
How to save the Mart Pharmacy
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Save the Mart pharmacy, which is the main competitor to Safeway Pharmacy.
You can now shop online at the Mart and at a few other online pharmacies in South Australia.
There are also plans to open a Safeway pharmacy in Sydney in the coming weeks.
But in an interview with TalkSport, Mart CEO Mark Brown said he was not looking to close down the two pharmacies, nor was he looking to reduce the competition.
“We want to be able to offer the best value and at the same time be able provide an easy shopping experience to the community,” he said.
He said Safeway is a great brand, but the Mart was a better option for shoppers.
In fact, he said the Mart had “a great experience” with customers and would continue to operate it for at least another two years.
Mr Brown said the retail pharmacy would continue its efforts to open new stores in the future, including in Melbourne and Sydney.
However, he conceded that the store would need to expand its base to meet demand.
“We have to go out and recruit staff and grow our footprint and that will be the key thing, to be in a better position for the long term,” he told the radio station.
It’s not just the South Australian Pharmacy that is in trouble, the state’s pharmaceutical market also suffered a huge blow last year.
With no competition, the average pharmacy has to pay about $4,200 per year for its licence.
The state’s Pharmacy Act is designed to protect the pharmacy industry.
And it was used in 2012 to stop two supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, from competing against one another for the same pharmacy licence.
However, Mr Brown said it was not the case for the Mart.
“[We] don’t see the need for [it to] go away.
We’ve got to make sure we have the right people to run the pharmacy, to run our businesses and that’s what we’re doing,” he explained.
We have a strong base of staff and we’re able to grow as we grow and that’ll be the same thing with the Mart, he added.
Topics:pharmacy-prescription-drugs,health,social-sciences,community-and-society,south-australia