Column: CEO strives for ‘hometown feeling’ in pharmacies
As a child, Heidi Snyder, then Heidi Kantor, hung out in drug stores owned by her father, Daniel Kantor, of Monsey.
“It was my favorite place to be,” says Snyder, now second-generation owner, president and CEO of Drug World Pharmacies in Amenia and Cold Spring, with headquarters in New City.
- Heidi and Mark Snyder, mother and son, represent the second and third generations of the family that runs Drug World Pharmacies in Amenia and Cold Spring.
Early signs of her determined spirit emerged while a student at Spring Valley High School. Anxious to avail herself of the early admissions program at Rockland County Community College, which had her skip her senior year, she was denied her high school diploma by a negative school official. But the student had the last word. In addition to holding a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and a Master of Business Administration with a marketing focus from Loyola University of Chicago, she was belatedly awarded her GED, affirming that she is, indeed, a high school graduate.
The Kantor daughter was working in California when her father, now living in Jupiter, Fla., opted for retirement and offered his daughter the opportunity to take over operations. Since that time, she has bought and sold stores. She and her husband, David, raised two children, Sarah and Mark. The mother was elated when Mark opted to become the third generation involved in the Drug World operations.
“Every day I get up and think of what I can do better,” the Drug World owner says, noting that the stores have recently instituted an app service whereby customers can check the status of their prescriptions. The stores also offer charge accounts. “People have a choice. They don”™t have to come to us, so we offer the service of a neighborhood store,” Snyder says. “Actually, we have expanded into a general store with a prescription department.”
Snyder visits stores, talking to customers to ascertain their needs: kitchen appliances, office supplies, greeting cards, cosmetics, over-the-counter medications.
The Amenia store has 5,000 square feet, allowing for the display of such health aids as lift chairs. These, she says, are also available in the Cold Spring store, limited to 3,000 square feet. “Ask and you will receive,” she says, pointing to a customer in Cold Spring who sought and found TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) units for neuropathy.
“We offer that hometown feeling that you don”™t get anymore,” Snyder says. She recalls an elderly patient faced with a $311 co-payment that prohibited him from filling his prescription. “By seeking out manufacturers”™ coupons, we were able to get the co-pay down to $5,” she says. “We are voucher-friendly.” she adds. “Larger stores do not always welcome vouchers, because they have to wait for their money.
The biggest challenge in her ownership was the recent recession from which she sees businesses emerging. “It changed the way of shopping and certainly how we ordered and inventoried,” she says. “Needs became more important than wants. Some customers had to choose between medicine and food. Today if a woman wants a scarf for $9.99, she may buy it. Five years ago she wouldn”™t.”
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.