Local drugstore retains charm, service

Imagine walking into a drugstore that's still locally owned, with a lunch counter and a pay phone booth, where customers are treated like family.

Such is the distinction of Sant Drugstore, which has been serving the Yuma community since the early 1940s. It is among the oldest drugstores in the state and certainly one of the few in the country that still has a soda fountain.

Sitting back in his office, co-owner Robert Sant reflected on the history of the business and its role in the community over the years.

The story begins with his parents, Ferdy and Margaret Sant. The couple moved from Phoenix to Yuma in 1939, where Ferdy was employed by the Yuma Pharmacy as the head pharmacist. They then moved to Honolulu, where Ferdy managed three drugstores for Benson-Smith Drug Co.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and with World War II on, the Sants moved to San Diego for a couple of years, then Yuma beckoned to them again.

In 1944, they purchased Minor's Drugstore on the corner of 4th Avenue and 8th Street where Plaza Appliance is now located.

Sant recalled his father telling about Dwight Eisenhower stopping by the store for a milkshake while he was in Yuma checking on troops being trained by Gen. Patton in the desert during the war.

By now renamed Sant Drugstore, the Sants moved the business across the street in 1952 to its current location at 419 W. 8th St.

For the time, the drugstore was "really modern," Sant said. "Now the reaction I get when people walk in is comments about the old-fashioned pharmacy and how it reminds them of when they were a kid."

For Sant, the drugstore has been a lifetime.

"My dad put me to work when I was in second-grade washing dishes behind the soda fountain. By the fourth-grade, my dad started teaching me how to cook."

In those days, there was an art to running the soda fountain.

Syrup was made from sugar and water and various flavorings, he said. Ice cream companies would put on seminars on how to make the perfect milkshake.

The drugstore served as a community center. During lunchtime, the drugstore would be full of high school kids who came in for a hamburger. In the summer, farmers who stayed in Yuma while their wives went to San Diego would come in for dinner.

The way of doing business was much different then, Sant said. "We had personal relationships with salesmen who would come into the store. Now we order over the Internet."

He recalled going with his father to Los Angeles on buying trips and being extended credit for six months, especially for Christmas orders. The store would receive shipments perhaps once a month, and the warehouse was bigger than the store.

While that personal relationship with salesmen is a thing of the past, Sant still prides himself on maintaining personal ties with the people who work for him and who come into his store.

"Our customers are like family. We've been serving many of them for years. We share their griefs and joys. It's become a very personal business."

And, he continued: "We try to treat them like a family member."

That means taking customer service to a higher level, making sure a prescription won't have a bad countereffect with a medication the person already is taking or has something they're allergic to, taking care of insurance issues and even contacting a physician for a different medication when the prescribed one isn't covered by the person's insurance company.

And they will deliver prescriptions within the city of Yuma.

Sant hadn't aspired to taking over the drugstore. He got a college degree in art history.

"You know how it is," he said with a shrug as an explanation for that choice. "You have ideals. Then you get married and have children and have to make a living."

So he returned to the family business. With his father suffering from heart problems, Sant and pharmacist Tommy Burrell joined forces to buy the drugstore and keep it open. Burrell had interned at the drugstore after graduating from pharmacy school and somehow never left.

The same seems to be true for other employees. Sant said one woman worked there until she was 80; one employee has been there 30 years and another 29 years.

Even Sant's father continued to work at the store part time until his death at age 80.

Another member of the current team is Al Alvarez, who previously had Beto's restaurant and now runs the lunch counter.

At one time, Sant's father had three stores, one at the old A.J. Bayless Center and another on Main Street besides the 8th Street location. He sold them before undergoing heart surgery in case he didn't survive, Sant recalled.

Today, Sant Drugstore remains locally owned in the face of the number of chain stores that have located here. There is only one other locally owned drugstore in Yuma, Sant said.

That's Kachina Pharmacy. It is owned by Dave Platt, who got a taste for the business working for Sant Drugstore while in high school. But his store specializes in compounding medications - and it doesn't have a soda fountain.

Asked about the future of Sant Drugstore, Sant said he isn't making any immediate plans to retire. But it's doubtful either of his children will carry on the family business - his daughter has a marine biology degree and works for Balboa Hospital while his son works for the University of Phoenix.

But for Sant, it's been a satisfying life.

"I'm a people person. What I enjoy most is the people I'm surrounded with - the employees and the customers."

Soda, anyone?

Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or539-6853.