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People\u2019s Pharmacy, a longtime independent Austin pharmacy founded in 1980, has been sold after 46 years of Swail family ownership.<\/p>\n
People’s Rx<\/p>\n
People\u2019s Rx<\/a>, a family-owned fixture in Austin for nearly 50 years, has been sold to the owner of local compounding pharmacy CPRx in a deal that will bring physicians and nurse practitioners into People\u2019s four retail locations.<\/p>\n CPRx owner Kimberli Wiley purchased People\u2019s with financing from Austin-based\u00a0Victory Medical Center<\/a>, which will collaborate with People\u2019s to provide the new medical services.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cPeople\u2019s and I go way back,\u201d said Bill Franklin, Victory Medical founder and medical director. \u201c(People\u2019s founder) Bill Swail and I were friends back in the early days.\u201d<\/p>\n For customers, the most visible changes will be the addition of medical providers and new products.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we don’t take away what people already have. I mean, they’ll still offer all the same supplements,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cYou know, they’ll still fill all the same prescriptions. We’re literally just adding services and products.\u201d<\/p>\n The pharmacies are expected to begin hosting physicians and nurse practitioners about one day a week, initially for half-day sessions. The schedule could expand depending on demand.\u00a0Providers will be able to see patients at the pharmacy, including people interested in GLP-1 medications for weight loss. People\u2019s also plans to expand its selection of peptides and other products<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The addition of medical providers isn’t entirely new for People\u2019s. CEO Stephen Erickson said the pharmacy had practitioners working with customers in its stores several years ago, although that program eventually ended.<\/p>\n Erickson said the purchase was structured as a stock sale and the new ownership plans to retain the People\u2019s name and continue offering its existing prescriptions, supplements and other products.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is a great opportunity to make sure that People\u2019s Pharmacy can continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, People’s Rx Westlake store moved to its new location at the Mira Vista shopping center on Bee Cave Road.<\/p>\n Errich Petersen Photography<\/p>\n The leadership team at People\u2019s will also remain the same, with the exception of Erickson, who will consult with the company during the transition period.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cLeading Peoples for the past five years has been a highlight of my career,\u201d he said. \u201cThe customer loyalty and appreciation and high regard held for Peoples is unparalleled.\u201d<\/p>\n The sale follows several years of financial and operational changes at People\u2019s.<\/p>\n When People\u2019s founder Bill Swail died<\/a>, his four children inherited the company through a trust. The business subsequently struggled financially during the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>.\u00a0After it returned to profitability, the family decided to sell and considered multiple potential buyers before Wiley.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the years leading up to the sale, People\u2019s also overhauled its operations.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Erickson described a company in the process of modernizing its technology and operations, including updating its computer systems, streamlining paper-heavy processes and refreshing its stores.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of it was just bringing People\u2019s into the 21st century,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Swail founded the pharmacy in 1980, building it around conventional pharmacy services alongside supplements, compounding and a holistic approach to health care. In 1989, People’s made national news by ending cigarette sales and publicly burning its remaining inventory on National Smokeout Day.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 2015, it entered into a partnership with Apple to provide pharmacy services to employees and dependents at the tech giant’s North Austin campus. The partnership expanded again in 2026 with a People’s location at Apple\u2019s second Austin campus. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople\u2019s has persisted and it really does have a strong brand and it has a strong reputation because they help people, you know, and that\u2019s really what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cWe intend to preserve that as much as we possibly can. That\u2019s not going away.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People\u2019s Pharmacy, a longtime independent Austin pharmacy founded in 1980, has been sold after 46 years of Swail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-409861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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