INSIGHT - Summer 2020

Summer 2020 | 16 Customer Spotlight Iris Mathis, Sr. Editor Suburban Pharmacy, located in Warwick, RI, truly lives up to its name as it’s located smack-dab in the middle of a residential area. Founded by Thomas Shanos, the pharmacy has been a neighborhood fixture for 59 years. And it will continue to be so for as long as plausible, according to Nick Shanos, R.Ph. See, Nick is Thomas’s son. As a small child, Nick was always running around the store “helping” his dad, and as a teenager, he was running the soda fountain and stocking shelves. He witnessed the impact his father had in the community and was deeply affected and influenced by the relationships he saw being built with customers, who became like family. Nick said, “I grew up within those four walls and it was his life-long dream to take over the pharmacy one day.” Thomas passed away in 1986 and that same year Nick graduated from the University of Rhode Island School of Pharmacy. Bittersweetly, his dream came true. Once settled into his new role – owner and pharmacist – Nick wanted to revamp the business – out with handwritten prescription logs and in withmodernization! A large part of that was technology integration. In 1988, after researching four different pharmacy software vendors, QS/1 came out on top. When asked why he chose QS/1, Nick said, “They were the best, most progressive. They had the most robust system and were highly concentrated in Rhode Island.” He also mentioned that he felt like QS/1 would be around for the long haul. Thirty-two years later, the partnership between Suburban Pharmacy and QS/1 is still strong. The pharmacy uses NRx, Point-of-Sale, mobile Rx , cornerdrugstore.com ® , and the text/ email service. Through the ups and Welcome to the Suburban Pharmacy: Where the Heart Is