Carleton Place IDA Drugmart your home health care store has made recent changes to the drugstore designed to increase accessibility and enhance counselling room area.
“We are a full service pharmacy that offers quality care and personal service, in a friendly environment,” says Vicki Laird, store manager. “We strive to do our best to meet our customers’ health needs and to develop long lasting trusting relationships.”
One of four drugstores that are part of Carleton Place Drugmart Inc. – the others are located in Stittsville and Richmond with the Greenbank Hunt Club location opening in June, 2013 – the Carleton Place site was the first owned by Aziz Dhalla and Esmail Merani who are also pharmacists.
“How we try to separate ourselves from the competition is by finding those niche markets that the community needs,” Vicki states.
For instance, as part of its full-service pharmacy, the Carleton Place IDA at 47 Lansdowne Ave. specializes in training and teaching diabetics.
“One in six in this country is a diabetic,” Esmail notes. “Most don’t know because they never get tested.”
Along with hosting clinics on all aspects of diabetes, the Carleton Place IDA also has a diabetic resource centre filled with information materials related to the disease.
Other services offered by the pharmacy include food intolerance testing, fall prevention, thyroid and lipid profile (to check cholesterol levels) clinics, blood pressure monitoring and free delivery of prescriptions within town boundaries. The pharmacists are also trained to administer flu shots and humira injections. Likewise, in-depth medication reviews are available and, for those who are unable to come into the drugstore to have this done, a pharmacist will travel to the person’s home.
“We do 60 to 70 such visits each year,” says Esmail.
In addition, Carleton Place IDA has on staff certified fitters for compression stockings and braces and personnel trained in wound management. For those requiring mobility aids, the store offers the rental of crutches, walkers, rollators, wheelchairs and transport chairs. Ostomy supplies can also be ordered.
“Ours is a full line of products,” Esmail explains. “Whatever we don’t have in the store, we can get overnight or within 24 hours. For seniors, it’s one-stop shopping.”
The Carleton Place IDA is also home to a large cosmetic department, complete with a full line of dermatological products by well-known names in the industry like Vichy, Canadian-owned Marcelle, which offers a hypoallergenic line, and Avène. Avène has developed special products formulated to treat skincare conditions such as psoriasis, eczema and rosacea.
For those looking for a present for that special someone, the Carleton Place IDA has plenty of choices in its expansive gift section. There is a wide selection of items, which vary depending on the season. Among the spring and summer offerings are Orange Crate spices, including a summer lineup of seasonings that the company collaborated on with Cottage Life magazine as part of the Cottage Life Weekend Collection. The store also features an eye catching collection of beach fashions from Canadian garment maker Rapz.
Other popular items throughout the year in the gift department are Lang calendars, and Crabtree & Evelyn and Fruits & Passion’s lines of bath and body items. As well, Yankee candles can be found in various sizes and scents, plus Reallite battery operated, genuine wax candles, timer included.
Regardless of the event, Carleton Place IDA is certain to have a greeting card to fit the occasion with its full line of Hallmark cards. To complete the gift package, wrapping paper, gift bags, ribbon and bows are also available for sale.
And, if you can’t find what you are looking for, simply ask Sue Barkley, store cosmetician and gift buyer, or one of her staff.
“The department is excellent at friendly service,” says Esmail. So much so that Sue knows many of her customers by name and they will say hello to her on the street.
Store upgrades
Always striving to enhance the customer experience at Carleton Place IDA, there have been many changes at the store since its purchase in 1991 by Esmail and Aziz.
During the most recent renovations, which took place in early 2015, the front cash area was revamped to make it more spacious and accessible for wheelchairs, walkers and strollers.
“Our store is totally handicapped accessible – every section, every aisle,” says Esmail with pride.
Along with this change, the number of counselling rooms has been increased from one to three. That means there is more space for medical checks to be done confidentially and one of the rooms can be used for staff to show customers how to properly wear compression stockings.
The customer feedback from the changes has been very positive, according to Vicki. “They are loving it,” she states.
As a form of customer appreciation, on the first and last Wednesdays of the month, those aged 50 and older receive a 20 per cent discount on any non-sale items they purchase, excluding prescriptions.
Carleton Place Drugmart Inc. is very much a part of the communities in which they are located. In 2014, the four IDA locations, which raised $5,375 collectively, were recognized for being the highest business fundraiser at the World Partnership Walk to end global poverty held in Ottawa. Locally, the Carleton Place IDA has been an ongoing supporter of the Carleton Place District Memorial Hospital and the Lanark County Food Bank. Through Dress Down Fridays alone, $38,000 has been collected to date for the hospital. Cereal boxes are collected for the food bank at the annual staff Christmas party.
“We feel we are all in this together,” Esmail says of the drugstore’s philanthropic endeavours. “Everyone has to do their part.”
For customer convenience, Carleton Place IDA is open seven days a week – Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also contact the drugstore by phone at 613-257-1414 or visit its website at www.idapharmacy.ca.