Nantucket Pharmacy Staying Open As It Nears Deal For New Operator

Nantucket Pharmacy owner Allan Bell had been preparing to shutter the Main Street pharmacy and soda fountain this Sunday after years of unsuccessfully seeking a successor to take over the operation.

But, he told the Current this week, not so fast.

Bell said the pharmacy will be staying open through the end of the year, and that he’s hopeful a deal to preserve the business into the future is close to being sealed. While the soda fountain will close this weekend, as Island Kitchen’s lease is expiring, Bell also sees a path for it to return in 2025 if everything pans out.

A group with Nantucket connections that runs pharmacies in other states (but not retail pharmacies, Bell said) is interested in taking over Nantucket Pharmacy. A letter of intent has been submitted to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy for approval.

If the deal goes through, Bell will retain ownership of the building, and enter into a lease with the new operators. He said longtime pharmacist Ken Knutti may stay on with the new group coming in.

“We’re going to continue on and go to the Board of Pharmacy in January,” Bell said.

Until the deal is finalized, Bell did not want to disclose too many details about the new group looking to operate the pharmacy, but did share that they own a home on Nantucket, and have experience in operating pharmacies elsewhere.

It was back in July 2023 that Bell first indicated that his team at Nantucket Pharmacy was coming to the end of the line and looking for someone to take the torch. But as nothing materialized over the next year-plus, he told the Current last month that the pharmacy and soda fountain would close on the Sunday after Nantucket’s Christmas Stroll.

Bell said the Current’s story on the situation published on Nov. 7 helped shake loose some additional interested parties, including the group he’s now working to secure a deal with for the future of the pharmacy.

Nantucket Pharmacy has been locally owned and serving the community since 1937, is at a crossroads. With its throwback soda fountain and gift store, is a cornerstone of Main Street, a place where generations have gathered and islanders have forged trusted relationships with the friendly and knowledgeable pharmacy team.

But independent pharmacies are a dying breed, Bell said last month, and the financial pressures on these businesses have only grown over the years.

“A pharmacy is no longer a good business model - we’re just being ravaged by the insurance companies,” Bell said, citing some of the reasons why it has been difficult to find a new operator for the pharmacy. “They choose what they will pay us. So we break even if we’re lucky, and that’s just the cost of drugs, nevermind profit. Independent pharmacies are slowly closing and the insurance companies are dragging us out of business.”

Despite those concerns, another operator may soon step in to lead Nantucket Pharmacy into a new era. Stay tuned…