RETAIL
Pharmacy comes into ‘centre’ focus
In oUr fEbrUarY ISSUE, PIf LooKEd at thE rEtaIL SItUatIon In nI and focUSEd on thE roLE of rEtaIL In PharmacY. ovEr thIS and thE nExt fEW ISSUES WE LooK at hoW SomE commUnItY PharmacIStS havE IncrEaSEd footfaLL In dIffErEnt WaYS...
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he news on retail is mixed at the moment. While the latest Springboard Index showed that
nI footfall only fell 1.9 per cent between february 2016 and february this year, as opposed to a drop of 8.2 per cent on the previous year, in contrast, footfall at UK shopping centres fell by two per cent in the same period, as opposed to only 1.4 per cent last year.
despite this drop in shopping centre footfall, however, Londonderry contractor, Killian Johnston is delighted with his decision in 2016 to move h Sweeny chemist into the city’s Quayside Shopping centre. h Sweeny chemist has been at the heart of the community in derry since 1894,’ Killian told Pif, ‘but we knew
52 - PharmacY In focUS
that if we wanted to grow our business, then change was needed. for many years we’d been situated in the town centre but, in order to implement the changes that we wished to make, we decided to relocate to much larger premises inside the Quayside Shopping centre.
‘our new location and refit definitely took us to a higher level in our ability to cater for the needs of our local population. Every aspect of our refit and move was carefully considered to ensure that it would benefit our patients, and the community we serve – and not just from a purely commercial mindset.
‘the purpose-designed premises meant that we not only had enough
space to incorporate a robot for automated dispensing, but were also able to have new consultation rooms in which we could conduct one-to- one, patient-facing services.
there’s no doubt that, even in a physical sense, our relocation and refit raised the standards of pharmacy locally since the new premises were designed to provide a combination of a clean, clinical, professional pharmacy while retaining a natural, welcoming feel thanks to the use of certain materials.
the benefits of moving to a shopping centre are probably obvious to most people. In addition to the convenient parking for patients, the fact that we would be situated
alongside many and varied businesses meant that we would be readily accessible to many people, who previously may not have thought of a pharmacy in terms of retail.
retail space had been, I felt, a particular problem in our previous premises and so I was delighted to find premises that would not only allow me to increase retail – and therefore retail sales – but would also provide patients with ease of access.
groWth of varIoUS SEctorS I was particularly keen to grow our health and beauty business as I feel that this was an area in which our patients and customers were particularly interested.
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