Revamped — with you in mind!
If you walk into the newly-expanded and improved Phoenix Centre Drugstore and find your jaw dropping to the ground, you are not alone.
Over the last few weeks, hundreds of Phoenix Centre shoppers have experienced this reaction when entering the Reid Street Store and finding themselves in the midst of numerous changes.
These include a newly renovated dispensary designed to offer personal consultations, dedicated seasonal, health care and value-added sections, a revamped magazine news-stand, a grocery section, an expanded household section and the addition of the popular “CoverGirl” line of makeup products.
Phoenix Centre manager, Steven Perry says he was amazed at the relatively short period of time it took to revamp the shop — less than three weeks.
“We did it with a lot of pre-planning, but it was successful because of staff and management involvement along with the construction group and local vendors.
“It has been a total group effort!” he exclaimed. “Managing this store is not something you do by yourself. It’s done along with the staff, and what has made this such a success is team work. There are very few operations that can do a total refit and expansion and not have their doors open. We did this through Easter and the business did not stop.”
He elaborates that in a sense the company’s “plate simply got a lot larger”.
As for any inconvenience to the public during the revamp, Mr. Perry says customers were amazing: “Not to pat ourselves on the back too much, but I don’t know anybody who could rebuild an entire pharmacy over a weekend so that people could simply walk in the door on the Monday and hardly notice.
“Most of it happened by luck,” he laughs, adding that this was one of the best refits and expansions he has ever been involved in in more than 32 years in the retail industry.
Mr. Perry also thanked the staff: “The inconvenience to the staff and the extra hours they’ve put in has been phenomenal, but then we realised we did the same thing to the customers.”
That is why he attributes the success of the revamp to each and every staff member of the Phoenix Centre.
As for the changes, Mr. Perry elaborates that the entire store has been re-merchandised with category sections being changed in locations to make it more customer friendly.
“Around the pharmacy we have developed all personal care products.
“Everything from the cold-and-cough section to First Aid, dietary and dental sections. We now also stock the Orbis line of products and CoverGirl makeup,” he says.
The new categories include the larger sewing section, enhanced electrical section, household, kitchen utensils and cookware, along with improving their news-stand.
“We have also developed a new grocery section stocking everything from coffee to cereal to peanut butter and soups.
We don’t consider ourselves a grocery store, but we are a full service provider of a large range of products, especially for those who work in town who just need some coffee, or something. The prices are very competitive with other grocers,” he concedes.
To prevent congestion when customers pick up and drop off their prescriptions, the pharmacy section was also expanded and revamped, explains Mr. Perry: “We also developed a personal and private consulting area.”
Another new section of the store which has customers’ jaws dropping is P-Tech — the former Stuart’s — which stocks the largest selection of brand-name cameras and accessories on the Island.
With continuous shopping throughout the store, additional staff had to be employed to deal with the extra cash registers (in the new sections) and expanded floor space.
This is one area that has always been of concern and Mr. Perry elaborates that floor space in the store tended to get “clustered” during seasonal periods.
“It’s not only our intention to provide larger services for customers, but to make their shopping friendlier.
“The categories changing from the existing store has created more space, less cluster,” he asserts.
Since joining the company about three-and-a-half years ago, Mr. Perry says he saw the need for a major refit:
“It was getting more run down over the years because of the tremendous flow of customer traffic and this revamp is something that will affect the shopping experience for years to come.”
Mr. Perry believes the expansion simply follows the Phoenix ethos of always looking to the future and providing a better service for their customers.
As for the future, he says the store has simply demonstrated that they are “one of the leaders in comparing themselves to change and allowing change to happen with the growth of the business”.
