A break the paradigm pharmacy concept

Elephant Pharmacy, Berkeley California.

Retail Wire alerts us to Elephant Pharmacy (The Drug Store That Prescribes Yoga), a two-store chain in the SF Bay area, that has just been written up in the Wall Street Journal. A third store is opening this year. RW comments:

The two-store business, which first opened in 2001, offers the same services and many of the same products as other drugstores, but it also markets a wide range of complementary medicines and services, such as in-store acupuncturists, nutritionists and yoga classes. The company's web site even describes Elephant Pharmacy as "the drug store that prescribes yoga." Kathi Lentzsch, chief executive officer of Elephant, told The Wall Street Journal, "People are beginning to question some of the traditional pharmaceuticals, so they are looking for alternative ways to treat themselves. We're sort of turning the traditional drugstore on its head."

I think this might be difficult to work on a large scale, but maybe not. In the modern, scaled up retail era, people haven't thought of pharmacies-drug stores as a primary point of distribution-receipt of health information and services other than prescription and over-the-counter medicines and the like. This is why the "Dr. Koop" line of videos and whatnot distributed through drug stores failed miserably in the 1990s.

Drug stores moved into the "variety store" mode decades ago. CVS in the Washington region is more of a neighborhood convenience store with a prescription drug counter.

My sense is that this new concept can work in higher SES areas, just like Stew Leonard's successfully differentiates its product offering vis-a-vis more traditional supermarkets, or a hardware store which through superior merchandising and service is able to co-exist with the big box chains.

The issue is can these kind of paradigm breaking businesses be scaled up and chained as well?

And is it possible, from a health promotion standpoint, to figure out how to do this in health-underserved communities, making the local pharmacy in low-income neighborhoods a partner in the distribution and availability of health care services.

Note that pharmacies, Walmart, and supermarkets are adding walk-in health clinics to their array of services.

Another thing about prescriptions, why shouldn't doctors and dentists just provide them as part of office visits? Yesterday I had emergency dental surgery (ouch both in the mouth and the wallet), and my penicillin and high-dosage ibuprofen were handed to me by the assistant (and included as part of the cost of service).
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Also see "Elephant Pharmacy Expands With New CEO By CASSIE NORTON" from the Berkeley Daily Planet and "Bay Area Funds Focus on the Double Bottom Line." The latter article offers an interesting approach to brace "local banks" in the Washington region in an attempt to help seed the development and growth of independent retail.

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