Keansburg (N.J.) Pharmacy owns a 48,000-sq.-ft building and brings in extra revenue by leasing out 36,000 square feet. One
of the most productive front end areas is a UPS shipping center.
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Thirteen days, 12 states, 4,187 miles, 30 pharmacies, three core observations.
That is the short version of independent pharmacy consultant Bruce Kneeland's cross-country journey from Point Pleasant, N.J.,
to San Francisco earlier this year. Kneeland's take away: Community pharmacy can survive and thrive despite competition and
shrinking margins.
"I've been in this business for 30 years and during this trip, I saw success out there like I've never even imagined. Every
successful store I saw had made at least one of three key decisions. They were doing something besides just filling scripts,
they run the business rather than the business running them, they keep the premises in top condition."
The soda fountain at Reeves Sain Pharmacy, Murfreesboro, Tenn., is a major attraction for this innovative pharmacy operation.
The store also features a U.S. Post office and a large and impressive compounding lab.
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Kneeland started as a drug company sales rep, then moved on to Medicine Shoppe, Health Mart, and AmerisourceBergen before
founding his own consulting firm in 2002. He said his cross-country tour was designed to look for "innovative stores doing
things that could be emulated by others."
AmerisourceBergen's Good Neighbor Pharmacy program sponsored the trip. "The 30 stores I visited were not all Good Neighbors
or even AmerisourceBergen accounts," Kneeland said. "We made an honest effort to find the best community pharmacies, period."
Some of what he found was as familiar as a 40-seat grill or a U.S. Postal Service substation. Some stores had expanded durable
medical equipment into sophisticated operations that dwarfed the pharmacy. Others had full-time herbologists or cosmeticians
to boost higher-margin non-Rx sales.
Nearly a third of the pharmacies Kneeland surveyed owned their own buildings. Owning the building is an advantage for maintenance
and renovations. It also lets the owner cherry pick the neighbors.
Leiter's Pharmacy in San Jose, Calif., serves its customers with this post office and shipping center. The pharmacy has also
garnered national publicity over its prescription destruction service.
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Several stores have expanded into compliance packaging, preparing bingo cards and daily dose strip packaging that help assisted
living home operators monitor and improve drug regimen compliance. The biggest surprise, Kneeland said, was a pharmacy with
three $150,000 robots that churned out a steady stream of compliance packages.
"What these guys all have in common is that they have all found a local niche and are filling it in ways the big operators
can't," Kneeland said.
The second common theme is business management skills. Most pharmacists complain that the pharmacy has taken over their lives,
Kneeland noted. The most successful community pharmacy owners have learned to tame the beast by hiring good pharmacists, and
other pharmacists, managers, and other employees.
The third common theme is visual appeal. The successful stores he saw were more than just clean. They were modern and appealing
places to visit. If your customers aren't impressed with the way your store looks, they will find other places to go," he
warned.
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