it going to do to the rents for everybody else? For the other little guys struggling?" he said. As for customers, Rossi said the Village would lose those shoppers. "That's going to take people out of the Village who could have been shopping somewhere else, too."

McLaughlin and Rossi are not alone in their sentiments: Lenny Sullivan, who owns the nearby bar, The Bank, said he also thought the loss of the store was a loss for the Village merchants.

"I think it's poor for Saratoga because first they lost the hardware store, and then they lost the liquor store and now the drugstore. So what do they have to offer anyone?" he said.

While waiting for the future of the store to be decided, Rossi said he plans to prepare a display about the store's history for customers, but said he isn't sure if he'll look for another job elsewhere or just take a vacation for a while. But he said he will miss the customers he has served for almost 20 years more than his business itself.

"I'm a pharmacist. I can probably go to work somewhere else," he said. "I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss the people. Even if I do go to work for somebody else, it's not the same thing."

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