BY TOM WOFFORD
FOR THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — Chip Whitaker and his wife, Mandy, have previously opened two drug stores in the state, in Camden and in Greenville, both communities that were previously underserved by pharmacists. Both stores continue to thrive.
Now the two are ready to serve the former patients of the Winn-Dixie pharmacy in Betts Crossing on Fox Run Parkway.
“That’s always been our goal, to go where we’re needed,” Chip said.
Chip and Mandy have Whitaker Drugs under construction, just around the corner from Winn-Dixie, also in Betts Crossing. The store should be open in a few weeks, around the middle of November. The Winn-Dixie pharmacy was scheduled to close this past week.
Roughly 2,500 patients lost their community pharmacy when Winn-Dixie announced it would close its in-store pharmacy after its purchase by discount grocery chain Aldi was announced; but the store is expected to remain a Winn-Dixie.
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Aldi announced in August that it would be acquiring 400 Winn-Dixie stores from Jacksonville-based Southeastern Grocers, the Betts Crossing store among them. Some of the Winn-Dixie locations are destined to become Aldi stores, while many will continue to operate under the Winn-Dixie brand, those stores practically unchanged, except for the elimination of the in-store pharmacies there. Aldi is expanding quickly in the U.S. It plans to have 2,400 locations nationwide by the end of the year.
Even thought the Betts Crossing store is expected to remain a Winn-Dixie store and look the same, there will be no pharmacy inside. Of the 400 Winn-Dixie stores in the sale, none should have pharmacies by the end of the year.
“Aldi is not in the pharmacy business,” Chip said, “So, I knew as soon as their purchase of those Winn-Dixie stores was announced that those Betts Crossing patients were about to lose their pharmacy.”
Some of these patients have been using that pharmacy for nearly 30 years.
“Mandy and I talked about it and we decided to come here and help aleve the displacement,” Chip said.“That’s been our mission, to go where people need us.We will be around the corner from Winn-Dixie, in the same shopping center, no less.”
Both Chip and Mandy have a lot of roots in the area.
They both studied pharmacy at Auburn, and both first worked as pharmacists in the local market. Both of their children were born at East Alabama Medical Center.
Chip also has pharmacy in his blood; both his parents were pharmacists in Marengo County when he was growing up.
The Whitakers’ deep connection to the area is obvious with their first hires for Whitaker Drugs.
Former Winn-Dixie pharmacy manager Jacqueline Katich is coming on board with the Whitakers. She and Chip graduated pharmacy school together.
Cheryl Wood, who is also coming to Whitaker Drugs after a long stint as pharmacy manager at Winn-Dixie in Auburn, hired Chip for his first job in pharmacy as a technician at Winn-Dixie.
“We’re also hoping to hire some pharmacy techs from the closed store,” Chip said. “The patients will see a lot of familiar faces.”
