TORRINGTON – If you ever go on a road trip and utilize our interstate highways, you’ll notice almost every town looks the same.
There will be the same chain of fast food restaurants, same chain hotels, and the same gas stations. Nearly every town, from Washington to Maine, can offer that same greeting. Exit ramp, golden arches, hotel – it doesn’t change much.
That’s becoming the story off the interstate, too. Most long-time Torrington residents can tell you all about the chicken restaurant and bowling alley that used to serve as social hubs here in town, and how they were torn down in the name of progress.
Family-owned stores, restaurants, businesses, what have you – they’re becoming all too rare.
And that’s what makes Community Drug, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this month, so special.
The pharmacy business is mostly dominated by chain stores in 2019. Vandal Drug kept the signs, but it’s been part of a small chain for some time. Until recently, Wisconsin-based Shopko and its pharmacy commanded its fair share of local business.
There’s only one truly local pharmacy – and that’s Community Drug, founded by owner and operator Jancy Walter in 1999.
“We are the only family-owned pharmacy in town,” Walter said. “Vandal’s sounds local but it’s not.
“I had worked for somebody in Torrington for a few years, and he was going to sell his store to a small chain. I decided I didn’t want to answer to somebody from somewhere else, so I decided to open my own.”
The building that became Community Drug, located on US 26/85 west of Torrington near the Goshen County Fair Grounds, had been a restaurant previously – first burgers, then Mexican. Walter said her brother-in-law suggested the building would be a good fit, and the family spent only three weeks turning it from a taco joint into a pharmacy.
The shelves came from an old pharmacy in Lingle, and they hung a new sign. They did, however, keep the marquee sign, which has become Community’s trademark of sorts. It’s how most people know of the store – it was even featured on CNN once.
“Since it was the restaurant, it had that kind of sign out there,” Walter said. “The first sign I put out there was ‘No burgers and fries, just pills and advice.’ It was just a comment about the restaurant. I had so many comments about that, we just kept it there. We try to change it every two weeks.”
The sign never advertises any deals in the store, but it always has some sort of joke or witticism, like asking passers-by whatever happened to preparations A through G, or “I don’t skinny dip, I chunky dunk.” The jokes haven’t repeated in 20 years, and according to Walter, people love them.
She’s kept a binder full of sign sayings she’s collected throughout the years from a variety of sources. There’s a short list of some of the most memorable signs on Community Drug’s website, commdrug.com.
“People come in with jokes, people leave us things, and sometimes people come in just to give us things,” Walter said. “I don’t like to use them again, but I suppose we can start recycling them now after 20 years.”
More than a sign
Community Drug’s history, from its conversion from a taco joint, to the first silly sign, to new employees, is all kept in a large album by Walter. It holds pictures of her son, John, knocking out a partition wall when he was in high school. He’s now a pharmacist, and works side-by-side with his mother.
It has other pictures, too. It’s a record of the people who have worked at Community Drug through the years, and the people who have made it possible to survive against chain pharmacies – the customers.
Walter kept a list of the people who came to Community Drug when it first opened, and many of them are still customers. She’s got another list, too, of customers who have passed on.
When Walter comes to that list, there’s almost a tear in her eye.
“I just look at those people, and everybody is special,” she said. “I can look at some of the drugs and that person’s name just comes to my mind.
“It’s just all about the people. That is what we treasure.”
The people – and the connections she has formed with them over her 20 years in business – are the reason Community Drug made it when so many family-owned businesses haven’t, Walter said.
“We try to serve people the way everyone wants to be served,’ Walter said. “We work hard. We don’t have a big staff, so everybody has to multitask and do a lot of things. I think knowing people and being involved with them, so it’s more of a personal relationship, instead of just a commodity. I think that is the secret.”
To foster and keep those relationships, Walter and her staff pride themselves in going the extra step to meet their customer’s needs.
“If somebody from Lagrange needs a refill, they’re out of refills, you can’t just say ‘well, come back tomorrow.’ They may only come to town once a week. We can make the extra effort of trying to call the doctor instead of just putting off. If you don’t know your people, you don’t know their circumstances. That personal touch - that is what we strive for.”
A personal touch
That personal touch is a by-product of Walter’s business philosophy and leadership style.
Chain stores are all about the bottom line. Walter said she has even heard stories of chain pharmacies gauging their employee’s success by how many key strokes they enter while filling prescriptions.
Community Drug is almost the exact opposite of that.
“My business model that I believe in is not top-down,” Walter said. “It is more of a circle. You can step into the circle at different places. That also makes you be the person that makes decisions. It’s not ‘I am the boss and this is what should be done,’ as long as the outcome is good.”
That philosophy explains why Walter has one of the longest tenured staffs in any industry in town. She opened the store 20 years ago, and her son John came on board as a pharmacist six years ago. Lauren Correa has worked as a pharmacy technician for 14 years. TJ Ewald, a pharmacist, is the pharmacy’s newest hire with a year behind him.
The longevity is because Walter knows the work should never be the most important thing in someone’s life.
“We really try to put emphasis on family,” Walter said. “Family comes first. We all work harder to make up for somebody being gone, and then when it’s somebody else’s turn we’ll cover that.
“The way our store works, I’m sure we look like ducks in a shooting gallery sometimes. You might be helping the person at the window, then you get done with that and you can transition into something else. Somebody gets tied up on my phone. We cover for each other, we work together as a team. I think that helps because then they can use their own decision-making. They’re invested in the outcome, too.”
A meaningful career
That outcome, for Jancy Walter, will be handing over the reins of the business she started 20 years ago to her son, John.
“I’m looking at semi-retirement,” she said. “I’ll have been a pharmacist for 40 years this year. John is taking over more of running the business. He isn’t buying it yet, but he will be the pharmacist in charge.”
Walter said she still plans to be involved in the pharmacy, but for years, she was the only pharmacist on staff. By law, there has to be a pharmacist on site when the pharmacy is open – that resulted in some long days for Walter.
Now, she said, it’s time to take a step back. But after two decades of forging relationships with her customers and striving to deliver a personal touch to Community Drug’s services, it’s going to be tough to walk away.
“I have mixed feelings,” she said. “It will be nice to be away, but this has been my world for 40 years.”
Since she opened Community Drug, Walter has seen the town grow and interacted with people through some of the most important times of their lives from behind her pharmacy counter. It’s not only helped her have a fulfilling career, but it’s helped her business survive in a world where, in many places, family-owned businesses are fighting for their survival.
“In this community so many people have been here for a long time,” she said. “It is interesting how you can build a web, or a net, and you can place people in those knots. It’s interesting how you travel through and they’re all connected.
“It’s what makes this career meaningful.”
