Independent Pharmacy Gives Main Street American Service

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Independent Pharmacy Gives Main Street American Service In the last independent pharmacy in Lexington, Massachusetts, the pharmacists know most customers by name. “We know our customers by face rather quickly and by name soon after that,” said Chris Venier, 64, owner of Theatre Pharmacy in Lexington, MA. “In this new era of chain pharmacies and mail order prescriptions, Theatre Pharmacy is still a place where personal service is a way of life. The sign in the window say it all ‘Traditional Service and Low Prices,’” Venier said. This pharmacy is Main Street America where Ted Williams frequented the soda fountain or came in for a quart of vanilla ice cream. Theatre is a family pharmacy. In 1935, Venier’s father, Ettore P. Venier, R. Ph. opened his own pharmacy when he couldn’t find a full time job. “Throughout the Depression years, the store prospered, even in competition with seven other pharmacies in town,” said Venier. “And we are the last one standing.” After World War II many of Lexington’s young adults came back to their hometown to start families. They returned to Theatre Pharmacy with their own children and introduced the third generation of customers. Today many of those children are adults raising families in Lexington and returning to the pharmacy of their childhood. The store has had three locations within the same block of Massachusetts Avenue. With each move it added floor space. In the second location, where the current stationary store is, Venier remembers the soda fountain of his youth. In 1952, at age of 12, he started working after school, wearing a white coat, scraping gum off the stools and serving up sodas. The store then represented its time with a tobacco counter, candy counter with jars of candy purchased by weight, and the pharmacy counter as well. In 1962 Chris Venier graduated from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and went into business with his dad. Venier said he had the ideal situation with his dad at the helm until Chris turned 28, and in 1968 he took over the business. “He was a tremendous mentor. He really believed in service and did a great job of teaching me. I was very lucky to get to work with him,” said Venier. The elder Venier worked part time with his son until he retired completely in 1975. Older customers might remember both father and son working together. Now Theatre competes with two chain pharmacies in town: CVS and Walgreen’s.

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