This is Small Business Week through Saturday and 94.1 myFM is celebrating entrepreneurship in St. Thomas and across Elgin county with business profiles each day, presented by Once Upon A Letter.
Today we salute St. Thomas Pharmasave. Owner/pharmacist Jannette Pinson-Santos operates five Pharmasave outlets, including the newest in Shedden.
She tells myFM what attracted her to the field of pharmacy.
Pharmasave is a Canadian, independently owned and operated community pharmacy cooperative that was founded in 1981 in British Columbia. There are 0ver 900 outlets across the country, many located in smaller communities.
Pinson-Santos explains what brought her to Pharmasave and eventually St. Thomas.
“We’re very proud of the loyalty that we get from most of our customers. A lot of our customers are from Zellers. So I’ve practiced in Simcoe before coming to St. Thomas. And then I’ve been practicing in St. Thomas over 10 years.”
She stresses the importance of the dispensary area in Pharmasave outlets.
Pinson-Santos adds, “Our over-the-counter has a really great variety, but the attention to the pharmacy part and dispensary part is really quite crucial. That’s how we’ve kind of established ourselves.”
Beginning in 2023, pharmacists in the province were given the green light to to prescribe treatments for a number of common ailments. So, you no longer have to visit your doctor or a walk-in clinic to get relief.
Something she refers to as the changing face of pharmacy.
“All part of being attentive to our patients,” notes Pinson-Santos.
And as we approach flu season and the potential for COVID-19 outbreaks to flare up, Pharmasave is your go-to outlet to get those shots in timely fashion.
She stresses, “So for us, we’ve always been enticed by the smaller communities. Again, it’s the accessibility of care. Being out there, reaching your community members. St. Thomas alone keeps on expanding.
“There are so many pharmacies out there. It’s a tight competition for some pharmacies, even in smaller towns like St. Thomas. I would still consider a smaller town, but it’s still a competition. But the reliability and the relationships and the rapport we’ve built with a lot of our patients are definitely things that we’re very proud of.
“We have met grandma and grandpa, for example, years ago. And then years later, you have kids coming in with them. You know, kids I’ve met a few years ago, like years ago, and now they’re married and they have kids. It’s generational.”
Written by Ian McCallum
