A Conversation With ... Lynn Morris

Education: Pharmacy degree, University of Missouri, Kansas City; Master of Health Administration, Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar

On competing with big chains: By combining multiple locations into a family-owned chain, customers get “the best of both worlds.”

Tell us about your company.

Family Pharmacy was started in 1977 by my wife, Janet, and I. All three of our children work in the business, and so do their spouses. We have 21 retail stores, and we have three closed-shop pharmacies, which are nursing-home pharmacies. Then we have a management contract with Lakeland Hospital to help oversee its pharmacy. We (also own) Family Pharmacy Home Medical in Nixa. We have almost 300 employees. We have two outlets called Family Pharmacy Bargain Outlets, one in Ozark and one in the (Nixa) warehouse that’s open to the public (with) all types of food items … and all seasonal items … imports, one-of-a-kind (items), closeouts and short-dated (goods).

In 2007, Family Pharmacy’s Plainview Road store was named Small Business of the Year by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. Talk about that experience.

It meant a lot to us, because that particular store was a small store in our group that had a great group of people – one of the employees had been employee of the year for us. (It) was a tremendous honor, and I think it propelled us through all the problems (at that site) that we had last year. Had we not been a store that was resourceful and hard-working, we might not have made it through that move.

The difficulties you’re referring to occurred when Summer Fresh grocery store, in which Family Pharmacy’s Plainview Road store was housed, sold the building to Community Blood Center of the Ozarks. You’re now in a nearby spot in the Lakewood Center. What was that process like?

(The move) has turned out to be a good thing, but it sure was a stressful and negative thing for awhile. We had short notice – and I’m sure that was not intended – but unfortunately, you can’t find a new location and do an infill and get all the permits … and get all the licenses transferred, and the inspections done overnight. The Community Blood Center allowed us to stay there, and that was nice of them, (though) our rent went up. What surprised us was the loyalty of our customer base. During that three-month (transition) period, we retained 80 percent to 85 percent of our business (at that site each month). Now, we have a front end of our own, so we have a lot of nice gifts and health and beauty aids (and) people can enjoy a full-line store instead of just a pharmacy within a grocery store.

How does Family Pharmacy compete against large retail pharmacy chains?

We’ve been fortunate to grow, so now we’re at the size that we really can compete, but every customer who walks in actually gets the best of both worlds. There are certainly things that chains can do, offering variety, price and selection … but we can do all those things. On the other hand, because we’re still small, we can make decisions quickly. We know virtually every customer by name. We know their family members, birthdays and anniversaries. We have several things that chains don’t have, like our cash discounts card that gives the lowest price on prescriptions and has other benefits. It’s a free card. (We have) an antibiotics guarantee. We have 42 antibiotics … and if they don’t work within 30 days ... and (the customer) gets another prescription, we’ll give a voucher equal to the price of the first antibiotic, that can be applied toward the second antibiotic or anything else in the store.

What’s on the horizon for Family Pharmacy?

(Our antibiotic guarantee) is only the first of three health care initiatives (for) 2008 that we’re going to give to the people, primarily because of what the economy’s doing. One has to do with gasoline (prices) and one has to do with a group of people that we think we need to honor and help. We’ll be announcing one of those initiatives probably in July or August, and (the other) in the fall. We have another bargain outlet being built in Branson West and three new stores going in – Mount Vernon, Clever and Branson West at the Kimberling City line.

Do you have any advice for other small-business owners?

You’ve just got to make sure that you think of your customers and your employees first, and then let things go, and they should come out pretty good. That’s pretty much our model. One other thing that’s helped us is that we’re self-contained. We have our own warehouse distribution center. We have our own photo studio (in Nixa), so we develop all our own film … we have our own photographers … for in-house marketing, (and) we do weddings and senior portraits. Everything we offer, we try to handle ourselves to save money.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.