For Elephant Pharmacy's Skorman 'retailing is theater'

Chain Drug Review, Nov 10, 2003 by David Pinto

If you have a few minutes to kill, don't spend them with Stuart Skorman. The 54-year-old entrepreneur-cum-drug store retailer takes longer than that to tell you his name--much longer to tell you who he is and what he's done. In other words, he has lots to say.

No matter. What he says is invariably interesting, sometimes enlightening, and, if you're a drug store retailer, occasionally compelling.

Skorman is the man who, a year ago, opened Elephant Pharmacy, the much-talked-about independent drug store, sort of, in an upscale Berkeley, Calif., neighborhood. Sort of because it's also a health care and health food store that is also an education center offering customers and health care practitioners a range of educational courses, at no charge, on health, nutrition and related issues.

If Skorman feels so inclined, he'll volunteer that Elephant Pharmacy, less than a year old, is currently doing business at the rate of $25,000 a day. When pressed, however, Elephant Pharmacy's chairman will offer the news that, going forward, a new drug store model will be coming.

But let Skorman speak for himself. Why did he call his drug store Elephant Pharmacy? "When people ask that question, I tell them that an elephant is large, intelligent and gentle." What has that got to do with the name? Who knows.

Why does Skorman feel a new model is appropriate for a store that is obviously so astonishingly successful? "I'm good at inventing things. I don't run them as well. Besides, I've learned about the drug store business in the last year."

The logical question is what, for instance, has he learned? But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First we need to know why Skorman, a drug store novice but retailing veteran--he once helped to build Bread & Circus, a forerunner to the Whole Foods chain--got into the drug store business in the first place. "I once told a friend of mine that one day we'll get old, and we'll have to invent a drug store." Clear? Not really. But when Skorman says it, you believe it.

You believe it because that's just what Skorman has done--in a way. His 10,000-square-foot (selling) Elephant Pharmacy does indeed contain a standard assortment of drug store products and services--a pharmacy, an assortment of name-brand over-the-counter products, beauty aids and cosmetics: a general merchandise assortment that features photography (emphasizing digital processing but including a professionally run on-premises lab that has succeeded in attracting many of the area's professional photographers) and greeting cards.

It also, however, offers customers a broad range of herbal medicines, many of which are compounded by an herbalist in an herb pharmacy within the store. It offers as well a mini-organic food mart featuring a range of organically grown produce. It offers its customers fresh flowers. An in-store library sells all manner of books on all matters of health care.

An aesthetician consults with customers, analyzes skin types and suggests skin care products. The greeting card assortment is, in fact, a compilation of 5,000 SKUs gleaned from 40 different card lines that Skorman insists bring no profit "but help build the gift business." With all this, prescription drugs, not surprisingly, account for just 21% of his business, while beauty care and cosmetics do 18% of sales.

Then there are the free courses, which customers book months in advance out of an extensive catalog of classes offered at the store. And which, of course, translate into loyal customers--and steady sales. Other services at Elephant Pharmacy abound--indeed, Skorman credits each health and beauty specialist for providing the services that satisfy customers and translate into business.

In fact, at bottom Skorman claims no particular knowledge or specialty, instead crediting the store's success to the skills of its separate practitioners. And the store is indeed staffed by a variety of professionals, each schooled in his or her specialty. In describing these activities, Skorman emphasizes that retailing is theater. "The idea," he says, "is to market a brand--the Elephant Pharmacy brand."

Next store? "We're talking to a variety of different people who want to work with us, including two national retail chains and several financial institutions."

That said, his next store will likely open in Los Angeles. Or Seattle. Or San Francisco. Point is, Skorman could conceivably open in any one of these locations--and, when he does, you know he'll succeed.

Skorman may argue the point but, if he's anything, he's a retailer. He once cofounded an online movie business called Reel.com--and ultimately sold it for $100 million. He once ran a small chain of video stores in New England with the highest sales volume per store in the industry, selling the stores to Blockbuster and signing on as a consultant to that company. And his father once ran one of America's first discount stores, in Akron, Ohio, Skorman's home, and Sam Walton came by one day in the early 1960s "to steal some ideas."

So the next time you're in the neighborhood you might want to drop by Elephant Pharmacy on Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley. But don't make the mistake of asking Stuart Skorman for the time. He'll give you all the time you want--and then some.