JERSEYVILLE - The Prescription Shop has been a fixture in Downtown Jerseyville for years and years and soon, the owner and his staff will move to manage and operate the new CVS Pharmacy Department.
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For Randy Newberry, the head pharmacist and owner of the Prescription Shop at 221 S. State in Jerseyville with his wife, Cheryl, it has always been about the relationships with customers and satisfying their daily pharmacy needs.
He expects none of that to change when he becomes the manager of the new pharmacy across the street at the CVS, which is nearing completion. The love from the customers back to Newberry, his wife, and staff is also apparent. He said he hopes those customers will join him and the others at CVS.
“Myself and the two other pharmacists, my five full-time pharmacy technicians and two part-time pharmacy students will all be moved over to the CVS Pharmacy Department,” Newberry said. “CVS is purchasing our pharmacy business and buying out the Prescription Shop. Hopefully we will maintain the customer relationships and continue the care we have of their medicine. We hope to have their prescriptions on hand like we have in the past.”
Randy and his wife said they both feel they have the best in the business working in the Prescription Shop pharmacy.
“The people here aren’t just employees,” he said. “I can’t say enough good things about how fortunate we have been to rely on people with their trust. Our staff are all very capable and on top of their game for people’s pharmacy and prescription needs. I feel like I work with the very best in the business here.”
Newberry was a young man in high school when he started working at the Prescription Shop and that influenced him on going to school to study as a pharmacist. He returned home to the Prescription Shop and started work as a pharmacist.
In 1998, Newberry and his wife bought the pharmacy and have owned it ever since, operating in a mom and pop business style, always placing customers first.
When people come in to the Prescription Shop, the pharmacy manager and his staff knows and has a relationship with nearly everyone who walks in and if they don’t know them, they quickly do.
Owning a pharmacy in this day and age can be a daunting task, with new regulations and the lack of payments on the side of state-ordered prescriptions, Newberry said.
“It is sort of a double-edged sword, you can be involved in people’s lives and circumstances in ways you would never be otherwise,” he said. “There are a lot of responsibilities and it can be challenging.”
He said the lack of payments from the state on medications can be “very stressful,” but they have tried to do the best they can with those circumstances at the Prescription Shop.
Jerry and Georgia Schleper opened the Prescription shop in 1975. Newberry has always remembered what he was taught from them about servicing the customer needs first.
He said the new CVS Pharmacy is a beautiful addition to Downtown Jerseyville and he and his staff are all excited to join their team. The hours for the pharmacy operation will be greatly expanded at CVS from 57 hours a week and closed on Sundays to 88 hours a week and open Sundays.
“We will have things available for sale there that we don’t have at a small pharmacy,” he said. “Our hope and intention is we want to provide patients with the personal attention like we always have. It is not just the prescriptions we fill, but it is the people we know.”
