An iconic West End retailer that has played a huge role in the life of Somerset village for more than six decades is to close for good on Monday.

Somerset Pharmacy, on Mangrove Bay Road, is winding down operations — and some longtime customers are broken-hearted, says the store’s operations manager, Melissa Butler.

Dr Butler, a five-year veteran of the business, said: “Somerset Pharmacy is very much an old, traditional community pharmacy where you know everyone.

“I know people as soon as I hear their voice. It’s the environment where you really know your clients.

“Some people have been coming to Somerset Pharmacy since they were children. A lot of our clients are octogenarians.

“It has a very community feel because the store is more than just a pharmacy.”

One person, Dr Butler reported, said: “Oh my gosh, I want to cry. You really upset my day. I just expected you always to be here.”

Regulars of the business are making their feelings known on Facebook, too, where one person wrote to the owners and staff: “Thank you for a lifetime of service to the Somerset community. I can’t imagine the village without you!”

Some customers have taken a more practical view.

Dr Butler said: “Somerset is a village, and some people don’t want to go outside. I had someone say to me ‘now I’ve got to go town [Hamilton] to get stuff’?”

Although not from Somerset, Dr Butler said she recalls the pharmacy from her youth. “I remember when Somerset Pharmacy had a lunch counter.”

Dr Butler said she was authorised to speak on behalf of owners Eleanor and Graham Fowle, baby boomers who are nearing retirement age.

She said: “That is a worldwide phenomenon — baby boomers as business owners who sell or close it.”

Other reasons for the closure, she said, are the changing demographics of an older clientele as well as what she termed a “macro” reason.

Dr Butler said: “A lot of changes are taking place in healthcare, and there is uncertainty about what that will look like. Uncertainty doesn’t bode well for business planning.”

Other reasons for the closure include changes to pharmacy business models — the newer model is pharmacies owned by pharmacists – and the increasing consolidation of services in Bermuda, she said, citing CG Insurance opening a pharmacy, and Argus acquiring physician groups.

Dr Butler said: “Independents have closed worldwide. In the US, this has been happening for 30 years. Bermuda is slow to pick up trends external to us.”

She broke the news to Somerset Pharmacy’s full-time staff of three, and its four part-time workers.

“It was a shock to them. I felt bad. I had hired one girl recently — I had poached her. But she is so awesome that, every other week, people try to poach her from me.”

Dr Butler’s own future is uncertain. She is a licensed pharmacist, having studied at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, which at its founding in 1821 was the first college of pharmacy in North America.

“I may or may not be in pharmacy. I have a PhD in health policy. I hope to go back into those areas.”