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Ramdass Pharmacy closed last month after 10 years in Bladensburg, partly due to the recession, and other small businesses in town are expanding services and cutting prices in an effort to avoid a similar fate.

The latest closing of a small business adds to other recent closures in northern Prince George's. Last month, Vertigo Books in College Park closed after nine years of business along Route 1 and in Mount Rainier, Artmosphere Café shut down after three years.

The loss of Ramdass Pharmacy means the shopping center where it was located now has three store vacancies. Bladensburg code enforcement director Tim McNamara said hopefully it isn't a "bad sign for the town" that more small businesses will shut down because of the recession.

"That's going to have a sad impact on Bladensburg residents because, one, they're losing a place locally where they can get their pharmaceutical supplies at a decent price. And anytime the town loses a business, it has a negative impact on the community," he said.

Ramdass Pharmacy customers are now getting their prescriptions filled at the CVS in Colmar Manor, according to the pharmacy's prescription phone line.

Owner Tony Ramdass couldn't be reached for comment but Adrian Tirtanadi, Port Towns Community Development Corp. spokesman, said the economy was partially to blame for the closure.

The Port Towns CDC supports economic development in the four Port Towns: Bladensburg, Colmar Manor, Cottage City and Edmonston. Tirtanadi said small and locally owned businesses keep money in local communities longer than corporate-owned ones.

"You create continuous economic activity with just a little bit of capital injection," he said.

The Port Towns CDC revamped its Web site earlier this month and created a searchable directory to connect businesses to public and private programs designed to assist businesses, Tirtanadi said.

There's a sizeable community of small businesses in the Port Towns, with most being between two to 10 years old, Tirtanadi said.

Mango Café has been in Bladensburg for three years. Owner Kareem Bakar said one of the advantages locally-owned small businesses have over franchise or corporate-owned ones is community support it receives. Bakar said the town of Bladensburg and the Port Towns CDC support his business by having their functions catered by the restaurant, holding meetings there and getting small business grants to pay for façade improvements.

"We get a lot of help from those folks," Bakar said. "It's not much, but in this economy, whatever you can get, it lets you live another day."

But Tirtanadi said the recession has also hurt his and other groups' initiatives to support businesses.

For example, a recent façade improvement program has been put on hold because some businesses couldn't come up with the matching funds necessary for the grant money, Tirtanadi said.

Bladensburg Automatic Transmission Service has been in town 46 years. Owner Ohmer Webb said business dropped last year but it's picked up within the past three months.

"People aren't buying new cars, they're getting their old cars fixed," he said.

Webb said he lowered prices to help draw in more customers.

David Humphrey, owner of A&A Transmission Service in Bladensburg, said as a small business he has more flexibility in lowering prices to stay competitive. Business has slowed to almost half of what it was pre-recession.

"I only have a couple of employees, just the three of us. I am small and I can kind of struggle along," he said. "[Big corporations] do have other resources they can fall back on. We don't; we have to survive."