Hello all, Michael here! Bridget and I are going to switch off writing to you guys each week. We really want things to be personal and our journey with Front Range to be public – so HERE. WE. GO.
It feels so good to be writing this. Front Range (or a version of it) has always been a dream achievement of mine. Growing up in a small town and working at its “mom and pop” pharmacy opened my brain to just how much small businesses can do in a community. In pharmacy school, I was able to take a very entrepreneurial path to graduating and completely understood that in order to be the pharmacist I wanted to be, I was going to have to create a pharmacy. I absolutely love being a pharmacist – I would choose that career path over and over again. However, after working in independent pharmacies for over 10 years prior to my brief stent in corporate pharmacy gave me this solid perspective: pharmacists can play a giant role in the health of a community IF empowered and given the chance to be creative. I found zero opportunities for creativity in corporate pharmacy – even as a manager. There is also very little given to empower pharmacists by these big chain stores. I’m sure that I will dive into my time at Walgreens sometime later on here, but for now… lets talk about Front Range!
Front Range Pharmacy will be a normal retail pharmacy with everything you would expect and so much more. We will accept and bill insurance, compete toe-to-toe on cash prices, carry all the typical non-prescription items, and offer the usual services you would expect from the pharmacies you frequent currently. However, Front Range is owned 100% by Bridget and I and we plan to be way more than an average pharmacy. It might surprise you to learn that there are actually as many independent community pharmacies as there are chains – the market in Denver is just unusually light in them (see the graphic below). We plan to take this opportunity to show our community what it has been missing and become YOUR local pharmacy.
Source: NCPA Digest 2019, an annual pharmacy benchmark paper
Independent pharmacy is about being part of your community and your community being apart of your business. Independent pharmacy is about creating a family and a place that people find trust through transparency in a market known for being murky and unnavigable. We cant wait to surprise you by putting you and your families at the center of our business, by actually listening to your concerns, and by providing services that puts our community’s health first.
We wouldn’t be here without you all. This would be nothing without the support of those who believe in us and have been cheering us on since day one. We plan to use this weekly blog to keep everyone updated on our progress, to share more of our story, and spread the word on the services we will be providing at Front Range Pharmacy. It’s true that it takes a village to achieve anything and we’re honored that you have chosen to be ours. Stay tuned, you are going to LOVE your local pharmacy!
Check out our space as it is today in the pictures below! Just click the arrows to go left and right!
