“ It hurts my heart, but I have no other choice. » After thirty-four years behind the counter of her pharmacy in Marly-Gomont (Aisne), Maryvonne Horiot will definitively extinguish, in the summer of 2024, the emblematic green cross which has adorned the small one-story town house for decades . For three years, the future retiree looked for a buyer. Up to selling off his business. In vain. “ In principle, pharmacies take over 70% of turnover, I leave it at 30%. The business is nevertheless profitable, and I did some work five years ago. All you have to do is put down your bags »she says, disappointed.
The mobilization of artisans, small traders and health professionals in the village, by broadcasting on social networks, at the end of September, a small ad using the famous title Marly-Gomont (2007) by singer Kamini, will not have changed anything. Or almost. A young pharmacist from the region, ready to buy the pharmacy, finally gave up at the last minute. Without a buyer by June 30, residents of the town and surrounding villages will have to travel to Guise, nearly twenty minutes away, to pick up their medicine.
500 kilometers away, in Oiron (Deux-Sèvres), Hélène Bargue, 62, did not even have the chance to make a hit. “ Nothing. Not a call in two years! After almost a hundred years of existence, the only pharmacy in the town will disappear. This will not help the survival of the village », laments the manager, who has been praising the quality of life in her adopted town for twenty-seven years, where she is on familiar terms with her patient base of regulars. Like Maryvonne Horiot, her business is viable, without reaching the sales peaks of large structures which would allow her to hire an assistant to support her. “ This is the difficulty of small village pharmacies. Young people don’t dream of being alone at the counter »she observes.
The municipality is ready to make every effort
How many are desperately looking for a buyer? In ten years, the number of pharmacies installed in France has fallen. “ This year we fell below the symbolic bar of 20,000 pharmacies. There were nearly 22,000 in 2013. On average, between 200 and 300 pharmacies disappear each year »details David Syr, deputy director of GERS Data, a specialist in the sector, who notes an acceleration in the pace of closures over the past six months due to the increase in costs with inflation and shortages of pharmacists.
You have 60% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.