Caliber Pharmacy in Hewlett closes its doors

After nearly 60 years of business, Caliber Pharmacy and Cosmetics, a Hewlett stable for gifts and drugstore necessities, permanently closed their doors on Nov. 30.

The store was previously owned by Bob and Jackie Weinstein but sold to the most recent owner in the past three years, said David Friedman, Hewlett-Woodmere Business Association, a Caliber customer since the 1970s.

The latest owner, whose identify cannot be uncovered, was negotiating a lease renewal with the landlord, but did not make a deal, which led to pharmacy closing, according to Friedman. 

Caliber was special compared to chain pharmacies, said Friedman, as they were one of the few family-owned pharmacies left, had perks like home-deliveries, quality customer service and a wide and unique selection of products.

“It was a great neighborhood pharmacy,” he said. “It’s just sad because they had a lot of high-end cosmetic items and a lot of people in the area used to go shopping for items you couldn’t get in CVS or one of the chain stores. And the customer service, you go into one of these chains and you really don’t get customer service.”

Sales associate Stefanie Forstock, who worked at Caliber for three years, posted on the Hewlett-Woodmere District 14 Residents Facebook group page that Caliber was going out of business.

“Thank you very much for your patronage and support over the last 50+ years to our loyal customers,” she stated in the post. “We will miss servicing the Five Towns community.”
 

When liquidating, the store placed a 75 percent discount on items such as professional hair care brands, high-end cosmetics and perfumes and jewelry.
 

“Caliber was such a staple in our town,” Marla Allison Cohen, Woodmere native and current Hewlett resident, said. “Growing up, we had a tab, and I could go in and get little things like cough drops or shampoo, and just say: Put it on the tab for Witt!”
 

When was a teenager, she would buy makeup. “They always had the newest items and biggest fads,” she said. Cohen recalled that, sometime in the 1990s, her parents closed the tab because her sister and herself “were taking a little too much liberty” with it.

 “We laugh about that memory now. Then, as a young adult, it was nice to be able to go somewhere where I knew the pharmacists, and more importantly, where they knew me,” said Cohen. “It was familiar. It was comforting,” she added, “It’s such a shame to lose another mom-and-pop pharmacy and the Caliber store as a whole. It will be greatly missed.”
 

“I grew up in the Five Towns referring to that shopping center as the Caliber shopping center. What will we call it now?” Randi Leibling Goodman, who graduated Hewlett High with Cohen, said.

 Goodman added that she has been a longtime customer of Caliber and would go there to buy Barton’s Passover candy. “The store had something for everyone,” Goodman said. She added, “they will be missed by many.”

 Ed Vito, the manager of Caliber, got some positive recognition from Goodman. “Ed’s a really nice guy,” Goodman said, “he’s always so helpful.”
 

Elaine Prusack worked at Caliber for five years and was working her last shifts during the liquidation. She describes Caliber’s clientele as vibrant and friendly.

“I just know from being a resident in the neighborhood for over 28 years and from my customers that the store used to be a hustling and bustling place,” she said.

 “They were there for so many years and it was a landmark,” Friedman said, “it’s a shame that they closed.”