Teague’s only pharmacy closes its doors

A longtime business in Teague closed its doors last Friday.

Pharmacy Plus, originally Teague City Drug, ceased operation after more than 80 years in business last week. Store owner and operator Tommy Neale said that business has suffered in recent years.

“The business has been in decline for several years,” Neale said. “We were also unable to get some third-party contracts that we badly needed. The third-party contracts with the two biggest employers in Teague - BNSF Railroad and Teague ISD - were denied. We lost a lot of business after that. Third-party reimbursements have fallen to such a low level that we can’t afford to pay our pharmacists, staff or rent.”

The Neale Family has owned and operated the pharmacy since the 1940s. Tommy’s father, James Neale, purchased it from Drs. Emmitt Hedley and Richard Harrison when it was still called Teague City Drug.

“City Drug opened in the 1940s, and it became Pharmacy Plus in 1966 after I graduated from pharmacy school and moved back to Teague,” Neale said. “This is my home. I was born and raised here, and we raised our kids here. In the 1990s, a tornado came through town and blew away the old red brick two-story building that we had.

We moved into this building, which was a vacant grocery store. I graduated from pharmacy school in 1966 from University of Houston, and from Teague in 1959. My son graduated from Teague in 1980 and from University of Houston pharmacy school in 1986. My father bought the old city drug from two MDs, Dr. Emmitt Hedley and Dr. Richard Harrison. Once upon a time, it was common for physicians to own pharmacies. They no longer can.”

When James Neale retired, Tommy and his son, Tom, took over the pharmacy. The family also operates the Pharmacy Plus in Groesbeck.

“The records will move to Groesbeck, but our patients have the choice of transferring their prescriptions to any pharmacy,” Neale said. “We’ve operated the Groesbeck location since 1972, and it has more traffic and is a better market for a small town pharmacy. Groesbeck is a county seat and there are a lot of businesses related to government activities. There’s nothing like that in Teague.”