NORTH CARROLLTON — A new owner has taken the helm at Anderson’s Pharmacy, and she is thrilled to be getting to know her Carroll County customers.
“Carroll County has been really welcoming,” Lisa Smith said. “I couldn’t feel more welcomed.”
Smith, a native of Louisiana, came to Mississippi as an undergraduate at Millsaps College in Jackson. She continued her education at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi.
She and her husband, Hunter, moved to Greenwood in 2008.
Smith started her career as a pharmacist at Walgreens. She and her business partner, Courtney Walker, opened their own independent pharmacy, Greenwood Drugs, in October 2014. That is when they connected with Steve Anderson, owner of Anderson’s pharmacy.
“He reached out, and he was really helpful,” she said. “He taught us some things about running an independent pharmacy.”
Smith said she and Anderson developed a friendship as she traversed through the ins and outs of owning her own pharmacy.
Anderson “is very much a big-time mentor of mine for sure,” Smith said.
Anderson purchased the store from Clarence Montgomery in 1981, serving the people of Carroll County for 37 years. Montgomery had opened the pharmacy in the mid-1960s.
Smith said her eventual acquisition of Anderson’s Pharmacy was a “natural progression” of her friendship with Anderson. She said Anderson expressed his desire to retire last year, and a chain pharmacy approached him about purchasing the North Carrollton store. However, the company planned to move the store out of town.
“It was important for him to keep the store in North Carrollton,” Smith said.
As an independent pharmacy owner herself, Smith understood Anderson’s desire to have the business he built continue serving the local community and his longtime customers.
Smith and her husband, who is an accountant, decided to buy the store.
“It was just meant to be,” Smith said. “I’m excited about having another pharmacy. I feel complete with this.”
The Smiths finalized the purchase a month ago, and since that time, the couple and their two children — Emma, 6, and Hayes, 4 — have enjoyed getting to know the community.
“Steve has done an unbelievable job here,” Smith said. “And he is still going to help out a couple days a week. (Pharmacist) Bill Gillespie is here one day a week.”
Smith, who will split her time between North Carrollton and Greenwood, said the customer service the community has enjoyed will continue as well, with the longtime staff still intact. She said she is always looking at ways to improve services in the pharmacy and the gift shop.
“You always want to grow,” she said. “You always have a chance to grow the front (of the store) and prescriptions. I am always looking to make things better. I hope any changes, people will see as positive.”
Smith said she has noticed a surge of independent pharmacies selling out to big pharmacy corporations in recent years. “When I was in pharmacy school, ownership was not on the table,” Smith said. “We just assumed we would work at one of the chain pharmacies.”
She said she knows several young pharmacists who have opened their own independent pharmacies, and she hopes that trend will continue.
“I hope there is a resurgence of independent pharmacies, especially in small towns,” she said. “They are customer-driven. As long as the customers want it and you treat your customers great, there is still a niche for the independent pharmacy. Our generation is opening up to ownership.”
Smith said independent pharmacies allow patients to talk to real people when they telephone the store, and they can work directly with the pharmacist.
“People come to the pharmacy still as a first stop (in health care),” Smith said. “There are aspects of health care that run so much smoother in this setting.”
Smith said she plans to continue Anderson’s Pharmacy’s tradition of being an active part of the community, with her working in town several days a week.
“My husband comes and eats lunch with me most every day I’m here,” Smith said. “(My children) have grown up seeing me working in the pharmacy. They love to come to North Carrollton. They love to come to the store. They will definitely grow up in the pharmacy.”
