Pharmacy Has A Tower Records Problem. Outsiders Rebuilding The Tech Stack Might Help.

InnovationHealthcarePharmacy Has A Tower Records Problem. Outsiders Rebuilding The Tech Stack Might Help.BySeth Joseph,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about the intersection of health care, technology and policyFollow AuthorApr 28, 2026, 09:13am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.View of a Tower Records sign above the store's parking lot, San Francisco, California, May 1, 1979. The sign advertises an upcoming performance by Herbie Hancock and Weather Report (at the Greek Theater) and Cher's 'Take Me Home' album. (Photo by Clay Geerdes/Getty Images)Getty ImagesTower Records was born in a drugstore. In 1960, Russ Solomon convinced his father to let him sell records from a corner of the family drugstore, which was located in a building called Tower Theater. The company grew into something remarkable: nearly 200 locations across 21 states and multiple countries, generating over $1 billion in annual revenue at its peak in the late 1990s, a cultural institution where music lovers spent hours browsing, discovering, and connecting with their local stores and their staff.Then, in less than a decade, it was gone. By 2005, revenue had collapsed to $430 million. Tower filed for bankruptcy a second time in August 2006. All 89 remaining U.S. stores closed by December of that year, taking roughly 3,000 jobs with them. No single villain killed Tower Records. The music labels survived. The artists survived. What didn't survive was the physical distribution mechanism — the store itself — made structurally obsolete by a combination of emerging technology and shifting consumer preferences around convenience and access. Napster. iTunes. The iPod. None of these forces set out to destroy Tower Records specifically. They just made the company’s business model irrelevant.Community pharmacy is not Tower Records. The parallel...