Celebrating 25 years

BALBOA PENINSULA — Resident Ruth Garstone fills all her prescriptions at the Balboa Pharmacy, but it’s more than convenience that keeps her coming back.

Owner Mike Martin knows Ruth — and just about all his regular prescription customers — by name. He cracks jokes with them as they walk in the door. People wave and give a hearty “Hi, Mike” as they drive by the pharmacy on the corner of Main Street and Balboa Boulevard.

The Balboa Pharmacy has stood on that corner since 1925, but a little more than 25 years ago, Martin made it his own.

Martin, who lives in Corona del Mar, was an employee at the pharmacy before he bought a similar business on Balboa Island in the late 1970s. But when the owner of Balboa Pharmacy was looking for a buyer, Martin stepped in.

Martin took over the pharmacy on March 2, 1982, and 25 years later he fills about 60 prescriptions a day. He estimated the pharmacy business has doubled since he became its owner.

But with the continuing presence of large chain pharmacies like Rite Aid and CVS popping up off the peninsula, it could become increasingly difficult for small independent businesses to stay afloat.

To mark his 25th anniversary as owner, Martin sent notes out to his customers thanking them for all those years of loyalty, and reminding them that his little pharmacy on the peninsula can still compete with the big guys.

“I just wanted to tell everybody they’re driving all that way and wasting all that gas,” going to a big pharmacy off the peninsula, Martin said. “It costs the same no matter where you go.”

Martin once worked for Sav-On pharmacy, where he was usually frustrated at the pace and large number of people he had to fill prescriptions for. He wasn’t afforded the time to know all the customers by name and drug — he said the big stores can fill about 800 prescriptions a day.

But he also didn’t like the erratic hours he was required to keep as a pharmacist.

“I basically just bought a job,” Martin joked in his pharmacy Thursday afternoon.

But the store is more than a pharmacy, and Martin makes sure he carries products his customers want. He’s happy to deliver medications to a customer who can’t make it to the pharmacy, and on his day off, if somebody is in dire need, he’ll come in and take care of it. “We offer good customer service and go out of our way to accommodate people,” Martin said.

When the local hardware store closed, Martin made sure to stock some shelves with tools. Now that the Balboa Village Market is closed, Martin plans to bring some more food items to his store, as well as ice.

“We’re going to try to fill the void … but it’s not good because all of those stores encourage shopping in this area,” Martin said. “If you lose one — they feed upon each other, and without some of them, that hurts overall business.”

But Martin plans to stay put.

“Everything is nice quality, nothing is junky in that store — they even have a very nice paperback about Balboa and Catalina history,” Garstone said in a phone interview. “It’s things you just don’t find everywhere. When the hardware store closed, he had a few hammers and nails. When the variety store closed, he carried sewing kits — he’s just trying to fill the community’s needs.”