Colliers closed

TIMES photograph by Annette Beard Mel Collier, left, owner of Collier’s Drug stores, met with employees of the Pea Ridge store Wednesday, March 26, as officials from Fred’s gathered preparing to take possession of the inventory. Employees — Tina Benson, Kenneth Mudd, Peggy Stone and Sheryl Rose — continued working until the last minute of the transfer.
TIMES photograph by Annette Beard Mel Collier, left, owner of Collier’s Drug stores, met with employees of the Pea Ridge store Wednesday, March 26, as officials from Fred’s gathered preparing to take possession of the inventory. Employees — Tina Benson, Kenneth Mudd, Peggy Stone and Sheryl Rose — continued working until the last minute of the transfer.

A sign on the door of Collier's Drug Store announced that the store would close for inventory at noon Wednesday, March 26. Unbeknownst to customers and employees, the store was closing for good at 2 p.m.

"It's tearing my heart out," Collier said, explaining that there was a confidentiality clause in the contract. Collier purchased the stores from his father, Carl Collier, in 2007.

"I've always worked in the stores, since I was 9," Collier said. "This was the first acquisition under my watch," he said of the purchase of the store from Bob Harp in 1995. Prior to closing the Pea Ridge location, there were nine Collier Drug stores in the northwest Arkansas area.

Collier said Fred's officials had asked to buy all the Collier stores and he declined. Later, they requested to buy the Pea Ridge store.

"It was a chain of events," Collier explained. The combination of the need to spend nearly $100,000 to remodel the current store to add a drive-through and make it more appealing to customers, the decision by Northwest Medical to pull out of Pea Ridge and the Neighborhood Market pharmacy being built in town, all contributed to Collier's decision. "There were a lot of factors."

He said all inventory and records were to be transfered to Fred's Pharmacy.

One employee, Tina Benson, will go to work at Fred's, Collier said, providing Collier's customers with a familiar face. The pharmacist, Sheryl Rose, will transfer to the Dixon Street Collier's.

"It's been 20 great years here. This town has treated us wonderfully," Collier said. "We will still sponsor things for the school and community. They've helped us so much for so many years."

"This community is great. We've really developed an attachment to Pea Ridge."

He said the Bentonville store will deliver to Pea Ridge.

General News on 04/02/2014