Buchanan lost its last independent pharmacy Wednesday with the closing of Wisner Beck Drug Store, 802 E. Front St.

It was a sad day for pharmacist Greg Beck, who will join Rite Aid, which bought out the business the Wisner family established in the 1930s.

Two other employees also have the option of joining Rite Aid.

“I’ve never worked anywhere else. I started stocking shelves when I was 12,” he said. “It’s hard to see it go.”

Beck, a pharmacist since 1988, said his father bought the drug store in 1969.

Greg Beck took over in 1993.

With reimbursements from insurance companies increasingly limited, only chains can absorb the losses.

Drug stores also compete with mail-order pharmacies, to which Buchanan’s largest employer, the schools, switched.

According to a 2008 report by the Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis, 998 independently owned rural U.S. pharmacies have closed since May 1, 2006.