Drugs and yoga - Elephant Pharm's newest store in Los Altos offers alternative treatments along with regular medicine
Elephant Pharm -- a drugstore where customers
can get a facial and Chinese herbs as well as
conventional prescriptions -- is hoping to get
as huge in Silicon Valley as it is in Berkeley.
With a fresh injection of cash from investors,
the company that bills itself as "the drug
store chain that prescribes yoga" opened
its third Bay Area store in Los Altos last weekend.
The upscale shop at 4470 El Camino Real offers
customers an eclectic East-meets-West blend
of goods. There's Listerine mouthwash, Similac
infant formula and Ben & Jerry's ice cream,
along with chlorine-free diapers, origami paper,
high-end Jurlique cosmetics and Newman's Own
Organics Premium Dog Food.
One recent evening, while some customers had
chair massages or facials, Nina Haletky of Palo
Alto smoothed on hand lotion in the store's
body care products section. "This store's
different, it's cool. It's a new experience,"
she said.
The store's pharmacy can fill conventional
prescriptions or turn medications into lollipops
for skeptical children or flavored treats for
pets. Wellness classes will be offered, including
chair yoga, ear acupuncture and Qu gong.
A licensed herbalist is on staff at the store's
herbal pharmacy. It stocks about 500 items,
including Chinese painkiller yan hu suo and
triphala, an ayurvedic medicine used in India
to treat digestive disorders, and valerian root,
a natural sedative.
Tuesday night, Mountain View chiropractor Vinita
Azarow toted a shopping bag filled with health
books, soaps, writing journals and formaldehyde-free
nail polish. "They've got great yoga stuff
here," Azarow said. "So many of us
are looking for natural ways of healing."
The chain's expansion comes as interest in
alternative medicine has grown. More than one-third
of adults report they have used some form of
alternative medical treatment, according to
a 2005 report from the Institute of Medicine,
an independent advisory group to Congress. Americans
spend $36 billion annually on alternative and
complementary medicines, according to government
estimates.
Elephant Pharm Chief Executive Kathi Lentzsch
expects baby boomers to contribute heavily to
the store's growth as they fill regular medical
prescriptions, but also try more natural remedies.
The Berkeley store is profitable, while the
San Rafael store will probably hit profitability
late next year, said Lentzsch, who declined
to give specifics.
The store got its start in Berkeley in 2002,
the brainchild of Stuart Skorman, who worked
at Bread & Circus, a predecessor of Whole
Foods. Skorman chose the name Elephant for the
pharmacy because the pachyderm, like the store,
"is large, gentle and intelligent."
Skorman is no longer involved with Elephant
Pharm or an investor in the company.
Other drug stores have also boosted their share
of herbal and natural goods and services.
More than six in 10 independent pharmacies
offered alternative or herbal medicine in 2005,
according to the National Community Pharmacists
Association.
Organic food chain Whole Foods Market -- which
has a store a few blocks from the new Elephant
Pharm in Los Altos -- has also "significantly"
increased the amount of space devoted to herbs,
vitamins and other natural goods, said Shoshana
Friedman, coordinator of the chain's health
and beauty departments for Northern California.
"I think it just speaks to the popularity
of the trend of health and wellness," Friedman
said of the growing competition. "Because
we can offer one-stop shopping, I feel confident
we will continue to grow our business despite
the other retailers coming into the market."
Colorado-based Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy,
a chain that also combines conventional prescriptions,
over-the-counter and natural health products
and services, now runs 12 drugstores, including
three in the Bay Area. They are about one-third
the size of a typical 14,000-square-foot Elephant
Pharm. Founded in 2000, Pharmaca plans to double
its locations by the end of next year.
Another Elephant Pharm is planned in the spring
in Walnut Creek, where it will share a building
with a Trader Joe's grocery store.
After that, the company will take a breather
and revamp its technology system to gear up
for more growth in 2008, including more locations
in the Bay Area and setting up shop in Seattle
and Portland, Lentzsch said.
In September, Elephant Pharm raised $26 million
from Tudor Investments and the Bay Area Equity
Fund, with plans to expand. Conventional drug
chain CVS is also an investor.
