KILAUEA — North Shore Pharmacy &Health Emporium has expanded its clientele following the permanent closure of the Foodland pharmacy in Princeville Center.
Before Foodland shuttered its pharmacy in mid-April, the supermarket announced customers’ prescriptions would be transferred to a Longs drugs location.
But CVS Pharmacy, which owns Longs Drugs, ultimately gave the accounts to North Shore Pharmacy.
“There was initially confusion,” North Shore Pharmacy co-founder Mike Latif told The Garden Island. “Now we want people to know what we do and who we are.”
Latif’s business, which he and wife Sheree Latif opened in 1988, is located on Oka Street in Kilauea.
Its staff includes the Latifs, their son and lead pharmacist Alex Latif, and pharmacist Megan Perius.
The small team uses a multidisciplinary approach.
Alex Latif is a member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, or A4M.
“(A4M) takes a holistic approach to the patient versus any particular idiom approach,” Mike Latif explained. “It doesn’t assume that every patient is the same, and uses science to come up with treatment modalities — and all treatment modalities are on the table.”
The family business is also an accredited sterile and non-sterile compounding pharmacy, which ships throughout the state and to the mainland.
As such, it makes capsules, powders, creams, sterile IV infusion products and more — nearly anything drug companies can’t make because it’s too small of an order or too specialized, according to Mike Latif.
Several of North Shore Pharmacy’s new clients are actually return customers who had transferred to Foodland for convenience’s sake.
“90% of people we talked to were very happy to have been back with us,” Mike Latif said. “It’s just a beautiful thing to reconnect with some of our old neighbors that moved on to Foodland. I’ve been working some extra shifts.”
North Shore Pharmacy is now looking for extra help, given the influx of business.
The pharmacy offers medical insurance and 401(k) and profit-sharing plans to employees.
To contact North Shore Pharmacy &Health Emporium, call 808-828-1844, email nsp.pharmacy@gmail.com or visit kauaipharmacy.com.
The pharmacy is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, closed for lunch between 1 and 2 p.m. On Saturdays, the pharmacy is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The business is closed on Sundays.
•••
Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
Are you still no taking Kaiser?