Keele-Sheppard Drug celebrates 50 years.
Keele-Sheppard Drugs co-owner and pharmacist Bernie Betel, right, helps customer William Gamache at the shop on Tuesday. The store will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Sept. 1.
Staff photo/LISA QUEEN
Walk through the doors of Keele-Sheppard Drugs and take a step back in time to an era when businesses were all about customer service.
You aren't a number or nameless face here.
Can't find something? An employee - considered one of the family even if they technically aren't related to the owners who have made this pharmacy an integral part of the community for half a century - is quickly there to help.
On Wed. Sept. 1, Keele-Sheppard Drugs, in a plaza on the southwest corner of Keele Street and Sheppard Avenue, will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
"It's a family pharmacy. We have three and four generations (of customers) coming here," co-owner and pharmacist Bernie Betel said.
"Even some who have moved away come here. They say they want to still deal with us."
Customers like the fact the employees, most of whom have worked at the store for years if not decades, know them by name.
"There is a personal attachment. At the big drug stores, people (staff) change all the time," Betel said.
"We know the parents and we know the kids. We've caught the kids stealing chocolate bars and the parents bring them back for us to talk to."
Between them, employees speak numerous languages such as Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Spanish and Italian, a bonus in the multicultural neighbourhood. In addition to English, Betel speaks Hebrew and Yiddish.
Customers clearly appreciate the service and atmosphere.
"They get to know you after a while. They recognize you," said William Gamache who has been coming to the store for 43 years.
Anne Johnston likes the personal touch.
"I get excellent service here. The employees are always smiling and considerate. If you can't find something, they help you. You don't get that in some stores," said Johnston, who has been shopping at the store for 12 years.
Betel's partner, Norton Longert, was one of the six original pharmacists who founded Keele-Sheppard Drugs.
Betel joined as a pharmacist in the first few months to fill in for someone who had gone to Israel to pursue an interest in weight lifting.
It wasn't long before Betel and Longert bought out the other partners, who were busy running other pharmacies, and went it alone.
Their children - Betel's three named Michael, Howard and Stefanie and Longert's two called Glen and Fern - put in countless shifts learning the ropes, although none of them work at the store now.
Although Keele-Sheppard Drugs captures the quaint environment of a 50-year-old pharmacy, it has seen changes over the years.
For example, the small office at the back of the store holds the barbershop chair in which Betel's son Michael had his first haircut. The chair came to Keele-Sheppard Drugs after the pharmacy purchased the neighbouring barbershop as part of an expansion project a quarter century ago.
About three decades ago, much of the plaza had to rebuild after an overnight fire in offices on the second floor spread to the stores below.
Three years ago, Keele-Sheppard Drugs took a third of its 334-square-metre (3,600-square-foot) space and turned it into a doctors' office connected to the pharmacy through a door.
The store is not the only thing that has changed. The surrounding community has welcomed different waves of immigrants.
The neighbourhood was primarily Anglo-Saxon when Keele-Sheppard Drugs first opened but has since been home to Jewish, Italian, Portuguese, South American, Jamaican and Asian communities.
The drug store also used to cater to the families of military personnel of Canadian Forces Base Downsview when it was a full operating base.
While soldiers got medications on the base, Keele-Sheppard Drugs at one time provided birth control pills to female personnel because the base didn't stock it, Betel said.
Looking back over the years, Betel said he enjoys working at the store and has no intention of retiring.
"I still love to come to work every day," the 74 year old said.
"I like to deal with people, that's the bottom line."