Wellby Superdrug

[gu4ever]

Does anyone remember the drugstore Wellby Superdrug?
Their slogan "take care of yourself at Wellby's". They were a division of Hannaford Supermarket out of Maine. Sold to Rite Aid Pharmacy back in the spring of 1992.
I know of the following locations in New Hampshire:
* Milford
* Bedford
* Derry
* Raymond
* Exeter
* Portsmouth
There also is a large concentration up in Maine where the company headquarters is located.
Please discuss.

[gu4ever]

[gu4ever]

[gu4ever]

[gu4ever]

[gu4ever]

[Zayre88]

Wellby logo, taken from a North Hampton factory outlet center brochure.

[gu4ever]

Here is a copy of the Wellby Superdrug logo.

[gu4ever]

Here is price tag from store 512 in Milford, NH.

[gu4ever]

The former location of Wellby Superdrug in Bedford, NH. In 1992 they relocated the drugstore into the Alexander's Shop 'n Save next door.

[kendra]

Oh yes, we had many of them up here if memory serves. I seem to think Wellby shut down around the same time as Laverdiere's in the Bangor area, but I could be wrong.

I remember finding toiletries with Wellby tags on them in my bathroom cupboards as recently as the late 1990s, but unfortunately this was long before my interest in retail nostalgia developed into a proper "hobby," so unfortunately those are long gone.

EDIT: Poked around and found out that Rite Aid bought the Laverdiere's chain in 1994, so my memory served me well, apparently. :P

[gu4ever]

The former store in Dover, NH. This was a unique location that had a special prototype design. It was called a railway design? Each aisle ran into the next aisle. When I had visited the store the layout reminded me of a large pinwheel.

[gu4ever]

The store entrance was just to the right in this photo.

[gu4ever]

The former Wellby's of North Hampton, NH.

[gu4ever]

I helped out at this Wellby's back when Globe Department Store was still open for business.

[gu4ever]

The Hood Plaza location was originally an Alexander's pharmacy that was purchased by Wellby Superdrug in 1991, and in 1992 the store was purchased by Rite Aid. This was the location I was promoted to as a store manager for Rite Aid, it was a great store and I had originally helped at that location when it was Wellby's back in summer of 1991.
Sadly when I visited this location yesterday all that remains is a white brick wall of the former store. Shaw's has again expanded and has taken the former retail space of the drugstore.

Here's a birds eye view of the shopping center. You can see the Shaw's building and then a darker roof line on the right hand end of the building. Wellby's was located right in the middle it's the section with the white roof.

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=r4fn2z91pqq8&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=13749724&ss=yp.hood%20plaza~pg.1~sst.0&encType=1

[gu4ever]

Wellby Superdrug had two locations in Derry, NH. One at Hood Plaza, the other on Birch Street.
This is a picture of the exterior of the Birch Street store. This is a great location it was originally built for Wellby Superdrug back in 1991.

[gu4ever]

The Birch Street location.

[videogamer75]

What is occupying the building on Birch St?

[gu4ever]

The interior view of the Birch Street store. You can see bellow the Rite Aid striped the original "Wellby white" walls.
Their color scheme was white walls with a 12" grey strip that ran the perimeter ceiling line. The floors were also white with a charcoal fleck and the peremiter wall valances and cash wrap counters were a red laminate.

[videogamer75]

Oh cool, so it became a Rite Aid. How long has it been vacant for?

[gu4ever]

The pharmacy canopy.

[gu4ever]

The Raymond, NH store was originally a Freedom Drug store.
I remember visiting that location when it still had the "Freedom" colors which were a dark gold, olive green and rust and brown. The carpet in the store was similiar to what is seen at CVS except instead of gray it was a shade of olive green.
Wellby's took over this location in 1991 and renovated the store with a new store reset and paint job. In 1992 Rite Aid took over the location and eventually expanded and renovated the store again. Now the site is home to Dollar Tree.
Birds eye view link.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=r55czk922jn3&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=13442192&encType=1

[gu4ever]

Here's a picture of the former Wellby Superdrug of Milford, NH. This was the location that I worked at when it opened in May of 1991 until the Wellby division was sold to Rite Aid in April of 1992.

[gu4ever]

History on the building itself. Originally built in the 70's for P&C Foods store. The P&C closed towards the end of the 80's. The building sat vacant until Hannaford purchased the building and made major renovations for it's freestanding drugstore "Wellby Superdrug".
The entrance to Wellbys was in the center of the building with 3 windows to the left of the lobby entrance. A large wood box canopy hung and was supported by large square stone colums, attached to the canopy were bubble letters that spelled out Wellby Superdrug.
In 1992 the store was changed to a Rite Aid Pharmacy format, all the new shelving, checkout counter and showcases were thrown away and replaced with Rite Aid standard stock counters and 4' shelving section in a front to back aisle format.
In 2001-2002 Rite Aid closed this location and retained a newer location on Elm Street that was more profitable and also at the time the newest RA1 prototype store.
The former P&C foods building again sat empty until Brooks Pharmacy decided they wanted the location. Brooks was unhappy with the center entrance and the lack of a drive thru option for the pharmacy department. The building again went through exstensive renovations moving the store entrance back to it's original locations as P&C Foods originally had designed the building.
Rite Aid once again has ownership of this location after the purchase of the Brooks Pharmacy chain.

[gu4ever]

The only thing left that I remember from Wellby's is this staircase that is now closed off by the dumpster corral at the bottom of the stairs and the bark mulch landscape above by the drive-thru.
This lower area originally had a concrete walk from the parking area up the stairs onto the buildings store front walkway to the covered canopy lobby.
This picture made me pretty sad, I remeber walking up those stairs from employee parking to go to work at night after school and on the weekends. :(

[mikey7290]

Originally posted by gu4ever
Wellby Superdrug had two locations in Derry, NH. One at Hood Plaza, the other on Birch Street.
This is a picture of the exterior of the Birch Street store. This is a great location it was originally built for Wellby Superdrug back in 1991.

I was just looking at the pic of this store.  If it's still empty, from the building's design, it would make a great new location for Kinney Drugs!

[gu4ever]

Take care of yourself... at Wellby's...

[gu4ever]

I was really excited last night to find a price tag on a video case from Wellby Superdrug!!  ;D

The letter is coded for the month k=nov of 1991, department 300 was general merchandise. I kind of forgot what a pain that was to have to find the price tag on each item the customer was buying and enter it into the register.
Example $9.99 department 300 once everything was entered you had to subtotal, then total and then tender payment!!
WOW....do I feel old!!  ::)

[gu4ever]

Oh yeah was I excited when a box was unearthed from my highschool days at moms!! Inside was several paycheck stubs and some wall-art that was actually just one of the large paper shopping bags cut up so I could have it pasted on my bedroom wall.