WALL, S.D. — Stacey Schulz parks in a rear lot to keep away from the crowded Main Street entrances to her native pharmacy.
“During the summer, it’s kind of hectic,” she stated after greeting the pharmacist and technician by title.
That’s as a result of Schulz’s pharmacy is tucked inside Wall Drug, a vacationer attraction that takes up virtually a whole block and attracts greater than 2 million guests a yr to a group of fewer than 700 residents.
The enterprise is known as after the city of Wall, which is simply off Interstate 90 close to Badlands National Park. Colorful, hand-painted billboards dot the roadside for tons of of miles, telling motorists how far they’re from Wall Drug’s free ice water, 5-cent espresso, and do-it-yourself doughnuts. Visitors can pan for gold, hearken to singing animatronic cowboys, attempt on Western put on, and store for souvenirs, together with plush jackalopes — legendary jackrabbits with antelope horns.
Despite being a part of a booming vacationer attraction, Wall Drug’s pharmacy faces challenges common to independent rural pharmacies.
It’s the lone pharmacy in Wall, serving locals year-round. Some, like Schulz, dwell on the town, whereas others dwell on ranches so far as 60 miles away. The next-nearest pharmacy is a 30-minute drive northeast.
Wall Drug additionally serves vacationers who neglect their prescriptions at house, get sick whereas roaming the nation of their RVs, or harm themselves whereas climbing by the otherworldly rock formations of the scorching Badlands, stated Cindy Dinger, its sole pharmacist.
Pharmacist Cindy Dinger says her nook of the shop would battle with out the remainder of Wall Drug. “All this stuff around us — the poster and print shop, the boot shop, the fudge shop, the café — they pay our bills,” she says.(Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News)
Wall has no hospital, however a clinic is open 4 days every week. Schulz, a medical assistant there, stated she and her co-workers see plenty of summer season vacationers. They ship them to Wall Drug to select up prescriptions.
“And then we tell them to get fudge before they leave,” Schulz stated.
Rural pharmacies, particularly unbiased ones, closed at the next fee from 2003 to 2021 than pharmacies in different areas, in response to a study by the Rural Policy Research Institute. By 2021, the institute discovered, practically 8% of rural counties have been left with no pharmacy. The Wall Drug pharmacy has fewer clients than a typical metropolis pharmacy, which might imply much less revenue, Dinger stated.
She stated a few of its costs are larger as a result of the shop can’t negotiate reductions as steep because the offers suppliers grant chain pharmacies. Rural drugstores additionally lack leverage with insurers, they usually face growing competitors from mail-order pharmacies.
Another challenge is staffing. When Dinger wants day off, she finds a fill-in from Rapid City, practically an hour’s drive away.
“It’s a challenge getting relief if I want to go on vacation or if I need a cover so that I can go to a doctor’s appointment,” she stated. “You take what you can get and try to schedule around it.”
Dinger stated her pharmacy would battle with out the remainder of Wall Drug.
“All this stuff around us — the poster and print shop, the boot shop, the fudge shop, the café — they pay our bills,” she stated.
The pharmacy’s white facade, with stained-glass indicators and home windows, is modeled after that of the unique drugstore, which was throughout the road. The window shows and high cabinets inside the shop are stuffed with classic pharmacy provides, together with manuals, glass drugs bottles, and a suppository-making machine.
Tourists carrying purchasing baggage and sporting new cowboy hats cease to take a look at the shows. “It’s a real pharmacy,” a girl stated, sounding stunned.
Dinger and Sylvia Smith, the shop’s solely pharmacy tech, ring clients up under a Tiffany-style gentle fixture and retrieve prescriptions saved behind a wood desk and wall.
Wall Drug’s pharmacy, throughout from its chapel and sandwiched between the fudge and rockhound outlets alongside “Cowboy Alley,” takes up lower than 1% of the area inside the 76,000-square-foot vacationer attraction in South Dakota. (Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News)
Dinger checks out vacationer Will Lovitt after giving him recommendation on treating a mysterious rash he developed whereas visiting the Black Hills of South Dakota. (Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News)
Sylvia Smith, the only pharmacy tech at Wall Drug, works behind a wood counter. Shelves show classic gear alongside trendy drugs. (Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News)
Stacey Schulz has to navigate round vacationers when she picks up drugs throughout the summer season from her native pharmacy, Wall Drug. (Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News)
Customer Will Lovitt stated a buddy suggested him and his spouse to cease at Wall Drug throughout their drive from Indiana to the Black Hills in western South Dakota. Lovitt developed a rash on the journey and ended up utilizing the go to to get Dinger’s recommendation on treating it.
He stated it may be troublesome for vacationers to know the place to search out medical assist, particularly when driving by rural states like South Dakota.
“I think it’s time that America gets back to the grass roots of the small-town doctor and the small-town pharmacist,” Lovitt stated.
Alex Davis and a buddy determined to go to Wall Drug on their street journey from Kansas to Yellowstone National Park.
“Then, when I saw there was a little pharmacy, I thought I’d grab something that I needed,” she stated.
Davis purchased Dramamine to deal with automobile illness on the lengthy drive.
Dinger stated she sometimes sees uncommon conditions, just like the time a number of years in the past when a park ranger wanted antibiotics after getting bitten by a prairie canine.
“You never know what kind of diseases they might be carrying,” she stated of the animals, which lately have been hit with an outbreak of plague.
Rick Hustead is the chairman of Wall Drug. The retailer was opened in 1931 by his grandfather, pharmacist Ted Hustead. Ted’s spouse, Dorothy, had the thought to promote its soda fountain and free ice water to vacationers touring alongside unpaved roads throughout the scorching years of the Dust Bowl period. Rick’s father, pharmacist Bill Hustead, started increasing the shop within the ’50s, turning it into the vacationer magnet it’s right this moment.
Rick Hustead, chairman of Wall Drug, works the restaurant counter when issues get busy. Hustead, whose grandfather opened the shop in 1931, says he’d by no means shut the pharmacy, although it’s not the principle attraction. “We can’t be Wall Drug without being a drugstore,” he says.(Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News)
Rick Hustead didn’t comply with his father and grandfather’s path to pharmacy college, so he needed to recruit pharmacists from elsewhere.
Hustead discovered Dinger in 2010 after writing a letter to every pharmacist within the state.
Dinger stated she was residing on the time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s most populous metropolis. But she and her husband have been curious about elevating their children in a small city, the way in which she grew up. Dinger was additionally attracted by the shop’s restricted hours: She’d be carried out working by 5 p.m. on weekdays and have the weekends off.
Hustead stated his household has by no means thought-about closing the pharmacy, although it’s not the principle attraction for many guests.
“We can’t be Wall Drug without being a drugstore,” he stated.
Arielle Zionts:
[email protected],
@Ajzionts
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