With franchised drug stores seemingly on every other street corner these days, it’s becoming rare to find a local, independent pharmacy. But for 65 years, Baron’s Drugs on Washington Street has persevered.
To recognize its service to the community, Mayor David Roberts is scheduled to present the store’s owner, Rudi Trivigno, with a city proclamation. And St. Mary Hospital recently presented Trivigno a plaque for going “above and beyond the call of duty” in service to the community over the years.
Locally-owned drug stores in Hoboken have diminished over the years while Rite Aid, CVS and other national chains erected larger, freestanding stores. According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, in the 1990s, the number of independents in the U.S. dropped from 30,500 to 20,600.
“In the 1960s, there were over a dozen family-owned pharmacies in Hoboken,” said Trivigno, “but then in the 1980s and 1990s, many of then went out of business. Now there’s only a handful left.”
He ticked off the list of challenges that the little guys face, including the influx of chains, the insurance changes, the supermarket pharmacies, the deep discounters, the Internet pharmacies, and the mail-order pharmacies.
Service is key
Trivigno bought the store in 1992, but had worked his way through the ranks and been a constant fixture behind the counter since 1964. Currently he has 10 employees working for him.
Trivigno said that service is pretty much the only niche left to independent pharmacists.
“We know people’s faces, we know their names, and when someone walks in the door they know they’re going to be helped,” he said. “That’s something that the bigger franchises really don’t do. We don’t want anyone to walk away unhappy.”
Recent surveys back up Trivigno’s belief that bigger isn’t always better when it come to drugstores. In September of 2003, Consumer Reports collected responses from 32,000 subscribers who were asked about quality, speed and other aspects of their experience at more than 6,000 independent drugstores and 31 national or regional chain, supermarket or mega-store pharmacies. Overall, independent pharmacies secured a score of 88 percent customer satisfaction.
At Baron’s this includes benefits such as disease-management education, home delivery of prescription drugs, and compounding, which is customizing medications for patients with special needs.
“[Baron’s] used to be more a general store with cosmetics and things like that,” said Trivigno, “but as the market changed, we’ve become more focused on medications, medical equipment and supplies.”
He said that the store provides St. Mary’s Hospital and local residents with items such wheelchairs, hospital beds, and medical apparatuses such as crutches or breast pumps.
Trivigno added that Barron’s Drugs is one of the few stores that will still compound drugs. “Compounding is a thing of the past,” he said, “but we still get one or two requests a week, and are happy to fill them.”