A Dose of Convenience
By David Bruce, Erie Times-News, Pa.
Oct. 15–Mike Burhenn was a young pharmacist in the early 1990s, working at the family drugstore.
Each day, Burhenn would look out the front window of Burhenn’s Pharmacy and watch construction workers build a mammoth CVS drugstore at the corner of East 38th Street and Pine Avenue.
“I kept wondering what would happen to us after they opened,” Burhenn said. “But my dad (Ray Burhenn, who used to manage the pharmacy) repeatedly said many chains have come and gone, but we’re still here.”
Dozens of large, free-standing pharmacies have opened throughout Erie County over the last 15 years.
Some thrived, while others closed just a couple of years after they were built. But that hasn’t deterred Walgreens, the country’s largest pharmacy chain, from building new stores in Erie and Harborcreek Township.
Meanwhile, Mike Burhenn’s family pharmacy remains open. Only now, he is the manager.
Baby boomers buy drugs Why do new pharmacies keep popping up around Erie? You can blame the baby boomers.
The oldest boomers turned 61 this year. Not only are they thinking about retirement, they are taking more prescription drugs than ever.
“It’s a simple fact that you take more prescriptions as you age,” said Laura Miller, a senior economist with the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. “On average, you take 12 prescriptions a year between the ages of 45 and 54, but 20 a year between the ages of 55 and 64. That’s almost double.”
At the same time, Pennsylvania has about 100 fewer pharmacies than it did in 1997, Miller said.
Rite Aid recently took over five Eckerd pharmacies in the Erie County, and three inCrawford County. Before that, several Eckerd stores closed. Several locally owned pharmacies also have closed in the last several years.
“Pennsylvania is in an unusual position,” Miller said. “It’s an aging state, and I’d expect to see more pharmacies coming in. It doesn’t add up.”
A growing number of seniors and a relative lack of pharmacies in the state are music to Walgreens executives’ ears, said company spokeswoman Carol Hively.
“As the baby boomers approach retirement age, sales of prescription drugs are just taking off,” Hively said. “Not only do you see this large group of people filling more prescriptions, many of them will be living into their 90s. They’ll be needing prescriptions for 25, 30 more years.”
Customers want convenience These boomers, and all customers for that matter, want more than a prescription, Hively said. They want convenience.
They want pharmacies that are open all the time, they want drive-through, they want to be able to buy their milk, lottery ticket and high-blood pressure medicine all in one place.
“I fought with Dad about having a drive-through when we moved into the new building,” Mike Burhenn said. “I have three kids. When I’m running errands, I don’t want to have to get the kids in and out of their car seats all the time.”
If a customer can’t make it to Burhenn’s at all, the pharmacy offers free deliveries. It averages about 50 deliveries a day.
Bob Hein, 83, lives five blocks from the pharmacy. Burhenn’s delivers to him about once a week.
“I go there when I can, but it’s nice to have my drugs delivered to me when the weather isn’t good or I’m not feeling well,” Hein said.
Drug counseling a plus Customers also want advice. Pharmacies are offering more drug counseling than ever, said John Norton, a spokesman for the National Community Pharmacies Association.
In the good old days, your family doctor would know about every drug you took.
Now you might have prescriptions written by four or five different physicians, such as your family doctor, cardiologist, endocrinologist and perhaps a dermatologist.
“Pharmacies need to offer counseling,” Norton said. “They have to try and sit down with the customer if asked and help them understand how the drugs they are taking act and interact with each other.”
The new pharmacy at Sam’s Club, 7200 Peach St., offers drug counseling with a technological twist.
In addition to having a pharmacist talk with you about your drugs, the Connexus computer system tracks every prescription you have at any Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart pharmacy.
“If you’re traveling and trying to fill a prescription, the pharmacist has immediate access to your records,” said Mike Pitzl, Pharm. D., director of pharmacies for Sam’s Club.
Price usually doesn’t matter Free delivery, drive-throughs and drug advice are important to customers, but isn’t the price of drugs the most important factor in picking a pharmacy?
Not really, said Ernie and Helen Ellis.
The Erie couple has been filling their prescriptions at Rite Aid, 1709 Liberty St., because it’s conveniently located near their home and it accepts their health insurance.
“We have health insurance from the military, so not everyone takes it,” Helen Ellis said.
People with prescription-drug coverage pay the same for most drugs no matter where they go, so cost isn’t a concern in most cases.
But when it does, a 2003 Erie Times-News survey showed that locally owned pharmacies such as Burhenn’s and Frontier Pharmacy offer prices up to 80 percent lower for certain popular prescription drugs.
“The chains may offer those $4 generic drugs, but when you really sit down and look at the list of covered drugs, it’s not a big player,” Mike Burhenn said. “They aren’t covering $100 drugs on that list. Some of them are even less than $4.”
Future of pharmacies Burhenn pointed out there are four chain-owned drugstores within walking distance of his East 38th Street pharmacy.
Still, he said he believes there is enough business for everyone.
“I’m surrounded by chain pharmacies, but we’re doing fine,” Burhenn said. “Our customers are loyal. Even when they get a coupon for $20 if they switch one prescription, they’ll call me and apologize for switching. I tell them that as long as they come back, it’s fine.
“They always come back.”
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