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Vineyard’s only pharmacy hopes residents check them out

By Genelle Pugmire - | Oct 21, 2022
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Pharmacist Peter Kearney visits with a customer at the Willow Creek Pharmacy in Vineyard.
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Part of the Willow Creek Pharmacy in Vineyard, a family-operated business.

It may not have a soda fountain counter or a drive-up window, but Vineyard’s only pharmacy has something the big-box stores don’t have, owners say — a hometown feel and a personal touch.

Last December, Peter Kearney and family opened the Willow Creek Compounding Pharmacy at 554 N. Mill Road in the shopping and eating area next to the Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatres.

Willow Creek is a full-service pharmacy with non-sterile compounding, specialty medications and more. So besides getting all your regular pharmaceuticals, Kearney, the owner and pharmacist, can help with special issues.

Those issues could include changing the form of the medication. If you can’t take pills, they could be put in gel cap form or in a cream on-site.

It’s the one-on-one feeling that also adds to Willow Creek’s unique service. Kearney can even come out and talk with customers about their needs, come to the car if needed or deliver to homes.

“We’re not a big-box so we’re not as busy and we can get the prescriptions out faster,” Kearney said. “Our projections are to have 90 to 100 prescriptions a day; right now we’re at about 40.”

Kearney says it takes about a year and a half for a pharmacy to really take off — and he should know, he has been doing this for more than 30 years.

“My grandfather had a pharmacy in Texas,” Kearney said. “He told me pharmacists have their heads down. They’ve got to get to know their customers and be available to talk to them.”

At the time his grandfather was teaching him about customer service, Kearney had no idea he’d be a pharmacist. However, he always remembered what his grandfather said.

What Kearney says he really needs are people to realize that he is there operating the only pharmacy in Vineyard, with a handful of both doctor’s and dentist’s offices close buy.

“There is lots of traffic around here because of the theaters and eating places. People don’t see us,” Kearney said.

He is hoping that Vineyard residents will catch on that they have a full-service pharmacy close buy.

Kearney said Willow Creek’s prices are lower than most pharmacies. They also take insurance and that is about the same cost anywhere you go, he noted.

Kearney said they are starting to get good referrals from the doctors in town but residents still need to know that Willow Creek is nearly at their doorstep.

“We love it out here,” Kearney said. “Vineyard is a close-knit city and it needed a pharmacy. We are the only one.”

Even though Kearney has support gradually sinking in and people calling to find out about them, he hopes customers will begin to grow a bit faster. He said they have until next summer to build the business or will have to leave Vineyard, the city they have learned to love.

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