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<\/p>\nAn East Bradenton staple is shutting down after more than 130 years in business.<\/p>\n
Robert Pelot, the owner of Pelot\u2019s Rexall Pharmacy, said it\u2019s been in his family since one of his great-grandfathers moved to the area from Indiana in the late 1800s. The longstanding business closed its doors Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The pharmacy moved to the Davis Building, at the corner of Manatee Avenue East and Ninth Street East in downtown Bradenton, in 1934.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe started the pharmacy down at the center of the city of Manatee,\u201d Pelot said.<\/p>\n
The city of Manatee was the first area to be settled in Manatee County. Extending from the east side of First Street to the Braden River, the city stood for just over 100 years before merging with the City of Bradenton in 1943.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been here in Manatee and Bradenton for many years, and I guess it\u2019s just time,\u201d Pelot, who cited age as one of the factors in closing, told the Bradenton Herald.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The pharmacy was originally named Manatee Drug Company. When the business was passed to the family\u2019s next generation, it was renamed Pelot\u2019s Pharmacy, and it got its final name when Pelot\u2019s father added the word \u201cRexall\u201d after returning from World War II and taking over the business, according to Pelot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been my whole life, and I started working here when I was 7 years old,\u201d Pelot said. \u201cMy dad had me down here working, and I\u2019ve been here ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pelot bought the business from his parents in 1972 and took over operations. He says the decision to close the generational family business makes him feel \u201ca lot of regret, a lot of sadness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI regret that I can\u2019t keep going, but I\u2019ll be 79 in a little bit, and I just didn\u2019t think I could go any further,\u201d Pelot said.<\/p>\n
Three of Pelot\u2019s daughters worked at the business as pharmacy technicians. One of them, Erin Daniels, says that she always loved working at the family pharmacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sad that it\u2019s closing,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cIt means a lot to me, and I\u2019m going to miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pelot says he plans to devote his retirement to spending time with his wife, five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
He said he has always been \u201cmarried to the store,\u201d and the store\u2019s closing will allow Pelot to spend more quality time with his family.<\/p>\n
Pelot says he has gained a lot from running this business, and that he has \u201cmet so many people and had so many experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to thank all of my customers and the whole community for everything that they\u2019ve given me and all the friendships…\u201d Pelot said. \u201cI just enjoyed it 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An East Bradenton staple is shutting down after more than 130 years in business. Robert Pelot, the owner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7088,86656,86655,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-184045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-manatee-county","9":"tag-rexall-pharmacy","10":"tag-robert-pelot","11":"tag-tampa","12":"tag-tampa-headlines","13":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}