A Pharmacy That's Been Doing it Right for Over 60 Years

If you're looking for history in Park Slope, you oftentimes need look no further than the corner pharmacy.

The Prospect Gardens Pharmacy, on Seventh Avenue and Union Street, has been a neighborhood fixture for over 60 years. It's also a reminder that friendly, personalized service will never go out of fashion. 

The drug store first opened its doors in the early 1940s, as part of the once dominant (but long gone) Whelan's chain. The only remaining relic of this time is the pharmacy's hanging "DRUGS/ PRESCRIPTIONS" sign, one of the neighborhood's oldest. If you look closely, you can just barely make out the word "Cosmetics" in the small box on top, apparently a later addition. 

"This used to be very old-fashioned, with glass cases and a rolling wooden ladder that went all the way around," said owner Howard Baskind, who bought the pharmacy in 1980 and gave it the look that it still has today.

"When Howard took the reins he renovated cheaply, and has yet to update it," pharmacist Wayne Lippman joked.  Lippman has worked at Prospect Gardens for over 25 years.

The interior is no-frills, and stocked floor-to-ceiling with your usual assortment of items as well as some harder-to-find merchandise like small appliances, housewares, and hula hoops. Wood paneling is still the dominant motif. The word "PRESCRIPTIONS," spanning the entire back wall, is in a classic 70s typeface echoed by the word "DRUGS" on the bright yellow sign outside, which dates from the same era (a dead giveaway is the lack of an area code in the phone number). 

But the customers who have been shopping and getting prescriptions filled there for ages tend to be indifferent to the decor. 

"Most of my customers, when they call I can identify them by their voice" said Lippman from behind the tall pharmacy counter. "I know their history and they know mine."

As for the big box drug stores like Duane Reade, Lippman thinks that they can learn a thing or two from his pharmacy.

"Why shop at a place that makes you wait three hours for a prescription? I don't understand it. Here we fill it in five to ten minutes. That's how we maintain our clientele. A lot of the old timers aren't around anymore, but when younger folks come in they're always impressed by the fact that we actually care about them."

"Customer service comes easy when you've been doing it the right way for so long," he added.