Toms Drug Co. to close

WILMINGTON — A local business that’s been a landmark in downtown Wilmington is closing its doors.

Toms Drug Store has been serving Wilmington for 75 years. It’ll be closed for good at the end of the month.

Susan Harrington has been the owner for the past 17 years, but her late husband had owned it since the seventies. She says it’s time to move on.

The Rite Aid on 16th and Dawson streets is taking over the store’s services and has offered positions to Toms Drug Store employees.

Harrington is hopeful Rite Aid will also carry on some of her store’s traditions, like home deliveries. She’s says she’s proud of how the store has served Wilmington.

Harrington said, “We’ve just been here on this corner doing what we do best and that’s serving people.”

Harrington says though the decision is a heart-wrenching one, she tried to make the best decision for her customers and employees.

Harrington is in the process of writing letters to her customers to let them know about the closing.

Twenty-five-year employee Vera Lovell said, “I enjoyed serving them and I made a lot of friends and I’m going to miss everybody.”

“People are going to be kind of sad, too, especially the elderly people, but it’s a move that has to be made,” Lovell said.

The store will close on November 28th. Harrington leases the corner lot and said she isn’t sure what will go in its place.