Since 1922, a drug store has stood at the northeast corner of Snelling and St. Clair avenues in St. Paul. And while much in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood has changed since then, a few things about St. Paul Corner Drug remain the same—among them, the building itself. The black-and-white tile floor is original, and a soda fountain facing St. Clair is still an important part of the business. But probably more than anything, Corner Drug maintains the kind of rapport and service customers knew before large drugstore chains dominated the pharmacy scene, when the pharmacist said hello to you by name and knew where you worked and where your kids went to school.
Owner John Hoeschen, who bought the store from Richard Sundberg in 1997, believes strongly in establishing such relationships with his customers, and providing knowledgeable, insightful information about their health concerns as well as their medications.
Hoeschen, who graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in 1989, has seen the local pharmacy landscape change substantially. Locally owned drugstores began closing with the arrival of more chain drugstores and as pharmacies became part of big-box stores such as Walmart and Target.
At Snelling and Selby, now the site of a Starbucks, a drugstore closed when its owner died in early 1991. To the south, at Randolph Avenue and Snelling, was James Pharmacy (owned by two partners, both named James), which closed a few months later because of the owners’ health issues. Sundberg absorbed business from both locations, and the modest store on St. Clair got pretty busy.
When Hoeschen took over, he made changes including a remodel of the pharmacy, as well as computerizing records and product dispersal. One change that Hoeschen made sure did not happen was cutting off the close relationships with customers that he and his staff built over the years. That’s what sets St. Paul Corner Drug apart from the chains. “I have twenty-plus years of experience here—I know all about the people I serve,” says Hoeschen, who lives in the neighborhood with his wife Tamra and their four children, ages 13 to 20.
A common misperception about pharmacists, Hoeschen notes, is that all they do all day long is count out pills and put them in bottles. “That is so far from the real deal,” he says.
Rather, “your brain is going all day long,” he says, determining, among other things, whether a patient’s medications will interact badly, if the patient is taking the proper dosage, if the prescription makes sense for a particular patient, if the patient takes their meds at the right time of day, and what kind of side effects a medication might have.
St. Paul Corner Drug also comes with a feature that you won’t find at a chain. Like the small-town drugstores in movies, it has an old-fashioned soda fountain. You can get an ice cream cone, a sundae, a malt, a shake or a phosphate. The biggest bargain? A cup of coffee for a nickel. And yes, there are some regulars for whom that morning cup of coffee is a daily must.
“People come in and we get to know them in a non-health care situation,” Hoeschen says. Years ago, the soda fountain took up almost the entire south wall of the store. It now has just six stools at its shiny counter. In fact, enjoying an ice cream sundae while twirling on one of those stools one recent afternoon were Tina Shaffer and her daughter, Lucy, age 9. New arrivals to the neighborhood, Tina says, “This is our first visit and the second time today that we’ve been here.”
“The intangibles that come with that soda fountain are...,” Hoeschen searches for a word, then continues: “We will never get rid of that fountain.”
Working at a busy chain drugstore was never an attractive option, Hoeschen says. Working with patients and answering their questions is “what we’re meant to do.” He continues, “This is where I believe I can practice properly and do my job. … We’re more than just a retail outlet. This is a place where you can get taken care of.”
