PJ Chamberlain talks Community Pharmacy re-invention on Max Ink Radio

Jimmy, together, community pharmacy and community wellness shop are an independent worker-managed

cooperative whose mission is to promote better health for the community.

And in the fall of 1972, the UW-Madison Wisconsin Student Association, WSA, they sponsored

a volunteer-run pharmacy to provide students and musicians with affordable medications.

And today, they have grown to support more than 20 full-time staff at two locations in

Madison.

And the online store is reinventing itself with an upcoming relaunch here to tell us all

about the new web store, Scamazon Vitamin Supplements and AI-generated herbal books is community

pharmacy outreach coordinator PJ Chamberlain.

PJ, welcome to Maxing Radio.

Wow.

That was an amazing introduction.

Thank you so much.

I hope I can live up to that.

Oh, I'm sure you will.

PJ, you know, give us a little more backstory on the creation of community pharmacy, it was

started by students.

I mean, give us a little bit more backstory behind that.

So it was started by WSA way back in 1972.

They were in that alleyway off of Lake Street by, I believe, where the post office is now.

And from that, they just kept growing.

The students, or while the workers took it over from WSA, formed a collective, added vitamins

and supplements, moved up the street to where the pharmacy was for many, a few decades.

And then formed a workers cooperative, opened a new, that our location in Middleton community

while in the shop, and then recently moved to where we are now in Faroq's Avenue.

So, that's a great location you have on Faroq's Avenue, I think it's the perfect location

for, for y'all too.

That's a great middle ground for everything.

We're right in the, you know, Willie area, Atwood area, Sassy neighborhood, across from

Garver-Feedmill.

We're, you know, near to the east side area, Manona, it's great, yeah.

You know, being a small business is tough, but when you do retail like you do pharmacy

and wellness drugs and stuff like that, in the world of big box stores, how do you compete?

How do you get to a man?

That's what we're hoping to, well, you know, we've been competing, we've been able to

stay open because we have been a community based pharmacy, you know, we've, we've been

there for people for many, many years, we've been the local option, we've been, you

know, a workers, a run, worker, led, worker, pro worker, pharmacy, pro reproductive health,

all those sorts of things.

I think being very like hippie and very like what Madison is, you know, we've been true

to Madison for many, many years.

What do you think?

Oh, sorry.

Manages of that to your customers, being that hometown, personalized service.

Yeah.

That's what they, that's what they really look for.

And, you know, we try to do it in many different ways.

We try to be there for people in our retail area and our herbal and supplement area.

We try to educate people as much as possible on, on what we sell and be knowledgeable.

And then we try to be there way better than, well, I don't know if I can name names,

but some of those other big stories.

The big stuff.

Yeah.

We answer, you know, if you, if you send us an email, email you back, it's all us.

It's not some big corporate run maze.

You know, it's, it's us real quick rocker, what if all people like on Medicare or insurance

and stuff?

I'm sure you all handle that.

No problem.

Yeah.

We take all different kind of insurances.

We work with people if they're medications are too expensive.

And we even do sometimes we say, you know, you're better off going to this other place.

You'll get it for cheaper.

It's just going to be better for you.

You know, we're willing to, to say and do that because we want people to have the best

healthcare they can, especially nowadays when it's, it's such a mess, you know, so.

The customer is truly first.

Many of the products at Community Pharmacy are sourced from small local businesses.

Tell us about your supporting local.

Yeah.

We always try to look out for places around Madison to support makers, creators, farmers,

we have all sorts of made in Wisconsin products at our store, and we always try to source locally

when it comes to as much as possible, you know, all sorts of different products in our store.

Herbs, gifts, books, we have local authors, you know, books in our stores.

We try to do that as much as possible.

Sometimes we have to search throughout the United States or the world as well for products,

but we still try to get from small, independently run businesses, so.

That is so cool.

Now, let's get to the fun part, scamazon, scamazon, vitamin supplements, AI written herbal

books.

Yeah.

Oh, my.

Tell us of what's going on out there.

Well, so the biggest thing I heard about with these scamazon listings for vitamins and

supplements is that one brand got in trouble because they were tested and found that the

only thing, the only type of, you know, there wasn't any vitamin, there wasn't any supplement,

there was Viagra in it.

And that was it.

What?

So people were taking these, you know, multi vitamins, vitamins, whatever, having the wrong

reaction.

Oh, you know, they were like, oh, I feel, you know, I kind of feel kind of peppy.

I feel a little peppy in my stuff or whatever.

And, you know, so that's why they thought it was working and it turned out, yeah, it was

just Viagra.

So be careful out there with what you get and, you know, I could be dangerous, especially

somebody with high blood pressure or something like that, right?

If there on any kind of medication that counter, you know, relax with Viagra, you know,

yeah, it's not good.

So it's definitely always good.

I mean, it's unfortunate because we live kind of in a world where health care is such

a commodity that people try to look for the cheapest, but that doesn't work out in

her favor, you know, and so it's understandable that people want something cheaper, but that's

why we try to.

That's why we try to carry a wide variety of products at community pharmacy with all

different prices.

So, but yeah, and then now they're also these AI created herbal books.

And a lot of these AI created things sound really good on the surface.

You read it and it's like, oh, yeah, this makes sense.

Oh, this sounds good.

But then once you really take a deep dive and look at it, it's not, it's just gobbledigook,

you know?

It's just like filling in sentences with things that sound right, but then it's not right.

So I'm the, I buy like the herbal books at the pharmacy and I've had to be very careful

in looking into what we're getting in because these, you know, some new books are just

not created by real people who take the time and effort to, you know, write a real book.

Right.

AI is a great, rather issue.

Oh, it's, I think it's really, really cool and really, really helpful.

So I love it and hate it.

Yeah.

It's one of those things where you just have to be careful about what you're buying,

you know?

So I think, you know, I think you have to be wary of that also in news.

Oh, absolutely.

I think now there's a fair amount in news or news articles out there that you're like,

huh?

What?

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's, it's weird because it's worth, you know, it's kind of, when you look at an image,

it's easier to tell if it's not real, but I feel like when you're reading something,

it's like, this seems off.

Why does this seem off?

Yeah.

So watch out for the, yeah, I read an herbal books.

Oh, boy.

Community pharmacy produces and sponsors events like book signings and interview sessions.

What's coming up at Community Pharmacy?

Well, those are what we're hoping to, we have a book event that we're hoping to get going

with local author, Jane Holly Stevens, who just came out with an herbal book.

She runs four elements organics, which is a farm nearby that we have a lot of products

from.

And we are hoping to do an interview series on our social media coming up.

And then also we have our, our web store that's rolling out very shortly with all of

our products.

And if people want to stay in touch with you, keep up on those events and connect with

Community Pharmacy.

How do we do that?

Yeah.

So we have our Instagram is community.farmacy, Facebook Community Pharmacy, Madison Community

Wellness Shop.

We have our website, which is communityfarmacy.coop, and those are all great places to keep

in touch with us and see what we've got going on.

Does that ship from your website?

It will.

That's, we'll have a link.

There's a link there now, but the store is kind of under construction.

But very shortly, we're hoping to have everything that we have in store on that website.

And that's one of the ways we hope to compete with Amazon.

Wow.

And all those other places.

You know, you, you can't shop more local than go into your community pharmacy.

Oh, yeah.

North fear Oaks Avenue, right there by the, the, the, across from the graver feed mill,

right?

Yeah.

Garver feed mill.

Yeah.

Uh, give us the website one more time.

Communityfarmacy.coop.

C-O-O-P.

Awesome.

PJ, thanks for coming in.

Sharing the story.

We appreciate you.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Uh, we got, uh, we got, we're going to talk about the whammy's here in a couple of minutes

with Ron Books.

Right now, brand new Kelsey Miles, you're listening to a Maxi Come Civic Media.

We are local music.