Elkins Expansion

Collier Drug Stores, the largest private drugstore chain in Northwest Arkansas, was founded in Fayetteville in 1917 — and apparently is not done expanding.

Collier’s, owned by Carl Collier of Fayetteville, will soon open a location in Elkins at 2491 N. Center St. It will give the company nine locations. Others are in Fayetteville (2), Johnson (2), Prairie Grove, Farmington, Bentonville and Pea Ridge.

Collier — who, if you weren’t aware, was presented in June with the 2013 Pharmacist of the Year Award by the Arkansas Pharmacists Association — paid $238,000 in July for a 3,000-SF, bank-owned building in Elkins that was previously home to The Liquor Cabinet.

The location is expected to open in the first quarter of 2014.

The company was founded by M.M. Collier as the Red Cross Drug Store on the north side of the downtown Fayetteville square.

The company opened the first Collier Drug Stores location on Dickson Street in 1950, where it remains today as the company’s flagship location. The Red Cross Drug Store was closed after a fire in 1955.