Vanessa EllisChief Executive Officer · Essays & perspectiveVanessa Ellis Chief Executive Officer · United States
A selected perspective
Rural pharmacy access5 min read
Keeping small-town shopping useful and affordable
When pharmacies leave small towns, discount chains are asked to fill the gap. I argue that most should host an independent pharmacist-owner on near-cost terms rather than run a counter themselves, and should judge the arrangement by the drive a customer no longer has to make.
Hosting independent pharmacists where the counters had closed
In 2024 we mapped every Marrick town against the nearest open pharmacy and found that in 214 of our 1,140 locations a customer had no pharmacy within a twenty-minute drive.
Cancelling part of a holiday buy when import costs moved
In spring 2025, as US import tariffs changed in a series of announcements, our merchandising team estimated that landed costs on about 31% of what we bought would rise by roughly US$46 million a year.
A store in a town of 3,000 people makes a promise every evening: that the shelves are stocked, the prices are fair and the two people closing up will get home safely. I judge my decisions by whether they make that promise easier or harder to keep, and I try to put the cost of keeping it in front of the board instead of leaving it quietly in the stores.
Locked cases and guards are often the first response to rising shrink. In a small-box store with two people on shift, I argue they should come last, after the loss has been broken into its causes and store safety has been decided as a question in its own right.
Sale-leasebacks are often presented to sponsor-owned retailers as cheap financing. For a chain serving towns that may shrink, I argue they turn the freedom to leave or move into a fixed obligation, and a board should put a price on that freedom before it votes for a dividend.
Stores in nine states
1,140
Most in towns of fewer than 10,000 people, September 2026
Net sales
US$1.94bn
Fiscal 2025, the year to 31 January 2026
Independent pharmacies hosted in Marrick stores
31
Trading in September 2026; 33 opened since January 2025
Store robberies a year
47 to 14
Fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2025, after the two-person rule
I run a small-town variety chain on the view that a store earns its place by what it keeps open, staffed and affordable after other businesses in town have closed.
I am president and chief executive of Marrick Variety Stores, which operates 1,140 small-box discount stores across nine states of the Midwest and mid-South, most of them in towns of fewer than 10,000 people. Walter and June Marrick opened the first store in Neosho, Missouri, in 1958. Since 2019 the company has been owned mainly by Stonebeck Capital Partners, with the Marrick family keeping a quarter of the shares. In fiscal 2025, the year to January 2026, we reported net sales of US$1.94 billion and adjusted EBITDA of US$141 million, and we employ 12,300 people. I report to a nine-member board on which I am the only executive.
I began in 1994 as a store detective at a discount department-store chain in Joplin and spent my first twelve years in loss prevention before asking to run stores. I managed a district and then a region of 410 stores at a listed discount chain, and later ran store operations for a family-owned supermarket group in Wichita, where I oversaw the closure of fourteen small-town pharmacies. Stonebeck recruited me as Marrick's chief operating officer in 2019, and the board appointed me chief executive in May 2021, when Thomas Marrick, the founders' grandson, moved to a non-executive seat.
The questions that occupy me are practical ones for a rural retailer. What should a store do when its town loses the pharmacy? How many people should be on shift at closing time, and who pays for the second one? Which prices do we hold when import costs move, and how much of our real estate should a sponsor-owned chain sell? I have answered each of these at a cost that someone on our board argued against, and I have changed my mind on parts of every answer.
Pharmacists hosted, not employed
Since January 2025 we have opened thirty-three independent pharmacies inside Marrick stores on near-cost terms, and thirty-one are trading. Our towns with no pharmacy within a twenty-minute drive have fallen from 214 to 186, for US$4.6 million of capital against the US$34 million an owned model would have needed.
Two people at every close
From April 2023 no Marrick store has traded with fewer than two people on duty. Robberies fell from forty-seven in fiscal 2022 to fourteen in fiscal 2025 and assistant manager turnover from 78% to 51%, at a net labour cost of about US$11.8 million a year.
A smaller recapitalisation than proposed
In 2024 I recommended a US$120 million dividend instead of the US$280 million our owner proposed, with no sale-leaseback of our stores. I declared what I stood to gain from each option, abstained from the vote and lost one part of the argument.
Pay and shrink moving together
Average hourly pay for store employees rose from US$11.40 in 2021 to US$14.60 in fiscal 2025, funded partly by earlier closing and by fixing receiving errors, while shrink fell from 3.1% to 2.3% of sales.
Current focus
Stonebeck's fund is in its eighth year, so our board is preparing Marrick for a change of ownership, most likely a sale, within two years. My work is to make sure the remodel programme, the hosted pharmacies and the two-person rule survive that change because a buyer can see what they return, not because I am there to defend them. I am also working with the board on chief executive succession, with two internal candidates in development.
Conversations I welcome
I am not seeking another executive role and expect to lead Marrick through its next ownership change. I would consider one non-executive directorship outside discount and grocery retail and outside Stonebeck's portfolio, with my board's consent. I accept a small number of advisory conversations and speaking invitations on rural retail, store safety and pharmacy access.
Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective.
In the boardroom
Marrick Variety StoresDirector; president and chief executive officer · May 2021–present
Larchwood Rural Health FoundationDirector; chair of the grants committee · 2022–present
Formation
Bachelor of Science in criminal justiceCardell State University · 1994
Master of Business Administration (weekend programme)Wolcott Plains University · 2011
When the recapitalisation reached the board, Vanessa sent me a note setting out what she stood to gain from each option before anyone asked. She then argued for the option that paid her less and abstained. Those of us without an executive role could weigh her analysis on its merits because she had made that easy.
Constance QuellIndependent chair, Marrick Variety StoresThe full record ↗
Contact
I am not seeking another executive role and expect to lead Marrick through its next ownership change. I would consider one non-executive directorship outside discount and grocery retail and outside Stonebeck's portfolio, with my board's consent. I accept a small number of advisory conversations and speaking invitations on rural retail, store safety and pharmacy access.
