Karen Ducey / P-I

Todd Ramsey, left, stands beside his father Dick Ramsey in front of their store, Ostrom's Pharmacy. The store, a fixture of Kenmore for 44 years, is being pushed out by new development; but the owners have found a new location just 4 blocks away.

Retail Notebook: New development didn't mean the end of the old

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
P-I REPORTER

Press Release

August 5, 2007

 The City of Kenmore is scheduled for a “Heart Transplant” in 2009.

 Ostroms Drug & Gift, the beloved “Heart of Kenmore” since 1963, has reached agreement to relocate from KenmoreVillage to a new Kenmore building, on the site of the former Denny’s restaurant on Bothell Way, between KiddValley and Sherwin-Williams Paints. 

 The property owner, Kenmore Lakeview LLC, plans to renovate, expand, and extensively remodel the existing Denny’s building to accommodate Ostroms’ needs.  A Drive-Through Pharmacy window, allowing face-to-face conversation with pharmacists, will be included in the building remodel, along with new landscaping and a refurbished parking area.

 “The Kenmore community has been concerned about the future of Ostroms since the City purchased KenmoreVillage several years ago” said Todd Ramsey, whose family has owned Ostroms Drug & Gift since 1963.  “Our team members and my family have been touched by the outpouring of support from our customers as we looked for a new location.”

 “After several years of searching, we have finally found a location where we can beautifully showcase our unique product selection; provide ample storefront parking; give our customers the convenience of easy access to Bothell Way; and offer patients the option of Drive-Through prescription pickup with face-to-face access to our pharmacists.”  Ramsey further noted that the high visibility of the Denny’s location will help to attract new customers, “our friends we haven’t met yet.”

 Ostroms’ current home, Kenmore Village, has recently been purchased by Urban Partners, who plan to create a mixed-use development of apartments, condominiums, and retail.  As the longest-running and historically the busiest store in the Village, Ostroms Drug & Gift has been one of the focal points of the discussion among Kenmore residents regarding the new development.  Many Kenmore residents urged the prospective developers to retain the “local feel” of the Village by keeping unique stores like Ostroms as part of the development – or at least make it possible for those stores to remain in Kenmore.

 Ostroms Drug & Gift boasts a robust prescription business.  Ramsey said, “Our customers feel they have a personal relationship with our pharmacists and team members because we have such a caring and loyal team.  Our pharmacists have worked at Ostroms for an average of over 20 years; they really get to know our customers!” 

 Ostroms has a unique merchandise mix that endears the store to locals.  A newspaper poll of Kenmore and Bothell residents named Ostroms “Bothell/Kenmore’s Best Gift Store” and “Bothell/Kenmore’s Best Long-Term Business”.

 The lease transaction was facilitated by Malia Radford of Radford & Company Realtors in Bellevue.

“I guess I’m just not an agent for change,” said B-Z Davis.

Back when she was attending Bothell High School, Davis worked for a short time as a car hop at a now long-defunct drive-in restaurant. But even before she graduated high school, Davis went to work for Ostroms Drug and Gifts.

That was in 1973. She never left the store.

Now, even if Davis is not an agent of change, some changes have come her way. As anyone who’s driven down Northeast Bothell Way probably has noticed, Ostroms has a new location on Kenmore’s main drag. After over four decades in Kenmore Village, the pharmacy and gift shop threw open the doors to its new store April 13.

“It’s a much, much nicer facility than what we’re used to,” said Ostroms owner and manager Todd Ramsey.

Though she isn’t, self-admittedly, very big on change, even Davis is looking forward to the new digs. She talked about working under a roof that doesn’t leak, about floor coverings that match in design.

Talking from the new location about a week prior to the opening, Ramsey said his staff was looking at a lot of work in order to be ready. A liquidation sale took care of about 90 percent of the stock at the old Ostroms and while that meant a lot less moving work, it also meant a lot of unpacking of new items. He also said there was plenty of setting up to accomplish, but didn’t seem worried about his staff being willing to put in the effort. He seemingly has worthy reasons for that confidence.

While Davis is apparently the longest tenured member of the Ostroms staff, she is hardly alone in her loyalty to the store. Head pharmacist Bill Briggs has worked behind the same counter for 30 years. All in all, of his 23 employees, Ramsey figures the average length of stay with the store is 10 years and he believes he knows why his “team members,” as he calls them, have remained so loyal.

“We don’t criticize over little things,” he said. “The big thing is, ‘Do they help the customers?’”

Ramsey further believes the low staff turnover helps attract those customers.

“When people come in, they are seeing friendly faces, they are being recognized,” he said, claiming the store’s approach to doing business is a far cry from what he called faceless retail chains. For her part, Davis certainly agrees. She said she sees generations of customers, recalling regulars who visited the store as children now coming in with their own youngsters.

If the store’s customers and employees have stayed largely the same over the years, so has its management. Now 76 and semi-retired, Dick Ramsey bought the store in 1963, two years after it opened, named by the way, after the original owner. In turn, Todd Ramsey purchased the store from his father in 1990. The son said the elder Ramsey still comes in to the store on a regular basis.

After her many years with the retailer, Davis works as the buyer for Ostroms gift selection. Her name should be familiar to many local residents, even if they’ve never stepped inside her long-time place of business. She spent 16 years on the Northshore School District Board of Directors.

“While I was on the school board, people could come in to Ostroms to talk about what was happening in their child’s education and I appreciated being available to them,” Davis said.

Davis added being allowed to work full time and take on responsibilities such as serving on the school board while actively raising two children is another reason she stayed put at Ostroms for all these years.

“I really like the Northshore and Kenmore community,” Davis added. Not incidentally, her children have stayed in the area and now are raising Davis’ grandchildren here.

“There’s just a real connection there,” Davis said of the Kenmore community and her family.