Cottonwood Drug passes 30 year anniversary

Photo by Michael Woodward, Reporter

HELPING HAND: Chris Christopher assists a customer at his pharmacy inside Holiday Market in Cottonwood.

Christopher bought the business known as Cottonwood Drug on April Fools Day in 1977. His store has grown from a small pharmacy with five employees at 3rd Street and Main in Cottonwood to one with 18 employees, now occupying a space within Holiday Market. Today, Cottonwood Drug and Home Healthcare Center also sells home health equipment in the same plaza out of a different storefront.

“When I bought the business, it was the only drugstore in town,” Christopher said. “It still is.”

Christopher has found once again that he needs more elbowroom. The home health equipment division of Cottonwood Drug needs a bigger showroom, according to Christopher. He might expand in two years, if sales permit.

“We provide independence when people get older, from lift chairs to wheelchairs,” Christopher said.

Cottonwood Drug also provides independence for people coming out of the hospital, whether they need a walker or a special bed.

Christopher said that one challenge of being a pharmacist is staying on top of trends in medicine, like homeopathic remedies. For Christopher, however, the popularity or aesthetics of one medicine over another isn’t the point.

“Whatever works is what I’m interested in getting into your hands,” he said.

Christopher earned his Doctorate of Pharmacy in 1971 from U.C.S.F. Medical School. He moved to Shasta County for a clinical pharmacy position at Mercy Hospital that year. After working with Mercy for six years, he decided on a change of pace and opened a business.

“It became a quality of life issue, coming home late with the kids already asleep, working weekends,” Christopher said.

About operating the drug store instead, Christopher said, “It’s been nice. The kids could walk across the street after school and see their parents at work.”

As the business has grown, Christopher doesn’t spend as much time in the pharmacy as he used to, since he spends more and more of his time running the business. But he still works in the pharmacy a couple days a week.

“The one thing I miss is when I talk to people, I can help them,” Christopher said.