signs: Rexall Drugs

Rexall Drugs

This sign on the corner of International and Seminary has been on my list for a while. I saw it some time back and got a quick shot, but with riding the e-bike to and from Habitat I hadn't been this way recently. Today I drove, so I went home a different way so I could shoot the sign.

It's no longer a drug store, but El Mercadito ("little market".) Rexall used to be a large chain of drug stores across North America, mostly individual franchises. They weren't able to compete with the corporate-owned chains like Eckerds and Thrifty Drugs, and by 1977 had largely ceased to exist except a few stores. The name lives on in some Rexall branded products sold at Dollar General stores. I remember Rexall because it was the only drug store in the town I grew up in back in Michigan, and the family who owned it had a son a year or two ahead of me in school.