Sweet Success

In the shadow of Universal Studios, a few short blocks from the streets where stars like Jane Wyman and John Wayne made names for themselves, sits a community drugstore that caters to North Hollywood’s less visible residents — the Hispanic, Russian and African American citizens who have made Tinsel Town their home. PX Drugstore has served this neighborhood for more than 27 years, staying true to a concept that keeps the store from going the way of silent movies: “We keep track of what’s going on in our community,” says Jeff Willard, PX’s home health coordinator.

Noticing a growing demand for home care items, PX added a full-service home medical equipment component in November 2001. This year, heeding the health care headlines, the store beat its big chain competitors to the punch, adding a comprehensive “Diabetes Shoppe,” designed to cater to ethnic communities in which the incidence of diabetes is higher than average, and growing.

“As I go to local communities, I’m seeing that diabetes is becoming more and more of an epidemic. Diabetes runs rampant in the Hispanic and African-American communities,” Willard says.

The Diabetes Shoppe, the business concept for which was developed by pharmaceutical distributor Amerisource-Bergen, carries the standard test strips and blood glucose monitoring kits, but goes a step beyond typical diabetes supplies by offering skincare and footcare products, nutritional items and medicines, such as cough syrup, that are specially formulated for diabetics.

“We brought in food and nutritional items diabetic people didn’t know existed or were afraid to try because they thought [the items] would taste bad,” Willard explains. “We now carry a full line of mousses, cake and pancake mixes, cookies, syrups, jellies, fudge and all sorts of hard candy — in addition to the traditional Glucerna bars and meal replacement bars.”

In true Hollywood fashion, PX arranged a gala health fair in June to show off the new and improved store. Staff members from PX and its parent company, Modern Health, hit the streets to talk up the fair to local businesses, many of whom donated gifts to be presented at the event — “free haircut, free ice cream, 10 percent off this, 20 percent off that,” Willard says. Willard walked a half-mile to one mile in either direction of the store to distribute promotional flyers.

The resulting turnout — which Willard estimates was about 200 visitors — was “phenomenal,” he says. “We were busy from 30 minutes before [it was scheduled to] start until 30 minutes after [it was scheduled to] end.”

The store’s vendors were on hand to demonstrate products, and Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, which works closely with PX, sent clinicians to conduct blood glucose tests and dispense health advice. The health fair also included physical exams performed by a registered nurse, dental screenings for children and HIV testing.

Willard says sales of test strips and lancets have increased since the Diabetes Shoppe was added in April. “People come in and see [the Shoppe] and they’re buying more. They didn’t know there was a cake mix for diabetics.”

Identifying this particular niche was a blend of business savvy and community service. “Diabetes is such a hard thing to go through unless you have someone on your side, a friend somewhere. What we were trying to do is let the community know that ‘Hey, we’re here and we’re looking out for you,’” Willard explains.

“People come in to talk to me — they become repeat customers and tell their friends. The owners and I are confident this is the right move.”