BANDY’S PHARMACY CELEBRATES 50 YEARS IN BUSINESS
Bandy’s Pharmacy
618-533-3300
817 E. McCord St., Centralia, IL
Bandy's Pharmacy | Illinois Pharmacy
Bandy’s Pharmacy is celebrating 50 years in business.
The business started in August 1975 when Steve Bandy and his wife Pam opened their first store in a converted small gas station building at Main and College Streets. While Steve worked as a pharmacist, Pam took care of the books and was technician.
Eventually, the small building no longer met their needs, and they moved to their first of two locations in the Westgate Shopping Center. A second provided a drive through pharmacy which had become in demand.
Eric Bandy, who was a baby at the time the pharmacy opened, grew up in the business and became a pharmacist himself in 1998. He’s seen a lot of changes over the years.
“When Dad started it was just a typewriter where you type the prescription labels,” Bandy said. “Nowadays they have full automation, computers, robots. Insurance changes, back in the day, prescriptions weren’t covered on insurance much. Nowadays almost everybody has an insurance plan for them.”
Along with the insurance coverage came the complications to stay in compliance with the insurance regulations and rules.
Bandy says a lot has changed with the drugs themselves.
“There has been a lot of progress in medications along the way. We used to just have a few medications to treat things, now we have hundreds and hundreds. Some of them even passed me by at 27 years in.”
Bandy says the pharmacy has now grown to five locations including Centralia, Irvington, Wayne City, and Trenton. He says their goal is to provide whatever services are needed by their patients. That includes home delivery, medical equipment, compounding, and natural treatments which are gaining in popularity.
His dad and mom have now retired but enjoyed meeting customers at a cookout to celebrate the 50th anniversary last week.
This article was taken from WJBD / Southern Illinois Now. You can read the original article here: