Parkland Pharmacy, 300 Knox Abbott Drive (Parkland Plaza): 1995 27 comments
When I think of "real" pharmacies in Columbia, I have a little mental list. If you were born a bit earlier or lived in another part of town, your list is probably different, but on mine are Campbell's Drugstore on Forest Drive, Liggett's in Trenholm Plaza, Cedar Terrace Pharmacy on Garners Ferry, The Big 'T' on Taylor Street and Parkland Pharmacy.
Parkland Pharmacy was on the other side of town from us, so we didn't get there often, but the times we did made an impression on me. My memory is that it served as much as Cayce's General Store as it did a pharmacy, and the aisles were crammed with all sorts of general merchandise. Also, and this is what drew my attention as a kid, it was a "contract" Post Office, and the back wall was lined with personal Post Office boxes. My aunt in Fernandina had a P.O. Box rather than home delivery for all of my childhood, and I always associated them with exotic places. The idea that we had Post Office Boxes in Columbia, and at a drugstore! was very strange to me. I don't think the store had a lunch counter or soda fountain, though it was about the right vintage for that.
Eventually, the same factors that brought down all the other landmark pharmacies in town brought down Parkland. I recall going there a couple of times in the 80s and thinking that it was operating under diminished circumstances, and finally they took the plunge and let CVS buy them out (or at least I assume that's what transpired). I don't know what happened to all the people with PO boxes there. I presume they were let to keep the same box number at one of the Cayce POs. If not, it will have been a mess!
As I noted recently, it appears that the CVS in the old Parkland Pharmacy slot will be moving. I don't know what will take its place.
UPDATE 29 Oct 2010: The CVS moved some time ago, and to date the old Parkland Pharmacy slot in Parkland Plaza is vacant:
UPDATE 9 September 2011: Changed closing date from "1980s" to 1995 based on commenter Andrew's research.
27 Responses to 'Parkland Pharmacy, 300 Knox Abbott Drive (Parkland Plaza): 1995'
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Dennis
11 Dec 08 at 9:17 am
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Sunset Pharmacy on 378 near Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia would also qualify as a "real" drug store.
Tom
11 Dec 08 at 11:38 am
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My Dad was friends with the guy who owned Parkland. It actually was around until the mid 90s I believe. As he got older he decided to sell out to CVS. Basically they agreed for the place to remain the same but under the CVS name. Not sure what will happen now that they are leaving.
Mr Bill
11 Dec 08 at 11:51 am
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Before I came along, my dad was the manager of the sporting goods department. As part of the job, he also had some kind of radio show where he gave a fishing report. I always thought it was so strange that there was a sporting good section in a drugstore.
nicole
11 Dec 08 at 12:33 pm
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I was going to say I thought there was a lot of fishing stuff there, but I figured I might be confusing it with Lachicott's at Pawleys which was my standard for the "we have a little of everything" store growing up. Was his fishing report on WIS by any chance? It sounds vaguely familiar
ted
11 Dec 08 at 1:06 pm
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Yes, it was. My dad said it was on AM 520, which he thinks was WIS. The fishing show was with Bill Benton. This would have been in the early to mid-seventies. Also, he said that sporting goods department was kind of a store within a store--it was called Parkland Rod & Gun.
nicole
11 Dec 08 at 5:08 pm
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Yep, if it was Bill Benton, it was WIS (though the frequency was 560). I think I heard that several times! (Though admittedly, I wouldn't have been playing close attention, not being a fisher). Very neat!
ted
11 Dec 08 at 5:22 pm
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Interesting that Parkland Pharmacy had a fishing dept. The Big T, Taylor Street Pharmacy, also had a thriving fishing dept. and sponsored fishing contests all summer long. This was way before the modern bass tournaments.
I guess certain drug stores have always had a hand in anything their customers might want, and might earn a dollar. Sort of the general stores of the late 20th century.
Dennis
11 Dec 08 at 5:36 pm
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Yes it was awesome! You could get a six pack of beer, your prozac, a pack of cigs, a birthhday card for mom and a Browning Hi-Power 9mm all in one stop. I miss those days
Vic Mantolay
29 Dec 08 at 9:02 am
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They used to sell long guns also-I once bought a shotgun there.
hunter
31 Dec 08 at 7:13 am
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My family moved from Forets Acres to Cayce in 1958 and at that time this was a Colonial grocery store. The little drive way along the left was where you pulled up and loaded your bags, or had them loaded. We had service in those days. The drug store was on corner and moved into the grocery store location I think around 1970 or 1971 when Colonial Stores started closing.
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What I remember most about Parkland Pharmacy was their vertical neon sign that had movement... It was atop the building, so you could see it from a (slight) distance, and it was a sort of Rx compounding action... liquid pouring from one container into another...
and there was the Cinderella carriage that sat in front of the Howard Johnson's across the street...
oh, man, and at Christmas, heading into Columbia, there at that hotel/motel just before you cross the bridge... that big ol' manger scene. I can *not* remember the name of that hotel/motel... there was a big, giant neon key sign... I think it's still in business, but hasn't the HoJo long since shut?
Jenny
10 Jun 10 at 3:15 am
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The hotel used to be called the Fairmont Inn. It is still open, but under a new name, which escapes me right now.
59 Ford Wheelman
10 Jun 10 at 5:49 am
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You mean the Tremont Inn? It is called the Riverside Inn now.
jamie
10 Jun 10 at 7:08 am
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The HOJO is gone and demolished, but the Cinderella carriage is safe and in the park at Cayce City Hall.
ted
10 Jun 10 at 9:55 am
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Yep, the Tremont Inn. Thanks, Jamie!
Also thanks, again, Ted for a stellar job covering the demolition of the old HoJo.
...bummer about the CVS stores springing up everywhere, but we all know the pharmaceutical companies have to have some kind of storefront from which to push their wares, be it Eckerd, Walgreen's, CVS, Rite-Aid; but I see I'm about to spin dangerously off-topic...
...so I'll close with a comment on the cinema that at one time operated at Parkland (I can't remember if the cinema replaced the bowling alley or operated concurrently).
Parkland Plaza's cinema was where I saw my first Terry Gilliam flick: Time Bandits. I still associate the closing scene--which left a profound impression--almost exclusively with my experience seeing the film at Parkland. Every time I've seen it since, I still remember how I felt and how everything looked, walking out into the parking lot, there in Cayce.
Rockin' place ya got here, Ted!
Jenny
10 Jun 10 at 2:41 pm
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Thanks Jenny!
The theater was The Gamecock
ted
10 Jun 10 at 2:43 pm
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Ooops, yeah, Tremont Inn it was. I was half right.
59 Ford Wheelman
10 Jun 10 at 4:11 pm
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This ceased to be in 1995:
END OF AN INSTITUTION REVCO BUYS PARKLAND PHARMACY
State, The (Columbia, SC) - Wednesday, May 17, 1995
Author: Pat Berman, Staff Writer
Parkland Pharmacy , a family-owned institution in Cayce for 40 years, has been sold to Revco Drug Stores Inc. for an undisclosed amount.Revco district manager Robert Creed confirmed the sale Tuesday.
The Ohio-based drugstore chain bought the store from Thomas C. Lackland III, who opened it with his wife, Addie, in 1955.
The sale follows Revco's purchase last December of another longtime family-owned drugstore, Taylor Street Pharmacy .
Revco has 26 stores in Richland and Lexington counties.
Creed said Parkland customers have been asking if Revco will keep the postal center.
The center will continue to be owned and operated by Lackland's daughter, Marie Mullender.
Lackland's brother, Bill Lackland, also will remain as a pharmacist at the Parkland Shopping Center drugstore on Knox Abbott Drive.
Gone, however, will be the sporting goods section that reflected Lackland's long-standing interest in hunting and retriever dogs. Lackland founded the Palmetto Retriever Club in 1967. Retriever owners and trainers seeking advice would make regular pilgrimages to his office at the rear of the drugstore.
Lackland and his wife opened the store in 1955 with a loan from his wife's relatives.
``It took about $10,000 to open a drugstore back then. Now we wouldn't have the kind of money you need to open one today,'' Lackland said.
Lackland, a USC graduate, was a pharmacist at the late Columbia Mayor John Campbell's drugstore before opening his own business. While Lackland filled prescriptions, Addie Lackland was the buyer and bookkeeper. She also wrote the store's advertising copy.
She wrote the store's last ad on Tuesday. ``To those loyal customers and employees who have remained with us all of this time, our gratitude and appreciation are boundless . . . We will miss our friends and customers, and again thank you for your years of loyalty. Tom and Addie.''
Lackland added simply, ``It was time.''
©1993 The State
Andrew
9 Sep 11 at 10:20 am
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folks, the bottom line should read © 1995 as opposed to © 1993 (with credit to The State ) *I stand corrected*
Andrew
9 Sep 11 at 11:58 am
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Wow, Pat Berman -- haven't seen that name in a while. And 1995 is a lot later than I thought. I'll update.
ted
9 Sep 11 at 12:29 pm
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I was so lucky to work at Parkland Pharmacy as an Rx Tech in 1988-89. Tommy and Addie were wonderful to work for! I worked with Bill Lackland and John Foster -it was one of the best jobs I ever had. I have been in Pharmacy for 33 years now, and wouldn't you know it, I'm working for CVS! I miss those old days! We were treated like humans in those days!
Lesa Jackson Hayes, CPhT
20 Jan 12 at 8:02 pm
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When I was a child i went to Parkland Pharmacy often. While my Mom and Grandma would wait for their prescriptions, i would wander off. I would always end up at the front of the store where they had the lighted cases. They had beautiful dolls and knick knack type items, alongwith seasonal items as well. I still have some of the things from there that my Mom put in my Easter basket from time to time, some "Birthday Girls" with my birth month on them, and even some dolls that came off of the heart shaed Valentine candy boxes that were a very big thing back in the day. I really do miss Parkland Pharmacy. I look at its emptiness almost every week when i eat at The Kingsman resteraunt. Does anyone remember the grocery store in Parland Plaza (where Ace Hardware is now)? I know it was called Big Star. Anyone have any info on what happened to it or the Dodd's that was also in Parkland Plaza?
DD
26 Jan 13 at 7:31 pm
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I remember the guns as well. Probably the only pharmacy that I've been in where you could get both a tube of Micatin and a Glock pistol.
SJeffcoat
18 May 13 at 12:48 pm
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tonkatoy
11 Oct 13 at 10:22 am
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It means so much to me to read these comments. I'm thankful for the many people that have fond memories of my parents store. My little MailRoom now located in Granby Village is all that's left of Parkland Pharmacy. If you look closely, I have the same glass windows at the pay counter and I still use the trash can my daddy had in his office. I miss Tom and Addie Lackland every day. I learned a lot from them and I strive to have their integrity, compassion and strength.
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This is an old thread, but just to update, Jewelry Warehouse is now in both the oldest (smaller, adjacent) location of Parkland Pharmacy and the larger later one as well.
Also, another old-style pharmacy was Triangle Pharmacy in Triangle City, West Columbia. This moved some years back and was transformed into a pharmacy that specializes in just medicines and medical equipment, but in the older location it had a fantastic soda bar that made the best banana splits ever made!
Bobby
29 Apr 19 at 2:44 pm
ted - I have to add Long's to your list of "real" drug stores. I have known Ken long since we were in the first grade together. His father started the business.
They have stuck to their core business as a medical supplier, resisting the urge to turn their shops into hybrid grocery/Hallmark/mini Wal Marts, and as a result their customers have stuck with them.