With major drugstore chains closing down hundreds of locations, with chain drug stores filing bankruptcy and facing severe financial distress, now is the time more than ever to know more about and appreciate the value of a family-owned hometown pharmacy.
Bayshore Pharmacy in the Foodtown Shopping Mall on Route 36 in Atlantic Highlands is the perfect example.
CVS has announced plans to close 270 stores, on top of those they have already closed.
Walgreens has plans to shut down more than a thousand stores within the next 18 months.
Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy and now all of its stores are closed.
So what is it that keeps Bayshore Pharmacy alive and well, and continuing to help all its customers on a daily basis?
It’s simple. The bottom line is
THEY CARE!
It was 61 years ago, more than half a century and then some, that Richard C. Stryker, R.Ph. opened his pharmacy. Of course he chose to open it in Atlantic Highlands, his hometown, the town where the Stryker family laid down deep and firm roots in the 19th century. For Richard Stryker, it was more than opening a drug store. It was opening a pharmacy in his hometown that would provide for his friends and neighbors.
Stryker built up his business slowly, honestly, and with love and concern for the people he served. He brought up his son, Richard the same way, teaching him the importance of family, friendship, professionalism and always doing the right thing. Assured young Richard held to his same ideals, and those of the senior Stryker’s family members who were in the business with him, he retired, stepping down and handing the reins over to his son to carry on the Stryker tradition.
The second Richard Stryker follows his dad’s directives and guidance well; the pharmacy continues to be the pharmacy that is right there to assist every neighbor, every customer that comes through the door.
However, over the past half decade or so, the pharmacy industry as a whole has faced severe financial distress. The chain stores shut down locations and took major efforts to restructure their businesses. That included reducing labor costs, eliminating leases, shutting down stores that weren’t making enough of a profit, cutting back on services that did not make them any extra funds. In short, the needs of maintaining high profits took precedence over the everyday concerns of the chain store pharmacy patron.
But at Bayshore Pharmacy, the accent was still on customer service, still on maintaining a quaint and friendly business that had grown from being just a drug store to being the major gift shoppe and pharmacy for the area, while still keeping the accent on providing every pharmaceutical need every customer has. Their work and their constant desires to meet the needs of individual customers are highly effective.
Last year, the Bayshore Pharmacy family, for indeed it is a family, celebrated 61 years in business with flourish and fanfare that broke back scores of residents to celebrate and remember. Families who had moved out of state after raising their children here came back to celebrate with newcomers who didn’t know the history but knew they liked everything Bayshore Pharmacy had to offer. People knew Bayshore Pharmacy was more than a drug store, more than a gift shop; it was the home for family care.
Because it is a family-owned business, Bayshore Pharmacy is an independent pharmacy rather than part of a chain. As such the pharmacy focuses on what is needed most: personalized service, community commitment, and specialized programs.
The present Rich Stryker will tell you the key points of this store are the personalized relationship-based care that is offered. At Bayshore, no customer is a number; each is an individual name, a person the pharmacist will say Hi to from his place in the glassed- in work area behind the counter; tor he’ll come down to chat with a customer concerned about a new med, or to answer a customer’s question about his latest prescription, a question he answers in terms the customer can understand. Or any of the staff might just stop to talk for a minute, to assure himself his customer is happy and well taken care of.
As an independent pharmacy, Bayshore does not have any specific quota it feels obligated to fill; the accent is rather on providing specifically what the customer wants or needs.
As an independent pharmacy, Bayshore also offers convenience packaging, called ‘medication synchronization. That means the pharmacist and staff package all medications by date and time, simplifying complex regimens for many customers. It’s a service that’s offered that is particularly appreciated by senior citizens or caregivers, saving time and assuring accuracy in time and amount of every medication.
And while medications that are prescribed for renewal can always be renewed with ease, Bayshore offers reminders and arranges to have meds ready and waiting for the time and day requested by the customer. Or, delivered right to the home, should that be the request.
Bayshore also goes far beyond prescriptions. There are numerous health programs, including a Diabetes Education program, a Wellness Center, and other programs that encourage a customer to focus on being proactive in the areas of personal improved health and preventative care. The Health Center is now a major part of the pharmacy’s offerings, with its health sessions keeping individuals informed on everything from vitamins and supplements to heart health, diabetes and GLP1 support. It has grown in leaps and bounds since first opened less than five months ago as customers realize the benefits education offers in maintaining their own health standards and practices.
When it is a family-owned business in a town where literally everybody knows your name. Bayshore also offers a staff that is as warm and welcoming, as knowledgeable about their own work obligations and duties as the Strykers themselves. Many of the staff have been employed for decades, Store Manager Ellen Duda has been part of the Bayshore family for nearly three decades; others are second-generation employees whose parents also proudly worked at Bayshore Pharmacy. Even the rare new employee quickly learns the names of each customer, knowing each is far more important than simply being a person standing before the counter.
Bayshore Pharmacy has a long history in Monmouth County as a family-owned business that shows more than efficiency and excellence in the store. It’s also deeply grounded in the community, generous in their offerings of service and education, with the owners also involved in many other ways in the community. The senior Stryker, who still stops in the store long enough each week or so to ensure his son is maintaining his high standards and to revel in the friendship of the customers, was a long time Mayor of the community, the present owner is on the board of directors of the Portland Pointe senior housing community.
There is little doubt chain-owned and operated pharmacies are losing the confidence and trusted business of their customers.
That’s a far cry from what is happening at the family owned and operated, 61 year old Bayshore Pharmacy.
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