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20-Apr-2008 : The neighborhood pharmacy has moved into a new neighborhood.

Sunshine Pharmacy, a locally owned independent pharmacy, opened its fourth retail location in the Marquesa Plaza, a shopping plaza at the southeast intersection of Pine Ridge and Livingston roads in Collier County. The 3,000-square-foot pharmacy, 13020 Livingston, opened Monday.

Business was steady with new prescriptions on opening day, in part because of the walk-in clinic, E.R. QuickCare in the same plaza, said Richard Prine, the pharmacist.

"It's been going good," he said. "We're excited. I feel this location will be Sunshine's busiest location."

Sunshine owner Del Parrish agrees with that expectation, particularly because his pharmacies also sell or rent durable medical equipment and nobody is offering that service nearby, he said.

Besides being a full-scale pharmacy and selling durable medical equipment, including oxygen, Sunshine handles prescription services for a long list of nursing homes in Collier and elsewhere in the state, AVOW Hospice, and other medical institutions.

"We just signed our 50th nursing home and it is in Sebring," Parrish said.

Fifteen of his 55 employees work in that part of the business, making deliveries to the various nursing homes, he said. All told, Sunshine fills 15,000 to 20,000 prescriptions a month to nursing homes.

"It's extremely competitive. You aren't competing in Collier County, you are competing with Fortune 500 companies. But they do a horrible job with customer service and that is our in," he said.

Sunshine is expanding as an independent pharmacy because of branching into durable medical equipment, oxygen and its contracts with nursing homes, at a time when other independents are vanishing. Many of the independents are not able to compete with chain pharmacies or supermarket pharmacies at every major intersection.

The National Community Pharmacists Association reports there were 23,348 independent pharmacies nationwide at the end of 2006, the most recent year that statistics are available. In 2006, there were 1,152 independent pharmacy closures, according to the association.

Despite the decline in numbers, independent pharmacies account for 40 percent of all retail business and represent an $84 billion market, according to the association.

Prine, the pharmacist at the new Sunshine location, worked at nearby CVS pharmacy and at a Walgreen's location in Naples since 1987. He wanted to get away from 14-hour days and the stress working at the chain stores where he had to crank out prescriptions with little or no customer time.

"I'm now able to service the public," he said of his employment change. "(Before) you couldn't give them the time that is necessary."

Sunshine's fifth retail location will open in a few months at 80 Wilson Blvd. off Golden Gate Boulevard and staff members are scouting sites for locations along Immokalee Road for several stores.