JESSE DUARTE
ST. HELENA -- Smiths Pharmacy has been serving St. Helena for 150 years, making it one of the city's oldest businesses.
Owners Jeff and Debbie Hansen don't take that history lightly, but history is all about change. On Thursday they sold the business and retired, although they're confident it will remain in good -- and independent -- hands.
The new owners are Bay Area resident and pharmacist Sahini Chidipotu, who the Hansens said plans to move to St. Helena, and her business partner, pharmacist Pratap Anne.
Chidipotu finds Smiths' rich history "very exciting," Debbie Hansen said.
"She wants to be part of a small community," Hansen said. "She very much looks forward to meeting people and serving them."
The Hansens bought Smiths in 1994 after running NuWay Drug from 1988 to 1994. NuWay was in the Main Street building now occupied by Market, which had also been home to Smiths before Smiths moved to the Safeway plaza in 1968.
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Smiths started in 1874 when H.R. Bussenius opened a "Druggist & Apothecary" shop. It was later acquired by S.C. Davidson, who in 1895 sold it to William Henry Harrison Smith. Like Steves Hardware -- another historic St. Helena business -- Smiths has been confounding spell-checkers ever since with its lack of an apostrophe.
More importantly, it served a growing St. Helena community that at one point supported four drugstores. With the closing of Vasconi's in 2021, Smiths became the only pharmacy in town.
Jeff Hansen remembers what locals call "old St. Helena," when people primarily walked instead of drove and bought their meat from Ernie Navone at Keller's.
NuWay had an old-fashioned soda fountain in the back where the Rotary Club met, Mayor John Aquila held court a few times a week, and Sheana Rombauer picked up a coffee milkshake at 2 p.m. every afternoon.
"It was a different time. It was fantastic. I loved it," Hansen said.
St. Helena has changed, and so has the pharmacy business. When the Hansens started out, about 95% of transactions were cash. Consumers had a direct relationship with drug manufacturers, which gave the companies an incentive to keep prices down. Then came the days of insurance cards, $5 copays, middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, and vertically integrated companies that no longer bothered to keep prices consumer-friendly. The new distribution model squeezed the profit margins of small pharmacies like NuWay. Jeff Hansen said he had no choice but to close NuWay, consolidate its customer base with Smiths, offer higher-margin merchandise on the front end, and rely on sheer volume to stay afloat.
"You had to become leaner and meaner," he said. "You had to do volume to stay in business. By that point you couldn't do 80 scrips a day and make any money."
The Hansens say they've succeeded thanks to their customers. While some locals have chosen the convenience and low prices of online shopping, there are still plenty of loyal customers who are willing to pay a bit extra to support a local business.
"I've always felt a deep responsibility to my base of customers because they've shown immense loyalty," Jeff Hansen said.
"When they can," Debbie Hansen interjected. "Those are the people who can afford to tell the insurance (companies), 'No, we're not going to do mail order, we're willing to pay more at the brick-and-mortar.' People have done that and gone to bat for us."
So did the city when it fought Safeway's plan to expand and establish a pharmacy that would have put Smiths and Vasconi's out of business, Jeff Hansen said.
"One of the reasons we're still here is that the nearest major chain is 20 miles away," he said.
Smiths had a somewhat friendly competition with Vasconi's. Hap Vasconi and Jeff Hansen were good friends and would even sell each other drugs when one of the pharmacies was running low on something. The rivalry was fiercer on the front end with the non-drug merchandise, Hansen said.
Smiths has outlasted Vasconi's, but Hansen said Chidipotu is better equipped than him to truly bring Smiths "into the 21st century and expand the services offered." For example, she's talked about offering vaccinations and flu shots, whereas Hansen can't stand the sight of needles. Giving shots wasn't taught in pharmacy school in his day, but it is now.
"I'm an old-school guy, so it's time for me to go," he said with a laugh.
The Hansens say St. Helena is still their forever home, but they plan to travel nationally and abroad and spend more time with their adult daughters in San Diego, Portland and Delray Beach, Florida, which is also home to their infant grandchild.
you can reach Jesse duarte at 707-967-6803 or jesse. duarte@sthelenastar.com.
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