THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606040087
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: WINDSOR LENGTH: 101 lines
LESLIE DELOATCH KNOWS exactly what to do and where to go the minute he walks into Windsor Pharmacy.
The 4-year-old boy heads straight to the back counter, where pharmacist Robert P. ``Bob'' Parsons keeps the drugstore's toy box stocked with small, inexpensive gifts.
Every child who comes into the store gets to leave with a present he or she pulls from the colorful cardboard box.
``I do this because kids tend to think drugstores are like doctors' offices; they scare children,'' Parsons said. ``I want them to know what a pharmacist is . . . and to realize they can have fun in the drugstore. I want them to look forward to coming here.''
Windsor Pharmacy, in the center of town at 12A Windsor Blvd., is a combination pharmacy and old-fashioned variety store. It offers greeting cards, craft supplies, candy and gifts - and hometown hellos.
These little extras, rare in modern-day pharmacies, have garnered Windsor Pharmacy two national awards over the past year: one from AmeriSource Health Corp., the store's largest product supplier, and another from ``Drug Topics,'' monthly magazine for pharmacists.
AmeriSource, the country's fifth-largest pharmaceutical and home health care distributor, last year presented its Private Label Award to the drugstore. The recognition is given annually to one of more than 700 independent pharmacies nationwide participating in the company's Family Pharmacy Program, which helps small pharmacies stay competitive with larger chain drugstores.
And last winter, ``Drug Topic'' honored Windsor Pharmacy as one of 57 independent drugstores nationwide - and the only one in Virginia - for its ``exceptional merchandising, advertising and promotions.''
Both awards were unexpected, Parsons said.
The AmeriSource award came at a company trade show. ``When they kept describing things that sounded like us,'' he said, ``I kept thinking how coincidental it was that another drugstore does so many of the same things we do.
``It hadn't even occurred to me they were talking about Windsor Pharmacy.''
Parsons, 56, said his success is based on treating customers exactly as he like to be treated.
``Customers come first, and everything else is secondary in this business,'' he said. ``I think the secret of being a good pharmacist is to listen to customers and have a sincere desire to help them.''
Parsons, a soft-spoken man with a quick smile, chats with customers as he walks through the store. When kids bounce in, he pulls out the toybox in anticipation of their stop by his counter.
Occasionally, he also pulls out a camera and takes the children's pictures. Prints go on a bulletin board until the children visit again, when they can pull off their photographs and take them home.
Parsons and his wife, Barbara, grew up in Wakefield and dated through high school. In 1962, after Parsons finished a stint in the military, the couple married and moved to Richmond so that he, at 25, could study pharmacy at the University of Virginia.
A decade later, degree in hand and children in tow, the couple moved to Windsor to realize their dream of owning their own drugstore.
Despite repeated warnings from pharmaceutical wholesalers that the community was too small to support its own drugstore, they opened Windsor Pharmacy in 1973.
``M.H. Robinson, who was mayor at the time, told us that Windsor needed its own drugstore and promised that people would support us,'' Parsons recalled. ``And Richard J. Holland (Farmers Bank of Windsor) loaned us the money to get things started.''
The store, covering 7,500-square feet, is well stocked with the usual drugstore fare: soap, candy, toothbrushes, over-the-counter medications, greeting cards and the like.
But that's just the beginning of a long, diverse list of inventory on the shelves. There are also sets of dishes, roasting pans, wind chimes and bed sheets.
The store also has an entire room devoted to craft-making materials: baskets, grapevine wreaths, cloth, thread, paints, paper and calligraphy pens.
``There seems to be a big need for craft items,'' Parsons said. ``There aren't a lot of places around here to buy these items. As more and more people started asking for various things, we started to carry them.''
Kimberly Wade of Windsor, shopping one recent day for craft supplies, said, ``Bob is great. He really knows exactly what he's doing.''
The Parsons' son, Neil, works at the pharmacy part time. He plans to return to run the family business after graduting from Virginia Wesleyan College.
Daughter, Noelle Cardman, who recently graduated from MCV, is a pharmacist with UKrops in Richmond.
Barbara Parsons runs the pharmacy office.
``For a national prize winner, the Windsor Pharmacy is surprisingly small-town,'' said Janice Adams, public relations director with Geltzer & Co. ``The atmosphere is friendly, as befits a store nestled in the peanut-farm country of the Tidewater region. But there's nothing small-town about Windsor Pharmacy's professionalism.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including the cover, by MICHAEL KESTNER
Bob Parsons takes a picture of 3-year-old Jamie Joyce, which will
end up on a wall with other shots of Windsor children who stop by
the drugstore.
Bob Parsons, who owns Windsor Pharmacy, works with clerk Donna Redd,
a jack-of-all-trades who orders, receives and stocks merchandise. by CNB