Nigeria native opens pharmacy Down East Prince Ogbonna is confident he can hold his own against large chain stores

MARSHFIELD – It is a David and Goliath kind of story – only this time David is a pharmacist and Goliath is all the large chain pharmacies he is competing against.

Prince Ogbonna recently opened the Machias Friendly Pharmacy at 8 Old County Road. “I am the owner,” he said with a big laugh.

The drugstore is located in the former Kilton Garage behind the Varney Insurance Agency on U.S. Route 1. The phrase under the sign outside the pharmacy captures the atmosphere inside: “Every customer is a friend.”

Ogbonna’s is one of three privately owned pharmacies in Washington County; the others are in Milbridge and Calais. Ogbonna said he decided to locate the pharmacy right outside of Machias because of downtown parking problems.

Starting a new pharmacy is almost unheard of today. Three privately owned pharmacies – in Lubec, Eastport and Machias – closed in the past few years because of state reimbursement cuts.

But Ogbonna, 49, wasn’t afraid of the challenge. A friend of his suggested he open the pharmacy.

“She did the research and everything and I looked at the situation and I said, ‘Well, OK, I will give it a whirl.’ The thing is, if we were not ready to compete, I would not have gone into it,” he said.

The new pharmacy is neatly appointed with all of the supplies one ordinarily finds inside a drugstore – including greeting cards.

But it’s because of the man behind the counter that some people are transferring their prescriptions to the Machias Friendly Pharmacy. Ogbonna greets his customers with a huge smile.

Born in Nigeria, Ogbonna arrived in this country in the early 1980s. He wanted to study pharmacy.

According to an earlier Bangor Daily News story, after graduation, he went to work for Rite Aid in the Boston area. When the chain bought out Brooks and LaVerdiere’s in Maine, he was transferred to Calais, where he stayed for six years.

“Then I came down here and I did this store, too,” he said of the Machias Rite Aid. He has also worked in Rite Aid pharmacies in Bangor and Ellsworth.

Reminded that he was going head to head with his former bosses, Ogbonna laughed and said he was up to the challenge. The store opened in May. His pharmacy is part of a co-op of independently owned pharmacies that allow them to buy as a group.

Soon the pharmacy will have a delivery van so that prescriptions can be dropped off at customers’ doors. It also has a mail-order service.

Getting his name in the newspaper is not new to the pharmacist. Ogbonna was written about last year after he released his second CD of Christian music. His music resonates with the sounds of his birthplace.

The pharmacy is open Monday through Saturday. Ogbonna has three employees. Although he knows what it’s like to work long hours, he said he hopes to bring another pharmacist on board.

For more information, call 255-6400 or e-mail Ogbonna at friendlyrx@gmail.com. He also has a Web site, www.machiasfriendlypharmacy.com.