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Cunningham agrees to sell 29 drug stores

Cunningham agrees to sell 29 drug stores image
Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
June
Year
1982
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Cunningham agrees to sell 29 drug stores

By PAMELA KLEIN 

BUSINESS-LABOR REPORTER

Cunningham Drug Stores Inc. of Detroit reportedly has agreed to sell 29 of its stores in Michigan to a new drug store chain formed by a former Cunningham executive and two of the new owners of Detroit’s Renaissance Center.

Cunningham’s Chairman Ray A. Shapero, son of the firm’s founder Nate S. Shapero, declined comment Monday on the reported sale.

But according to documents obtained by The News, Apex Drugs Inc., of Walled Lake, hopes to take over the 29 Cunningham stores at the end of June. Four of those stores are in Ann Arbor: at the Plymouth Mall, Georgetown Mall, Arborland Shopping Center and the Westgate Shopping Center.

Letters obtained by The News, written by Cunningham’s President Stewart G. Smith, said Cunningham hopes to close the purchase by June 30. Smith said Apex and an affiliated company will go into business with a net worth of $2 million.

In a letter introducing Apex to business clients of Cunningham, James R. Devine said he would serve as president and chief operating officer of the new drug store firm. Devine, who was out of town and could not be reached by The News Monday, is a registered pharmacist and was corporate vice president of merchandising for Cunningham.

In that letter, Devine said other principal stockholders in Apex are Spencer Patrich and Mickey Shapiro, “who have been active in real estate investments and operations for many years.” Patrich and Shapiro are among a group of investors who recently bought the Renaissance Center.

According to a spokeswoman for the state’s Corporations and Securities Bureau in Lansing, Apex Drugs is an assumed name of the Spenmick Corp., a name formed from the names of Patrich and Shapiro.

Workers at Cunningham’s are represented by Local 876 of United Food and Commercial Workers in Detroit. A union officer could not be reached for comment Monday.