THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 1995                TAG: 9504110302
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                         LENGTH: Medium:   56 lines

PHARMACIES JOIN LIST OF BUSINESSES THAT OFFER DRIVE-THROUGH SERVICE.

Without ever leaving their cars, motorists can buy beer, cappuccino and fast food; drop off film; pick up dry cleaning; do their banking; and, in some states, pay their last respects at drive-by mausoleums.

Now here's the latest addition to our drive-through culture - prescription drugs.

Three Chesapeake pharmacies soon will build drive-through stores. They will join Bennett's Creek Pharmacy in Suffolk in the ranks of retailers catering to motorists who'd rather not leave the car.

Revco, Rite Aid Pharmacy and Lawrence Pharmacy are obtaining Chesapeake building permits to develop the self-standing drive-through buildings.

``It started about two years ago . . . and it's real big out west now,'' said Gary Lawrence, owner of Lawrence Pharmacy in Chesapeake's Deep Creek section. ``Of course, you always like to see the customer in the store shopping, but this will offer a service that hasn't been available here before.''

Now parents with sick children can avoid bad weather and stay strapped in their seats while they buy medicine. Elderly or disabled customers can wait in their cars while their prescriptions are filled. And commuters can save precious time.

The Revco and Rite Aid drive-throughs, which are expected to open by late fall, will be the first the chains open in the region. Rite-Aid opened its first drive-through this year in upstate New York, Rite Aid spokeswoman Wanda Patrick said.

``Now the new trend for pharmacies is the free-standing building,'' Lawrence said. ``In the past, everyone wanted to get in a strip mall next to a big grocery store like Farm Fresh.''

Bennett's Creek Pharmacy on Bridge Road in Suffolk, which offers a drop-off and pickup only window, is one of the area's first drive-through stores. ``People are used to the fast-food places, where it's boom-boom. Well, it's not like that with prescriptions,'' said S. Chris Jones, owner of the Suffolk drug store. ``It's not like fixing hamburgers, if you know what I mean.''

Some people drop off orders, finish their errands and then come back, he said. But many people find it most convenient to have their physicians phone or fax in orders.

Drug stores launched the drive-through concept in the early 1960s, Jones said. But for some reason they never found much success.

``We're much more mobile than we were 30 years ago,'' he said. ``It works out very well now.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Martin Smith Rodden

A motorist takes advantage of the drive-through service at Bennett's

Creek Pharmacy in Suffolk.

by CNB