Tom?s Pharmacy preparing to open for business
by Peter Jakey – Managing Editor
Tom?s Family Market, at 20597 State Street, is a less than a month away from opening Tom?s Family Pharmacy inside the store.
Customers of the store have been watching construction of the pharmacy front for several weeks. Its located just past the check out aisles and service counter. The projected opening date is Dec. 1, said Ryan Howell, who helps runs the local business. ?We have just about wrapped up all the licenses,? said Howell. ?Once we get through the license process, then we have to start filling out contracts with third party billing partners.?
Brent Craig, a Ferris State University graduate who has 33 years of experience, will be the pharmacist.
?HE?S HAD extensive experience with numerous physicians, physician assistants, pharmacists and medical personnel,? said owner Tom Madison. ?Brent?s goal is to use the talents he has been given, along with the experience and wisdom, which he gained.? He?ll be assisted by registered technician Janine Meyer, who brings five years of experience, and cashier Rose Nash, an employee of Great Northern Drug for 15 years until it closed earlier this year.
?Rose is a familiar face,? said Howell, ?she?s local, she lived here for 35 years.? Howell said the process of opening the pharmacy has been ?non-stop? since Onaway lost its only pharmacy six months ago with the closing of Great Northern Drug. it just has taken a long time to establish one at the store.
?IT?S JUST taken a long time as far as the paperwork,? said Howell. He gets questions daily in the store, asking why Tom?s is opening a pharmacy when Thunder Bay Community Health Services recently opened one.
?From my own personal level, if I?m not a patient of Thunder Bay, I would almost feel uncomfortable going there to get my prescriptions filled there,? said Howell. At Tom?s, ?You are not coming into a doctor?s office, you are coming into a store. You are dropping off your prescriptions, you?re maybe going to do some shopping. I?ve heard that from other people too. We?re not trying take business from them.?
Before Carter?s Food Center took ownership of the downtown grocery store, the B & C Country Store had a pharmacy. ?The number one reason why we are opening the pharmacy is the Onaway community needs a full, functioning pharmacy,? said Howell. ?We also hope it improves the rest of the st
THE PHARMACY will offer 400 different kinds of generic drugs at $4, to compete with the large super stores. Additionally, as is the case with groceries, Tom?s will deliver filled prescriptions to residents within the city.
Customers interested in having prescriptions filled at the new pharmacy are urged to fill out an information packet before it opens to prevent any slowdown in services. ?Our vision is to go beyond the ordinary, to go the extra mile, and to seek to strengthen people?s vision for quality of life,? said Madison.
Tom?s son, Bryan Madison, and Howell are expected to take ownership of the business when Tom retires. The store employees 40 full and part time employees. Tom?s IGA relocated more three years ago and re-opened under its current name, December 18, 2006. Tom Madison opened his first grocery store in Onaway more than three decades ago.