PHOTO BY STEVE MEYERS
[quote style=”2″]After nearly a century in operation, Hermiston Drug still finds a comfortable niche in customer service[/quote]
Christine Godwin visits the soda fountain at Hermiston Drug most every day for lunch and good conversation.
She and husband, Sam, first arrived in Hermiston 70 years ago. A touch of her home state, Tennessee, still sounds in her voice.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes in Hermiston, but this place has stayed the same,” she says.
Hermiston Drug, a pharmacy, gift shop and soda fountain on Main Street, traces its roots to the early 1900s. Its exact beginning is unclear; there was a Hermiston Pioneer Pharmacy that advertised in a 1908 Hermiston Herald that may or may not be related.
Walter Hamm bought Hermiston Drug in 1927. He had arrived in town a few years earlier to work at nearby First National Bank.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB MULLAY
“Seldom charging a cent for the work he did, he could fix just about anything, from a broken fly pole to a cracked gun stock,” the Herald reported.
Hamm sold Hermiston Drug in 1952 to Gib Gettmann, who later sold the store to Jack and Jerry Sobotta.
Bob Mullay, the current owner and pharmacist, was raised in Hermiston. His parents worked as school teachers. He liked to hang out at the comic book rack at Hermiston Drug while his mom shopped. Later, in 1980, he graduated with a pharmacy degree from Oregon State, and worked as a pharmacist at Hermiston Drug until purchasing the store himself in 2000 from the Sobottas, who are his uncles.
Independent pharmacies face stiff headwinds, especially in rural towns.
“Small margins and government regulations all take their toll on small, independent businesses,” Mullay says.
With a half-dozen other pharmacies in Hermiston, several associated with big corporations, Hermiston Drug has found a comfortable niche in customer service.
“We know our customers and they know us,” Mullay says. “They can ask a question or talk about a problem. They know we have their best interests in mind.”
Further, “I think just having the family atmosphere makes a difference,” Mullay says. “Most of my employees were born and raised in Hermiston. A lot of my customers are third-generation Hermiston Drug customers. We just developed a lot of loyalty through the years.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB MULLAY
Betty Hensel was familiar to many in town. Donna Nichols worked 32 years before retiring. Peggy Timms came to work at Hermiston Drug in 1989 when Moore & Ripley Drug closed.
Although the pharmacy operation has changed a lot in recent years, the store itself hasn’t. The store features Black Hills gold jewelry, Lawrence picture frames, C.R. Gibson stationery, Fenton glass, Yankee candles and history books from Northwest authors.
The biggest attraction may be the lunch counter, with its milk shakes, soup, sandwiches and constellation of fresh-made pies, from coconut cream to custard. “The soda fountain is a novelty you don’t find anymore,” Mullay says.
“A lot of people enjoy coming in and seeing that. People bring in their grandkids to have a soda, to see a thing of the past.”
Free of charge at Hermiston Drug’s lunch counter is the chance to learn about area history first-hand from people like Christine Godwin.
Her husband began working on army depot construction in 1942 and later built many schools and other projects in Hermiston and beyond as a contractor. At 92, her secret of healthy living? Vitamin B12.
She once operated a wrecking yard for nine years. “Everybody who walked through the door had a problem that needed solving,” she says, smiling at the thought.
This story first appeared in the February issue of Ruralite
