Cousins take ownership of pharmacy
by Lindsay Hoeppner · July 28, 2010

Todd and Jon Thompson like small town atmospheres.

“It’s the type of community we like to operate in and work with,” said Todd, who, along with his cousin, Jon, took over ownership of West Liberty Pharmacy on July 1.

Only, pharmaceuticals wasn’t originally the plan Todd had set out for himself.

Growing up on a farm west of Muscatine, Todd had envisioned himself going into something agriculture-related.

“After I graduated, I worked with horses for a couple of years, but then I decided to go back to school to get a more regular job,” he said.

That happened to be the same time his younger cousin, Jon, was also enrolling in college.

“He was looking at physical therapy, and I convinced him to do pharmacy,” Todd said.

The two went through school together and graduated together.

Following their graduations, they both worked at retail stores, but had larger ambitions.

“Three or four years ago, we both decided to buy our own individual pharmacy, and it has kind of evolved into a partnership now,” Todd said.

Todd, who lives in the Kalona area, additionally owns pharmacies in Wellman and Montezuma. Jon, who resides in Washington, owns a pharmacy in the Washington County seat.

“Those are all retail stores, but we focus more on long-term care and nursing homes,” Todd said.

And he expects no different while owning West Liberty Pharmacy.

Although Todd and Jon do not have any immediate plans to change the services offered at West Liberty Pharmacy, which has been a mainstay in the community since 1905, the cousins have been brainstorming ideas for improving the store.

“We’ll continue the services basically as they are, but we do have some plans to maybe remodel and update a little bit and accentuate the older parts of the store,” Todd said.

In particular, Todd would like to see the soda fountain, which was purchased in the 1920s and moved to its current location along the northwest portion of the pharmacy in 1948, to be focused on more primarily than it is now.

“We’d like to put a little more focus into it,” he said.

West Liberty Pharmacy, located at 105 East Third St., is open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, however the pharmacy portion of the store does not open until 9 a.m. Both the store and the pharmacy are open 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday.