New owners prescribed for RR Drugs

Ken Johnston

It’s official! Rainy River Drugs is now owned and operated by Sarah Berg and Allen Pratt!

The young couple are both Rainy River natives and both have found the new venture to be exactly what they were looking for.

Allen, whose family has extensive business experience in the community and area, said, “I have been trying to figure out a way to own my own business and I knew I definitely was not going to take over my dad’s garage (Pratt’s Auto which is now Border Service).”

Sarah on the other hand was studying to become a pharmacist and had thought of coming home to practise, but had hoped to work abroad in Canada for a few years. But then last Christmas she and Allen decided to look at Rainy River Drugs as an opportunity that might pass them by if they did not pounce on it. At Christmas last year they approached Robert and Gill Stamler about buying it.

That started the ball rolling and in May when Sarah graduated from school she began her 16 week placement at Rainy River Drugs. In the mean time Allen began working the retail side of the business. At first it sounded like the deal was going to go through right away and the Stamlers laid of most of the staff. Then they hit some hang-ups with lawyers and the deal was delayed. Allen said that at times it was absolutely crazy with just him and one person working up front. But as he caught onto it it became a bit more routine in nature.

As the summer went by the deal was delayed a couple more times, having an August 1st date, then a September 1st date and finally October 1st date for the transition. October 1st came, but the paperwork was not all the way through, but it was the day that Allen and Sarah started running the business as if it were their own. On Friday of that week, Oct. 4th, the deal was finalized.

Allen said that his family wasn’t sure if he really wanted to be in Rainy River, but he feels that he made the right decision noting that prior to this venture he had been living in Calgary. “It was the mountains or the lake. In the end the lake won out,” said Allen.

Sarah said her family was nudging her to take the leap into the local business and now both Pratt and Berg say their families are 100% behind them. With all the delays in the deal, the stock at the store was sold off and not replaced fully in anticipation of the deal. That created a bad taste in some customer’s mouths, hurting the business. However, Allen said, “Many people thought we owned it way back in May. However, now we are the owners and have been ordering more stock steadily with much of it arriving daily now.”

Pratt said that people should be assured that they will continue to improve their selection of both pharmaceutical products as well as retail goods. “We just had a new gift line arrive this week,” said Pratt.

They also plan to put together gift baskets this Christmas and are totally open to suggestions from customers what they would like to see available in the store.

Plans for the future include adding a price scanning cash register, a set of shop lifting scanners at the door and some remodeling of the store. The new cash register will help them to maintain their inventory.

Sarah noted that they are currently also working to bring in a major cosmetic line which will probably be Cover Girl, but that is still being ironed out. As for staff they asked all previous staff to come back. Some accepted and some either declined or retired. Working for them is Denise Hall, Carol Pratt, Bunny Atkin, Heidi Heyens, Eilleen Heyens and Linda Bourre. They are open Monday to Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The pharmacy is open all of those days the same hours except on Saturdays when it is closed.

A grand opening is planned for late November or early December.