Friendly, Neighborhood Pharmacy in the 21st Century

By Wickham Boyle

The block of Columbus Avenue between 93rd and 94th streets where Ivan’s Pharmacy is located has been given a veneer of sameness by its identical green awnings that jut out from every store. You have to pause to read each sign to find Ivan’s, but once you do, the uniqueness hollers out at you.

The owner, 55-year-old Ivan Jourdain, came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when he was 17. He said he always wanted to be a pharmacist. “Making people happy and bringing joy because you yourself found a passion is what life is all about,” he said.

Ivan’s is a small store, but it seems to yawn open with a kind of expansiveness that must come from the spirit within. Jourdain has been in the same neighborhood for more about 30 years.

“I see people I grew up with and now I see their kids,” he said. “Most of these people are my friends, and now they come by to see how I am doing. I trained down the road with Marty Singer to be a pharmacist and went to school at Long Island University for six years, but really this was a calling for me. I was helping my aunt in the Dominican Republic from the time I was 8. Although my uncles were doctors I could see that people more naturally gravitated to my aunt for help with health and family issues.”

When you enter there is a wall of colorful children’s books and a rack of seasonal clothes and toys. The pharmacist stands on a platform in the back with vials, bottles and jars of medication flanking him.

Customer Lee Hunkins said the neighborhood feels supported by Ivan, adding “he is tall, dark and handsome—and I mean it.”

But people seem to come to Ivan’s not for his looks but for the spirit, attention and personal care he provides to every customer. From the dog biscuits by the cash register for Rufus, a small terrier, to the lollypops or books for little tykes to the great care given when finding generic prescriptions for older patients, Ivan makes each one feel special. (It is rare and oh so necessary that we rediscover our community spirit in order to survive in these difficult times.)

Jourdain and his wife Carmen have three children, one of whom, Omar, works with him.

“Life is easy for me because I found a passion, I found what makes me happy and then you do not think about the money,” he said. “A lot of my friends have become very wealthy, but still they are not happy. I am the only one who has a smile on my face, even after long hours.”