A Prescription for Three Decades

After 30 years in business, there’s one thing Harris Bogdnoff knows for sure: His customers are what has kept him in business for so long.

Bogdnoff is the owner of Harris Pharmacy & Home Health Care in the East Street Center behind McDonald’s.

This year, the drug store is celebrating its 30-year mark in the Doylestown community.

In an age where Mom-and-Pop pharmacies have gone by the wayside in favor of mega-chain drug stores at nearly every major intersection, Bogdnoff feels certain his store has stuck around this long because of his personal connection with his clientele.

His motto: If you take care of the customer, nothing else matters.

The formula has served the former Northeast Philadelphian well since he graduated from Temple University’s School of Pharmacy.

Not one to be tied to a 9-to-5 office routine, he decided to pursue becoming a druggist.

“I knew I enjoyed talking to people,” said Bogdnoff, who now lives with his family in Solebury. Listening to his customers to learn their needs and assist them is key to his business, Bogdnoff firmly believes.

Many of his customers have been coming in since the early days, he said, with the next generation following in their parents’ footsteps.

“Now, the kids that we used to provide medicine for are bringing their own kids in,” said Bogdnoff’s wife, Cathy, who also does double-duty as a pharmacy technician.

When he first opened the pharmacy in 1981, Bogdnoff said there were five other independent pharmacies operating in Doylestown. His is the only one left.

“As an independent, 95% of what we do is fill prescriptions,” he said recently, taking a break from duties at his store.

By achieving a quick turnaround on filling prescriptions while providing personal service, Bogdnoff said his customers appreciate the efforts in what could be an unpleasant experience.

“We’re selling something that everybody who comes in here doesn’t want, let alone, has to pay for,” he said of purchasing prescriptions.

“So we have to make that a comfortable experience for people – we’re not going to make you walk around the store for half an hour to try to get you to buy something else,” he said, a tactic some critics claim chain pharmacies employ.

While pharmaceutical companies continue to mass produce most prescription drugs, Harris Pharmacy also is one of few in the area that still does compounding – mixing medication to fit the specific needs of the patient.

For example, a drug may come only in pill form, but the doctor requires that it be ingested as a liquid. The compounding pharmacist has the ability to create that form.

The store doubled its size in 1990, taking over an adjacent former dental office. The 4,500-square-foot retail space allowed Bogdnoff to devote more floor space to home health care products, such as orthopedic supports, walkers, medical supplies, crutches, wheelchairs and commodes.

Bogdnoff said he gets offers repeatedly to sell his business to the national chains.

“I tell them all the time that my customers are not for sale,” he said emphatically.

One of the biggest changes in his 30 years in business is the overall involvement of insurance companies. Back in 1981, most of his customers paid cash out of their own pockets for prescriptions. Now, insurance pays for 90% of them, he said.

Even if you don’t have long to wait for your prescription to be filled, make sure you check out a display case by the pharmacy. It has a collection of medicines in their original containers dating back to the early 1900s.

Constipated? Try Lydia E. Pinkham’s Pills for Constipation.

Having trouble with baldness? A bottle of Mange Medicine may be your cure-all.

Bogdnoff even has an official prescription blank that was sanctified during Prohibition to allow doctors to prescribe alcohol for medicinal purposes. The Rx for this chap: “Take 1/2 oz. of whiskey three times daily after meal.” 

Harris Pharmacy & Home Health Care is at 511 East St.

Information: (215) 345-4800.