When Sandy Dimetro opened Westwood Pharmacy in 1961, it was what many entrepreneurial pharmacists were doing – opening their own stores.
Here in San Jose, for example, just a few years earlier, there had been thirteen pharmacies just on Lincoln Avenue. Today, on that same long street, there’s one. And unlike the thirteen, it’s a store owned by a huge company, not by an individual pharmacist.
In brief, that tells the story of Sandy Dimetro’s long struggle to serve his diminishing number of customers at his Meridian Avenue store. It was a struggle that ended a few weeks ago, when Sandy Dimetro died, thus reducing to only two or three the number of privately-owned drug stores in the entire San Jose area.
Like Sandy’s Westwood Pharmacy, they’re fighting to stay alive, not only competing with the big chains, but also struggling with insurance companies, with the increasing complexities of our health system and with the government itself.
Sandy Dimetro put up the good fight for many years. As a customer of his, I was a witness to that fight. I’m grateful for his tenacity. And I’ll miss him.
