On Tuesday, the Sun spoke with Mike Burns, owner of AuBurn Pharmacy which purchased the Wilkinson Pharmacy chain, and with Kevin McCollough, owner of Evans Drug which will receive all of Wilkinson’s pharmacy records next Tuesday night in an electronic transfer.

Burns said, “Community pharmacy is tough.”

He said, “Kevin over there and me. We’re not fighting each other. We are fighting the pharmacy benefit managers. There are three CBMs in the country that control over 80% of all prescription fills. They tell us what to do. And they tell us what we are going to make. So community pharmacy is darned challenging.”

He said the Bisners are good people. “We came in and bought all their stores. Mike and Christy are still working for us. Jerry is still working part time for us and always plans to.”

“I’m a very small town guy born and raised in Eudora, KS. We live in Garnett, KS. That’s 3,800 people.”

“I know small towns and I also have known Kevin. So once we got the stores bought, I reached out to Kevin and said, ‘Kevin, everybody thinks competition is good in a small town.’ Sometimes it’s not, Kenny. In our town, Garnett, we’ve got two small papers. Try that one.”

Q. We have two in El Dorado.”

“Guys, you are not helping the community. You can have two that struggle or you can have one that can do well. It can offer more in community support. It can offer more service. Help support your Boys Scouts and Chamber of Commerce but you split that into two and it’s going to be tough.”

Q. We are doing all that and the other one doesn’t cover anything.

“You get my point. And because of how challenging community pharmacy is I proactively reached out to Kevin because Kevin runs a very good operation. Kevin is a big community supporter. He’s very involved and runs a good operation.”

“Could we come in and breathe some life into that pharmacy? Yes, but I felt like it would be best long term knowing the challenges community pharmacy faces, we would be better off long term in combining the stores and having one pharmacy in El Dorado.”

“Kevin’s chance of surviving and thriving and being able to offer services and community support long term is now greatly enhanced because of our decision and it wasn’t an easy decision.”

Mike asked the Sun to contact Kevin saying he expected the call.

Kevin said, “We both recognize the challenges of operating a pharmacy in a small town.”

Kevin said it might look like they have no competition, but Evans does have competition with the big chains. He said he will try to always act like they do have competition.

He said that former Wilkinson customers will see a decrease in medical costs by transferring to Evans. He said AuBurn Pharmacy will continue to operate Wilkinson Pharmacy at other locations and in Nevada and will be completive there.

Kevin said that Evans is offering a new service at no extra charge or fee – packaging of prescriptions. For example, if a customer takes 10 medications in the morning and five in the evening, Evans will package the pills together so the customer only has to deal with one package of a morning and one of an evening and not have to open every bottle. Each packet will contain a list of all the medications and the instructions for taking.

What former Wilkinson customers can expect: Kevin said for prescription or other medical orders on Wednesday and after, his staff will go over each one very carefully to make sure the files transferred accurately.

“They don’t have to call. Just bring their prescription in. We really want to get it right the first time.”

He said, “We still deliver for free. We still mail for free.”

He said he just got a call over the weekend from a customer in Jerico Springs who needed medication. He delivered it… free.

Evans has a late night phone number posted on the door if a patient has a medication emergency.

He encouraged former Wilkinson customers for any medical service to “at least give us a look.”

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