Destrehan Discount Pharmacy has been a staple of its community for nearly 50 years, and owner B.J. Burkenstock believes that largely comes down to a simple willingness to do a little more. Burkenstock is a third-generation pharmacist, the business passed down to him from his grandfather and father before him. He took over the business, which will celebrate its 50th birthday later this year, in 2012.
The pharmacy is in its third location within St. Charles Parish and will soon move into a fourth. Though the space will be larger, the location will still be familiar, only about 100 yards away from its current location at 3001 Ormond Blvd.
Burkenstock said that Destrehan Discount Pharmacy has thrived through the years thanks to a strong customer base, one he believes has been built through the pharmacy staff’s overall commitment to customer service.
“We go the extra mile and will do things for patients that other places just won’t do,” Burkenstock said.
Discount pricing is one aspect of that—“We’ll beat anyone for sure,” he says—while delivery service is another, an element Burkenstock noted other pharmacies don’t offer. He said a major emphasis is placed on keeping patients on their regular medication regiment in any way that they can.
“We’ll work with their physicians, talk to insurance companies to make sure everything is straight with what the patient needs to pay,” he said. “We also have a lot of items on our shelves that the customer may have difficulty finding elsewhere, and if we don’t have something we can order it for them.”
He said the family and locally-owned aspect of the pharmacy is likely another reason Destrehan Discount sees numerous repeat customers. Both Burkenstock and pharmacy manager Steven Faucheaux are natives and graduates of Destrehan High School. Burkenstock added that he feels it is important to continue to give back to the community when the opportunity arises, be it handing out water to runners after the Ormond 5K or participating in a crawfish boil fundraiser.
“People tend to like knowing who is running a business,” Burkenstock said. “They don’t know Mr. CVS or Mr. Winn-Dixie. We try to create as many jobs as we can for people in our parish and the money that we make goes back into our parish. We feel our community chooses us and supports us, so we should do the same in kind.”
It also adds to the trust established between pharmacy and customer.
“We’ll see a lot of people come in … it happens seemingly 20 times a day, and they’ll show us a bump or a scratch and we might save them a doctor’s visit,” Faucheaux said, noting pharmacists as a whole are ranked among the most trusted health care professionals nationally. “We try to help the patient in any way we can.”
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