By SHELLEY TERRY - sterry@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon
ASHTABULA —
With plans for a new bigger building, complete with a drive-through window, a family-owned pharmacy is on the move.
Ken Kister of MK2 Properties is building a new Medicine Shoppe at the corner of Main Avenue and West 42nd Street. He expects the project to be completed by Nov. 1.
The 2,000-square-foot building will boast an open floor plan, two offices, a drive-through window and a pharmacy counter in the back, Kister said.
“We’ve grown by leaps and bounds,” said pharmacist Denise Cassidy-Cousins, who has owned the Medicine Shoppe for the past 15 years. “We are small but not expensive.”
She’s a franchisee of Cardinal Health Distribution, and she credits the pharmacy’s growth to its many services: competitive prices, prompt prescription service, acceptance of prescription insurance, work with Medicare patients, free delivery and courteous service.
“My employees go the extra mile,” she said. “It’s the kind of personal service you should expect from a community pharmacy.”
Kister will lease the new building to Cassidy-Cousins, and then the store at 4343 Main Ave. will close, she said.
Eight people now work at the Medicine Shoppe.
“When we open the new store, we will hire more people,” Cassidy-Cousins said. “That’s always the goal.”
Kister said that will translate into more income-tax collections for the city.
The new building, which consists of prefabricated concrete panels, will be finished in brick.
“We are going to dress it up to fit in with Main Avenue,” said Kister, who has five workers on the project.
Kister’s brother Ron Jr. is fixing up several storefronts in the 4700 block of Main Avenue to help beautify the city, Ken Kister said.
Star Beacon intern Laura N. Johnson contributed to this article.
