Medicine Shoppe moves into modern building but retains personal feel of an old apothecary

This month, the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy moved across the Audubon Center parking lot on North Union Boulevard into a new, $700,000 building.

Although the 3,800-square-foot pharmacy boasts a contemporary design, a compounding section where ointments and capsules are created, and a sterile room for mixing injection drugs, much of the atmosphere is a throwback to an apothecary of days gone by.

Independent franchise owner and pharmacist Gene Bockrath says personal customer service on the phone, at the large, inviting counter and during home deliveries, along with display cases of antique glass medicine bottles, tins, furniture and pharmaceutical equipment, give his business an old-fashioned feel.

He's turned the corner drugstore experience he's re-created into a competitive edge, needed today to have staying power against corporate-owned national chain stores. Medicine Shoppe International Inc. is the largest franchisor of independent community pharmacies in the U.S.

"Most of our success has got to be the service we provide," Bockrath said. "We know people by name, and we're a source of information for patients and doctors. We're problem solvers - and people appreciate it."

Customer John Delcano agrees.

"They're very personable here, and I don't feel that at other places," he said recently while picking up a prescription for his cat. "The fact that they do a lot of the compounding on site is wonderful, and the new location is even better."

At a time when many independent pharmacies have succumbed to the giants such as Walgreens and Wal-Mart, Bockrath says his sales have increased 10 to 20 percent annually since the new millennium began.

He has a staff of 15, up from two when he moved to Colorado Springs from Ohio 27 years ago to open his pharmacy in a 1,600-square-foot unit in the same shopping center.

"We've been growing so much we ran out of space," Bockrath said.

He started looking for a place to build his own building several years ago but wanted to stay in the area because "Union is a good thoroughfare, there are medical campuses down the road, and it's a stable neighborhood."

The site of a Yakitori restaurant, just a stone's throw from his original pharmacy, became a possibility. He negotiated a deal with the shopping center owner to lease the land, raze the restaurant and build a pharmacy, which went up in less than four months.

Bockrath, who has been a pharmacist for 42 years, designed the building to suit his needs for concocting drugs, such as natural hormones, pain medications and veterinary products, dispensing prescriptions, selling over-thecounter products and displaying his large medicinal antique collection, which he has been accumulating for years.

Eye-catching cobalt blue and amber apothecary bottles, old powder and liniment containers, mortars and pestles, scales, a manual typewriter, wooden pill makers and other equipment provide an interesting diversion for customers.

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Contact the writer: 636-0235 or debbie.kelley@gazette.