DALTON — The owners of Dalton Pharmacy conduct a retro kind of business from a corner building that was built in 1885 and has functioned as a place where dry goods or drugs have been sold for most of the last 131 years.

“We’ve tried to maintain that old-fashioned pharmacy look,” said Mayur Patel. He has owned the business along with his wife and fellow pharmacist, Gita since 1994.

The Patels have kept their pharmacy unlike a chain not for the sake of retail nostalgia, but because it has allowed the enterprise to survive. The spouses never expected to be living and working in Dalton when they began surveying the employment landscape in 1994.

“When it’s quiet like this, a lot of people say, ‘How did you come here?’” said Mayur.

Born in Fiji to migrants from India, the Patels earned their pharmaceutical degrees from Australian universities. More than 20 years ago, married with a small child and another on the way, they arrived in Wilkes-Barre to stay with Gita’s relatives and establish a base from which to look for work.

With no local job offers forthcoming, they took their search on the road. They eventually drove as far as South Carolina and began exploring areas away from interstate highways.

“There were many, many opportunities from older pharmacists who were waiting to retire,” Mayur recalled. “They were like, ‘This is yours. You can pay me in five years.’”

The demeanors of many natives in the Scranton area reminded the Patels of the friendliness of most Australians. They didn’t feel this way when they were in the south, particularly in small towns, and worried about raising a son and operating a business in a place where they looked different from the locals.

Back in Wilkes-Barre, they were told of an opportunity in Dalton – where the pharmacy had been closed for a year after the death of its owner. The spouses had someone unlock 102 W. Main St. so they could look around inside.

“We thought we’d give it a try,” Mayur said about their 1994 decision to buy the building, move into a residence above the shop and reopen the pharmacy.

Mayur was given commercial advice by the man who had told the couple about the pharmacy: “He said, whatever we do, not to emulate a chain, because we will fail.”

Although an independent store, Dalton Pharmacy is a member of a cooperative buying group called Value Drug Co. This allows members to purchase more cheaply from manufacturers, through bulk buying, and means the Patels can order nearly every item in the store from a single distributor.

The pharmacy is open every day but Sunday. When the Patels lived above the store, which they did until 2009, they would work 85 or 90 hours a week, using the off hours to catch up on paperwork. They now reside about a mile away, but still come in on Sundays or stay late in an effort to comply with the many state and federal pharmaceutical regulations.

“There is more work, and not necessarily more business from 22 years ago,” Mayur said. “The amount of work involved in doing the same thing has increased 20 percent. For example, one new regulation requires us to keep the batch number and the expiration date of every medicine that comes in.”

More than 90 percent of the Dalton Pharmacy’s revenues come from sales of prescription drugs. The greeting cards, over-the-counter medications, soaps, stationery and other products carried in the front of the store are more for the convenience of customers.

“We have limited ourselves to some basic household stuff that people ask for,” Mayur said.

The workforce consists of the two owner-pharmacists. When the Patels’ two sons were younger, and doctors still called in prescriptions, the boys would answer the phone while Mom and Dad were busy with a patient.

The proprietors let the boys lend a hand instead of installing a switchboard.

“Doctors loved it. They would have full conversations until one of us was free,” Mayur said.

The boys are men of 25 and 22 now, with one studying medicine and the other computer science. Their ages are two of the many reminders of the passage of time at the Dalton Pharmacy.

Filling prescriptions, the spouses are made aware of severe and continuing health issues. Along with a customer’s doctor, the Patels may be the only people outside the family that know of a medical problem.

“We have seen a whole generation of people slowly leave us,” Mayur Patel said. “A lot of them we knew very well.”

Dalton Pharmacy’s home, 102 W. Main St., was built as a dry-goods store in 1885. The pharmacy moved there in 1945.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Outside-2.jpg.optimal.jpgDalton Pharmacy’s home, 102 W. Main St., was built as a dry-goods store in 1885. The pharmacy moved there in 1945.

The largest segment of revenues at the Dalton Pharmacy comes from sales of prescription medications. Grocery, over-the-counter medications and household items are carried more as a convenience to customers, according to the owners.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Aisles-1.jpg.optimal.jpgThe largest segment of revenues at the Dalton Pharmacy comes from sales of prescription medications. Grocery, over-the-counter medications and household items are carried more as a convenience to customers, according to the owners.

Mayur Patel, his wife and fellow pharmacist, Gita, in the back part of Dalton Pharmacy, where they have filled thousands of prescriptions since buying the business in 1994.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Patels-1.jpg.optimal.jpgMayur Patel, his wife and fellow pharmacist, Gita, in the back part of Dalton Pharmacy, where they have filled thousands of prescriptions since buying the business in 1994.

Mayur Patel keeps a collection of old pharmacy bottles, boxes and containers on top of the racks which run along the outer walls of the Dalton Pharmacy.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Bottles-1.jpg.optimal.jpgMayur Patel keeps a collection of old pharmacy bottles, boxes and containers on top of the racks which run along the outer walls of the Dalton Pharmacy.

Greeting cards are a drug store tradition, and owner Mayur Patel says he purposely tries to maintain a retro look and feel to his Dalton Pharmacy.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Cards-1.jpg.optimal.jpgGreeting cards are a drug store tradition, and owner Mayur Patel says he purposely tries to maintain a retro look and feel to his Dalton Pharmacy.

Spouses, co-owners and fellow pharmacists, Mayur, left, and Gita Patel purchased the Dalton Pharmacy in 1994.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Counter-2.jpg.optimal.jpgSpouses, co-owners and fellow pharmacists, Mayur, left, and Gita Patel purchased the Dalton Pharmacy in 1994.
Retro decor adds appeal to longtime pharmacy

By Charles Erickson

For Abington Journal

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