“ It hurts my heart, but I have no choice. » After 34 years behind the counter of her pharmacy in Marly-Gomont (Aisne), in the summer of 2024 Maryvonne Horiot will finally erase the emblematic green cross that has adorned the small one-story townhouse for decades. The future pensioner searched for a buyer for three years. Up to and including selling his business. Vain. “ In principle, pharmacies take on 70% of sales, I leave it at 30%. The business is still profitable and I did some work five years ago. All you have to do is leave your luggage »she says disappointed.

The mobilization of artisans, small traders and health workers in the village through broadcasts on social networks at the end of September. a small ad with the famous title Marly Gomont (2007) by singer Kamini, nothing will have changed. Or almost. A young local pharmacist who was ready to buy the pharmacy ended up giving up at the last minute. Without a buyer by June 30, residents of the town and surrounding villages will have to drive to Guise, almost twenty minutes away, to pick up their medication.

500 kilometers away, in Oiron (Deux-Sèvres), 62-year-old Hélène Bargue didn’t even have the chance to score a hit. “ Nothing. No call for two years! After almost a hundred years of existence, the city’s only pharmacy will disappear. This will not help the village’s survival », laments the manager, who has been praising the quality of life in her adopted home for 27 years, where she speaks to her patient regulars. Like Maryvonne Horiot, her business is profitable without reaching the peak sales of large companies that would allow her to hire an assistant to assist her. “ This is the difficulty of small village pharmacies. Young people don’t dream of standing alone at the bar »she states.

The community 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 decreased. “ This year we fell below the symbolic mark of 20,000 pharmacies. In 2013 there were almost 22,000. On average, between 200 and 300 pharmacies disappear every year »explains David Syr, deputy director of GERS Data, an industry specialist, who has noted an acceleration in the pace of closures in the last six months due to rising costs caused by inflation and pharmacist shortages.

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