Westboro pharmacy dispenses with convention
Focus is on organic, healthy products
If you wanted to buy some fresh filet mignon, frozen lake trout or gluten-free gnocchi, a drugstore probably wouldn’t be the first place you’d think of. But in Westboro, the neighbourhood pharmacy now stocks all those things and more.
About 18 months ago, Westboro Village Pharmasave, a century-old business, removed its cosmetics, candy bars and Coke and turned over one-quarter of the store to healthy foods, most of them organic and many locally sourced.
“We said, ‘You know what, let’s be different,’ ” says Mark Barnes, pharmacy manager and co-owner of the store.
“We decided that, if we’re going to be health promoters in the pharmacy, we want to be health promoters in the front store, too. As far as I know, we’re the only pharmacy to do this.”
Barnes says the impetus for the change was two-fold.
“It’s something we were wanting to do and when we heard that Shopper’s Drug was opening across the street, we said ‘ Why compete? Why not be different?’ ”
Barnes says he believes that “we’re going to see a reverse trend in commercialism.”
“When Canadian Tire started selling bread, I said ‘That’s where I draw the line.’ Everybody’s selling everything. … I said ‘Let’s be different.’
So he started selling bread, but gluten-free bread made in Manotick.
“I think people are going to start looking for unique shops where you get better service and where you focus your business and do it well,” says the 36-year-old father of two. “We were already about health in the dispensary, so we wanted to make sure the front of our store reflects our health vision.”
Barnes says the response from the community has been terrific.
“We really have thrived in the community and we’re grateful for that. If someone asks for something, the answer is never ‘no.’ It’s always ‘We’ll look into it.’ We put the Westboro Organics sign outside a year ago, but it’s really spread by word of mouth.”
Among the products you can now buy at Westboro Village Pharmasave are fresh-made salads, organic Cheddar, gluten-free gnocchi, O’Brien’s organic beef, from near Metcalfe, and a whole shelf of Mountain Path organic flours and grains, from a company based near Kemptville.
“We try local first,” says Barnes, “and if we can’t get local we go provincial and Canada is as far as we go.”
Several products, such as frozen lasagna, are made specially for the store and sold under the Westboro Organics label.
Barnes and business partner Frank Sicotte bought the business in 2007, but it has been in the Westboro neighbourhood for nearly 100 years (it used to be on the corner where Lululemon is now).
“Westboro has evolved,” says Barnes.
“There was increased competition for the pharmacy and we didn’t want the legacy to die. We wanted to service the community in a way that the community wanted.
“Westboro is a unique area. People care about the environment and their health. Now even the hair dye we sell is organic.”
‘We decided that if we’re going to be health promoters in the pharmacy, we want to be health promoters in the front store, too. As far as I know, we’re the only pharmacy to do this.’
MARK BARNES, Pharmacy manager and co-owner of Westboro Village Pharmasave
Barnes says he has personally lost about 25 pounds from eating better and exercising in recent years.
He says the healthy food and organic products in his store appeal to “everyone from older people with bowel issues to young moms with babies.”
Barnes is also active in drug-addiction prevention and is part of a group planning a privately funded 6,000-square-foot addiction treatment and research centre to open in the Vanier area in the spring.