Most people cannot remember a time when doctors made house calls and prescriptions were delivered for a sick child or grandparent. It kinda goes back to the day when there was a thing called a “party line;” a child could pick up the phone in the kitchen to hear Mrs. So and So gossiping with Mrs. This and That. Don’t even ask what was done with such knowledge.
At the heart of all this was the neighborhood pharmacy or hardware store, or even the grocery. People knew your name, your parents’, your dog’s, your grandparents’. On the Key Peninsula, affectionately called “KP,” that old-school neighborliness and sense of community is alive and well. It’s called the Purdy Cost Less Pharmacy, located in Lake Kathryn Village Mall. It’s also the pharmacy of a love story.
It all goes back more than a half century ago when Don Zimmerman and Al Linggi graduated from the University of Washington. They were best friends in pharmacy school but took different paths to successful careers. Linggi went into the hospital pharmacy business while Zimmerman gathered forces with another friend, Gary Biscelica, to open a retail pharmacy at 56th and Pacific in Tacoma.
Fast-forward a few decades after their kids, while not entirely growing up together, saw one another for the big holidays and family gatherings. Linggi had a daughter, Allison, and Zimmerman, a boy, Drew. Drew Zimmerman was a business and accounting major at Washington State University and had a fond eye for Allison Linggi. After a courtship that really was a life of growing up together, the two married. Don sold the Tacoma business and bought into Cost Less Pharmacy after Drew had established a career for himself providing pharmacy services to Washington state long-term health facilities, prisons and state institutions.
Business thrived. But then COVID came. Don Zimmerman had had enough and put the store in Purdy up for sale so he could retire. His son said, “Not so fast, Dad!” and bought the business, automated everything, created a vaccination clinic and kept the distribution going for the institutions already committed to the business.
Today, Allison Zimmerman, Drew Zimmerman and their business partner and friend, Matt Wiesser, run this local community-oriented pharmacy with wide-reaching tentacles, services and one of the best gift shops on the west side of the Tacoma Narrows.
Allison Zimmerman is enthusiastic when she says, “We embrace this small-town feel, and we want to make sure each customer is greeted by name.”
Indeed, upon entering the pharmacy, you think you’re entering a high-end gift shop, candy shop or even a gag store where Archie McPhee merchandise beckons. The truffles don’t get a second to linger in your olfactory before a young, eager person says hello, inquires if you need help and asks what you need. The staff ask your name — and remember it. They direct you to medical equipment, to the pharmacy, to the rows of greeting cards, to candy and yes, to the most fascinating array of gifts ranging from dishes, to hostess gifts, to clothing, to toys, to slippers, to local books, to (yes, again,) Archie McPhee gag gifts, all curated by Rena Blalock, a KP “lifer” who’s happy to tell you she was a Felt before she was a Blalock.
Blalock’s superpower? She was a Nordstrom buyer for a quarter century, and in retail, that might as well be a lifetime and a half.
“Sure, I came here with connections,” she says. “But it is the creation of small talk, the engagement of each and every person that is important, as well as to make sure the gifts are fun, useful, sometimes a bit risqué and always appealing.”
Christmas and the holidays at this pharmacy is not just a holiday, it is time of serious rejoicing and celebration.
In the age of corporations and chain pharmacies, Cost Less stands out. Why? Well, according to Allison Zimmerman (who teared up telling this story), “It’s our people. Our customers, our employees, they are our family.”
The staff host baby showers for employees. They have employee fish bakes. They honor you if you call in and your kid is sick, and you are going to be late to work or have to miss a day. There isn’t staff turnover. And customers — well, she says, “We are old-school pharmacy gift-wrapped in a box. Here you’ll find cocktail napkins and windshield wipers and if you are in hospice and need your meds, holiday or not, we’ll make sure you get them.”
Beyond all this, the Zimmermans are making sure that the future generation can embrace the pharmacy business.
“We have an in-house pharmacy tech program,” Zimmerman says. “Out of high school, a local kid can come here and enroll in our program. They have to commit to three years and after that they get their license. This is practical, on-the-job training.”
This commitment goes to younger kids, too.
“Any day of the week, you come in here to see kids working,” she says. “We encourage kids to do sports, keep their grades up, and we work around their schedules. We have written scholarship letters for our kids. We help them write resumes. But we have our standards. We expect kids to show up on time, to greet customers by name, to thank them when they are purchasing items and to keep their phones put away. We nurture them for the real world.”
Several of the employees who graduated are moving on to college. “One is even going to Notre Dame,” Zimmerman says with Blalock beaming as she speaks.
For older citizens, the pharmacy offers a concierge program, providing assistance with Medicare as well as complete package medications. “We find it is a real benefit to our older customers, to their families, and it keeps them safe, happy and healthy,” Zimmerman explains.
The business’ support of the community goes outside its employees and training programs. Both Zimmerman and Blalock are very involved with Backpacks for Kids and fundraisers to help families in need. “Sometimes, in the winter it is more often than not, a family will drop a kid off to catch the bus in the parking lot and we invite the kid in, keep her warm, give him a piece of candy,” Blalock says. “It’s just a better way to start off the school day.”
It’s love, wrapped up in a pharmacy, a gift shop and the family values of commitment to community, spirit and one another.
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