Elite Pharmacy’s expansion is not slowing down any time soon. According to Co-Owner/Windham Zoning Inspector Jake Sweet, the local independent pharmacy will be of opening its fourth location at 48 East Taggert Street in East Palestine in early September.
“We certainly didn’t anticipate the growth so quickly when we set out on this adventure, but we are just two small-town guys that have been very fortunate and we are adamant that we are going to fill the needs of this local community,” Sweet told The Weekly Villager on Aug. 1.
The Pharmacy’s fourth location will be occupying space that was formerly the home of Iazonne’s Pizza. It marks the fourth independent pharmacy that Sweet and his partner, Daniel Jones, have opened, with pharmacies located across Northeast Ohio in Canfield, Garrettsville and New Philadelphia.
The Windham alum said that the pharmacy’s fourth location was presented to them by their supplier, the Value Drug Company. He added that East Palestine needed a new local pharmacy in the wake of the Rite Aid store going out of business last fall.
“The next closest pharmacy is 11 miles away,” noted Sweet. “We went down and met with the Village officials at East Palestine, and they were fantastic and super excited that we were considering it and the stars aligned and we will be down there come September.”
Sweet said that a lot of renovations have been done to Elite Pharmacy’s newest site, as the entire building has been remodeled, erasing any trace that it was ever a pizza restaurant. He added that the building has been repainted, new floor tiles have been installed, and the walls and ceiling tiles have also been replaced.
In addition to the building being repurposed, Sweet said that all of the essential materials are in place, and they are waiting for the delivery of new shelves in approximately two weeks.
Sweet said that the Elite Pharmacy’s East Palestine location will be similar to the layout of the location at 1 Memory Lane Suite 500 in Garrettsville.
“This location is just a regular pharmacy. You have your front section where we get you your cough syrup and stuff like that and the back where we just fill prescriptions. So, nothing too wild there,” he said. “We still offer free deliveries and will be doing vaccines. It is just your run of the mill pharmacy.”
Although Elite Pharmacy’s newest location is 50 minutes away from Garrettsville, it is only about 25 minutes removed from the Canfield location. Sweet acknowledged that the East Palestine site’s proximity to Canfield will be very beneficial for those two locations.
“If there is somebody that calls off, you can borrow an employee from another store; it makes it easier when they are closer,” he added. “Maybe Canfield has a drug that they used one time, but they don’t need it anymore, but East Palestine can buy it from there. If there is a drug shortage, we can kind of share things.”
Sweet said that the initial welcome from the East Palestine community has been very inviting. The community greatly resembles that of the one in Portage County. He said that East Palestine’s similarity to Portage County encouraged him, and Jones pursue opening a new location there.
“I think that they are excited that it is not a big corporation, it is just a small, local independently-owned business, and they know that we are going to take care of the community,” he noted. When you are a member of the community, you have people to answer to.”
Sweet said that he and Jones are still working on filling out the staff for the East Palestine location. There are serious health concerns tied to East Palestine, which is still recovering from the aftermath of the train derailment from the summer of 2023, when a Norfolk Southern Freight Train derailed and unleashed hazardous chemicals into the air.
Although there is concern about the lingering health effects from the train derailment, Sweet said that is even more reason for Elite Pharmacy to come to East Palestine to provide relief.
“I want people to get the best care locally that they can instead of waiting weeks for their medicine to come through the mail or trying to find transportation to get to the pharmacy,” he said. “People live there every day. They can’t just pick up and leave their homes so we will be right there with them, making sure that they get the care that they need should long-lasting health care problems arise.”
