Thrifty White Drug is an employee-owned and franchised regional pharmacy chain with more than 90 locations in five states, including four in Bismarck and one in Mandan. Founded in 1884 as White Drug in Jamestown, North Dakota, Thrifty White is a result of a merger between White Drug and Thrifty Drug of Brainerd, Minnesota in 1985. The company operates under the White Drug and Thrifty White banners and variations of the combined names.
Several of its local locations are conversions from previously unaffiliated pharmacies, including the former Northbrook Drug (in 2015) and the pharmacies at local Cash Wise stores.
The company has maintained a Mandan location since at least 1921. It acquired the assets of Taylor Drug in 1990, which was Mandan’s first drugstore. It was about that same time that Thrifty White occupied the former Bill’s Supervalu at 511 First Street NW, which had recently relocated into a bigger store next door. In 2014, The Mandan store relocated to Overlook Lane on the north side of the city.
White Drug appears to have arrived in Bismarck upon acquiring Capital Drug in about 1955, operating it as White’s Capital Drug for many years before dropping the “Capital” part of the name. At the time, it was located on the northeast corner of Fifth Street and Main Avenue. It two other locations on the same street through the 1950s and 1960s until establishing itself as an original anchor tenant at the Parkade when it opened in 1970. Until 2019, it also housed The White House Cafeteria within. By the Batch Bakery and Eatery has since occupied the restaurant space.
Recent History
The Mandan store recently announced plans to relocate from downtown to the north side of the city, near the new Walmart.
In 2015, long-time pharmacy retailer Northbrook Drug became Thrifty White Pharmacy. The pharmacy at Cash Wise Foods has also since converted to Thrifty White.
Its long-time location housed within Bismarck’s Parkade relocated to Kirkwood Mall’s outlot in June 2022. It was one of the last locations still branded with the historical “White Drug” banner and logo.
Bismarck Location History
- ?-1956: 103 N 5th
- 1956-1967: 117 N 5th
- 1967-1970: 118 N 5th (today’s Walkers N’ Daughters Jewelry)
- 1970-2022: Parkade
- 2022-Present: Kirkwood Mall outlot
White Mart
Thrifty White also once operated a small chain of ten discount department stores across the Dakotas and Minnesota under the White Mart banner. The first White Mart opened in 1970 in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Both stores were collectively referred to as “White’s”. The discount arm was slowly faded out after the merger to concentrate on the company’s core drugstore operation, with the final locations closing in the early 1990s.
The Bismarck White Mart was an original anchor store for Gateway Mall when it opened in 1979 (White Mart itself didn’t open until February 1980), but closed in 1986, citing costs involved in converting the location to embrace the company’s new emphasis pharmacy operations.
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