THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408240209
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
ALL MEDICATIONS, even rubbing alcohol and aspirin, were delivered free to your door. Advice was free, too. You could send a telegram or a birthday card, pay your electric or phone bill, have papers notarized or eat a sandwich.
The name of the place was Portlock Pharmacy, and its prescription for success was service. It still is, nearly 40 years after opening in ``downtown South Norfolk.''
The little neighborhood pharmacy that Herbert Friedman opened in a former confectionary on Bainbridge Boulevard in 1955 has survived being surrounded by drug and discount store chains, third-party prescription payments and an economy that's gone up and down as many times as a sickroom thermometer.
Today the store is owned by Wayne C. Jennings, a youngster of 41 who shares the old-time service philosophy of Friedman, now 69.
``It's hard to make a go of it as an independent pharmacist; the small pharmacies are closing regularly now,'' said Jennings. ``The store has always been service oriented. Personalized service is the reason we're still here.
``There's a real need for our services, especially among the elderly,'' he said.
FRIEDMAN HAD BEEN a drugstore delivery boy in Baltimore at 17. He rode a bicycle, delivering goods after school from 6 p.m. to midnight for 50 cents a day. Customers would order a 19-cent box of Anacin and two stamps, then tell the druggist, ``Have the delivery boy stop by the grocery store and bring me a pound of butter, too.''
He said free home delivery was always in his plan when he thought of opening his own pharmacy after he graduated from the University of Maryland and served in the Army's Medical Service Corps during World War II.
``In order to be successful, even today, you have to offer something special,'' Friedman said. ``What I offered was service.''
Not only were medicines delivered to a customer's home, but someone would be sent to pick up the prescription so it could be filled. It's a policy that remains in effect at Portlock Pharmacy.
In the old days, if you came into the store to get some medicine, you could have a complimentary cup of coffee or a free Coke at the fountain while your prescription was being filled.
And there was always the free advice. That, too, is still a tradition at the pharmacy.
Friedman said, ``It was an added feature that I had been in the infantry, in the Medical Service Corps. People called me `Doc,' because I removed splinters and gave them all sorts of advice. But I could never charge for any of it; that would be practicing medicine. They always just knew I was there to help.''
Jennings said nothing has changed in that regard today, and it's probably the main reason the independent pharmacy is still in business.
``A lot of them would probably rather go to a doctor, but they can't afford it. I point them in the right direction. People have a right to talk to a pharmacist for help,'' he said.
While the drugstore's customer-counseling and free-delivery service has remained the same for nearly 40 years, other things have changed.
One of the first things Jennings took out of the store when he bought it 10 years ago was the soda fountain. ``It just didn't make any money,'' he said.
IN THE 1950s AND 1960s, however, Portlock's soda fountain was an after-school gathering place and a social center for several generations of South Norfolkians. The store served breakfast, and lunch was served all day, according to Joyce Friedman, Herbert's wife.
Always looking for a gimmick, in the mid-'50s Friedman started offering a free ice cream soda to any child who ended up with a B average on his or her report card on the last day of school. The drugstore was located directly across the street from Portlock Elementary School, so it was not uncommon to have more than 100 youngsters eagerly trying to show the ``soda jerk'' their report cards at one time.
One of the part-time clerks who served up sodas and sundaes was John R. Newhart who is now Chesapeake's sheriff.
Newhart said the job paid 29 cents an hour. He worked at the soda fountain about 12 hours a week after school. His classmates teased him about having a job where he made milkshakes and banana splits, he said, but there were also advantages to working at the drug store.
``Everyone knew everyone else, so I saw all my friends there, and it actually made me a little more popular, I think,'' he said. ``Besides, one of the girls I liked also worked behind the counter.''
FRIEDMAN, WHO HAD RUN ``the store that never closed'' (it was open from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day of the year), sold Portlock Pharmacy and retired in 1984. A week later, he thought he wanted to buy the store back. He missed the people he had served, and the place that was like home, for almost three decades.
``What he really needed was just a long vacation,'' Joyce Friedman said. ``He was exhausted.'' The couple took a three-month trip to Europe, and Friedman settled into a life that today includes travel, exercise, study and a part-time pharmacist's job.
``There will always be an opening for independent enterprise,'' Friedman said. ``You can compete if you're willing to pay the price, which is service, service, service. You have to find out what people want and give it to them. It makes no sense to go to a chain store when you can get personalized service and free delivery from an in-de-pen-dent.''
BUT, WAIT A MINUTE, isn't all that service reflected in the cost of the medicine?
Not at all, said Friedman and Jennings.
``There's been a real turnaround in the way we receive money today. It used to be cash; now everyone uses an insurance card. Insurance companies limit what we can charge, so you pay the same thing just about anywhere you go,'' Jennings said.
``I bought a good neighborhood drugstore with a good reputation. There will always be people who want to go to an independent, and there will always be pharmacists who want to be independent.
``The money's not important to me. What matters to me is the patient contact, the beautiful people I've met and the many friends I've made here,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by CARL CASON
On the Cover: ``I bought a good neighborhood drugstore with a good
reputation,'' says Wayne Jennings, owner of Portlock Pharmacy on
Bainbridge Boulevard.
Wayne Jennings, owner of Portlock Pharmacy in South Norfolk, still
offers the free delivery service that was popular when the store
opened in 1955.
1950s file photo
Owner Herbert Friedman offered a free ice cream soda to students
with a B average.
1950s file photo
On the last day of school, students would show their report cards to
the soda jerk, John R. Newhart, now Chesapeake's sheriff.
Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Employee June Byrd stocks the shelves at Portlock Pharmacy. Byrd
also keeps the books and works behind the counter.
by CNB