Saranac Lake Walgreens Pharmacy to Close Before Weekend | News, sports, jobs

Walgreens in Saranac Lake seen here Nov. 22 (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The pharmacy counter inside the Saranac Lake Walgreens is actually closing temporarily on Friday.

Although a sign on the building’s front door last week originally said the pharmacy would close Dec. 2 due to a “lack of staff” Walgreens spokesman Sami Stansberry said this week that the actual closing date is Friday.

The store remains open for other over-the-counter medications. But until the pharmacy manager position is filled, people will have to drive to the chain’s Lake Placid location to pick up their prescriptions from the company.

Managers and staff at the store said last week that they cannot talk to the press about the details. Stansberry said she does not have details about what caused the staffing shortage or when the store may be able to reopen the pharmacy counter.

The sign on the door says the Saranac Lake and Lake Placid stores share a central profile system so medication scripts can be pulled over to that location by Lake Placid staff when contacted. The Lake Placid store number is 518-523-5305.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” it says on the sign.

Individuals with automatic refill prescriptions will have their scripts automatically transferred to the Lake Placid location.

“All prescriptions will be automatically transferred,” Stansberry said.

If a medication is a controlled substance, the sign says people should talk to their doctors to get the script sent to the Lake Placid Walgreens.

Last month, Walgreens announced it planned to close about 1,200 of its 8,500 locations in the coming year as several major drugstore chains scale back their presence.

Stansberry said there are no current plans to close the Saranac Lake Walgreens.