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 Lance Martin | Daily Herald Gene Minton, owner of Drugco, shows the ledger that was kept 20 years ago for bookkeeping when the Drugco first started. |
ROANOKE RAPIDS - For the hundreds of folks who turned out for the bargains it may have been a big sale. For Drugco owner Gene Minton it was much more.
“It's letting them get something back,” he said close to the 12th hour of a 20-hour sale at his Smith Church Road business Monday.
Minton always knew he would want to own his own business. As a boy growing up in Roxobel in nearby Bertie County, his father, a farmer and state Department of Transportation employee, gave him some sage advice.
“I was born and raised on a hog farm and tobacco farm,” he said Monday. “My dad told me it might be a good idea to find something I could do indoors.”
He decided he would try pharmacy. “I just did it. I had no prior experience. I went to Carolina (UNC) and decided I would try to get in the pharmacy school.”
He made it in and worked at Kerr Drugs in the Triangle area to gain experience. “I started selling cigars at the front and helped in the pharmacy at night.”
In 1975, he graduated and eventually worked his way back to the Roanoke Valley, where he worked at Mast Drugs.
It was during this time he decided he should start his own business. “When you work 60 hours a week for someone else, you might as well work 60 hours for yourself. I always wanted to own my own business,” he said.
In 1987, Drugco opened. “The store did well from the very beginning. It was kind of innovative,” Minton said. “It was the first drug store in North Carolina with a drive-through.”
The first store was also a move away from the concept then of having a drug store in a shopping center or department store. “It was the first free-standing corner drug store.”
Since then, Minton has expanded Drugco to Ahoskie and Lake Gaston and is eyeing a westward expansion. “We're looking at Raleigh. I think they would like to have a hands-on, down-home drug store.”
That's what has made the company successful, Minton said - good personnel and people who provide good customer service - and the celebration that people lined up for Sunday night was to honor them.
“We've probably given $20,000 away, just for the people who have supported us,” Minton said.
Pharmacy Manager Tim Bratton, who has worked at Drugco for 16 years, said prior to midnight Sunday customers were lined up through the drive-through.
“I enjoy the customers,” Bratton said as the reason for staying at Drugco. “It's been a great 16 years.”
George Smiley is the floor manager and has worked at Drugco since he was 16.
“It's the people,” Smiley said. “That's what built this business.”
Smiley came to work Sunday at 10:30 p.m. preparing for the sale. “At 12 o'clock I was told that it was like the Israelites leaving Egypt.”
With the success of the sale and the success the company has had, Minton looks back on the advice his father gave him. “I think he felt like I could do something more. That kind of upbringing helped me.”
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