People ask us sometimes why we opened an independent pharmacy when the chains are everywhere. It’s a fair question. The answer is simple, but it takes a minute to explain.
When you fill a prescription at a chain pharmacy, you’re a transaction. You walk up, you wait, you get your bag, you leave. The person behind the counter might be great — most pharmacists are — but the system isn’t built for them to know your name, remember your last visit, or notice that you seem more tired than usual. There’s a queue behind you. The metrics are about volume.
We didn’t want to run that kind of pharmacy.
We wanted a place where the pharmacist knows you. Where “how are you?” means something. Where you can call with a question and get an actual answer, not a recording. Where the relationship is the point, not the transaction.
That’s why we opened in Cornell. That’s why we stay independent.
And that’s why, on June 26, we’re putting tables outside our front door and filling them with crayons.
What a community pharmacy is actually supposed to do
Here’s something most people don’t know: pharmacists in Ontario can now assess and prescribe for 19 common conditions — UTIs, pink eye, cold sores, allergies, and more. The assessment is covered by OHIP. You don’t need to go to a walk-in clinic. You can come to us.
We can also do MedsCheck reviews — a detailed, one-on-one conversation about all the medications you’re taking, free, covered by your province. We give flu shots, travel vaccines, and shingles vaccines. We help people transfer their prescriptions from chains without any paperwork hassle. We deliver.
Most of our patients don’t know half of what we can do for them. That’s not their fault. Healthcare doesn’t do a good job of advertising its own services.
Part of what we’re trying to do with community events is change that. Not with a pamphlet or a poster, but by being present in the neighbourhood in a way that doesn’t involve a co-pay or a health card.
Why creativity specifically
We thought a lot about what kind of event would actually get people to show up and feel comfortable.
A health fair sounds useful but clinical. A “meet your pharmacist” event sounds awkward. A barbecue is fine but doesn’t give people anything to do with their hands.
Art is different. It’s something children will engage with immediately, which means parents have a reason to linger. It’s non-competitive. It creates a kind of calm that’s rare at public events. And it works across age groups — a five-year-old colouring next to a grandmother doing the same activity is perfectly natural in a way that most event formats don’t allow for.
We’re not art therapists. We’re not making claims about creativity and wellness (though there’s good evidence there). We just think that making something with your hands, outside, in good weather, with other people nearby, is a pleasant way to spend a Thursday afternoon.
And if someone ends up asking one of our pharmacists about their blood pressure medication while their kid finishes a clay rabbit, that’s a good outcome.
What independent actually means
There are roughly 5,000 pharmacies in Ontario. A significant majority are owned by large national chains. The rest are independent or franchise-based. We’re in the latter category: a Pharmasave franchise, which means we share some purchasing and back-end infrastructure, but every clinical decision, every hiring decision, every choice about how we serve this community is ours.
That matters in ways patients sometimes feel but can’t name. An independent pharmacy has a long-term stake in the neighbourhood it serves. We’re not going to close this location because a regional manager decided the square footage could be repurposed. We live in this city. Our kids are in schools nearby. When Cornell grows — and it will — we want to have been part of that.
The event on June 26 is a small thing. A few tables of art supplies, three hours on a Thursday. But it’s an expression of something we mean.
Come and see for yourself
If you’ve been going to a chain out of habit — because it’s convenient, because you’ve been going there for years — we’d genuinely love the chance to show you what a different kind of pharmacy looks like.
Not with a pitch. Just with a conversation, maybe some clay, and an afternoon in the sun.
June 26 · 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
3028 Bur Oak Avenue, Cornell, Markham
Free. All ages. No registration.
— Amal and Omar
Pharmacist-owners, 2 Care Pharmacy
905-201-1497 · 2carepharmacy.com