Southern Indiana's iconic Butt Drugs announces it's closing its doors after 71 years

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- After 71 years, one of southern Indiana's best known pharmacies is closing.

Butt Drugs in Corydon notified customers on Thursday that it plans to close on April 29, 2023. 

"This was a decision that did not come lightly, considering Butt Drugs has been serving our beloved community for over 70 years," wrote Katie Butt Beckort. 

She is a third generation owner of the business that has been a target of more than a few one-liners from customers and the media. 

Beckort's grandparents started the pharmacy in 1952 on East Chestnut Street  as "William H. Butt Drugs." Her father continued it as "Butt Rexall Drugs." 

"When I took over and purchased it from my father, we legally changed it to 'Butt Drugs.' Keeping it simple," Beckort explained to WDRB in a past story.

"Butt was the given name, you know," Beckort said. "You make it what it is, you make it what life can be, have fun with it." 

The business has used the family name in commercial jingles with clever puns, and Beckort said the shop has been known for its old fashioned soda fountain and a prescription pick-up in the store's rear (that's no joke).

People travel from all over just to get their "I love Butt Drugs" t-shirts, magnets and hats.

Beckort said she and the staff are "deeply saddened that we must close our doors."

"Our customers have always been more than customers to us. They are family. Our staff at Butt Drugs want to thank you for your loyalty and the trust you have had in us," the notice said. 

Beckort's letter placed some of the blame on changes in healthcare and the lack of control by pharmacies to control what insurance companies pay for medicines. 

"Unfortunately, insurance companies continue to reimburse less and less. More and more prescriptions are filled where we are reimbursed less than what we pay for the medications from the wholesaler," she said. "More than 50% of all prescriptions go out the door at a loss, and this has been a trend in pharmacy that has exacerbated over the last five years." 

Beckort said the store could have closed five years ago, but she got creative and made sacrifices to keep the store open, but from a business standpoint the business was unable to continue.

"It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made," Beckort said.

Pharmacy customers were told that prescriptions on file would be transferred to a CVS on May 1, or they would have to make arrangements to transfer to another pharmacy. 

While saying bye to Butt Drugs can feel like a kick in the butt, Beckort chooses to look in the rearview mirror, and remember the happy memories in the shop.

Like how she learned to count change behind the counter as a young girl, or help run the business with her father.

"Even though this kind of feels like a pre-meditated funeral, we want to look at it as a celebration of life because there's not too many businesses that have been three generations," Beckort said.

While the doors will close next week, Beckort said a business bearing the Butt last name in the future, isn't off the table.

"The store will close permanently until we find a new idea or something different, a new niche."

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