By Maggie Beamguard
Insider Editor
Many small towns would be lucky to have one locally owned pharmacy. Seven Lakes boasts two. A stone’s throw from each other, they are fixtures in the community.
For the past three years, Seven Lakes Prescription Shoppe and Whispering Pines Prescription Shoppe have been voted No. 1 in the Pilot’s Best in the Pines. Quality Care Pharmacy’s Seven Lakes and Pinehurst locations have ranked No. 2 countywide.
“Seven Lakes and western Moore County are truly spoiled rotten with the luxury of having two quality choices for their pharmaceutical care,” said Jason Joyce, owner of Quality Care Pharmacy.
Though the businesses are separate, their histories intertwine.
Taking Down the Medical History
Pharmaceutical care in this corner of Moore County stretches back nearly a century. In the 1930s, the Youngblood family opened West End Drugs and Sundries, serving a booming West End community for more than 30 years. The pharmacy was located in the building currently occupied by Medleyanna’s.
As growth shifted toward Seven Lakes in the 1970s and ‘80s, so did the need for local pharmacy.
Two people figure prominently in that transition: Ron Ward and Kester Woody, founders of the original Prescription Shoppe in Southern Pines. As teenagers, Jason Joyce and his brother, Vann, worked for Ward and Woody. One brother went on to become an accountant; the other, a pharmacist.
Ward and Woody sold their business in Southern Pines to an up-and-coming pharmacist, Pat McLean, and promptly opened the Seven Lakes Prescription Shoppe in a small strip mall beside Food Lion. Woody built the Prescription Shoppe’s current building at 120 MacDougall Drive, West End, a few years later.
The ingredients for two pharmacies in Seven Lakes were coming together.
Doubling the Dose
Following Woody’s death, Ward hired Trey Waters as a partner. Waters eventually bought the Seven Lakes Prescription Shoppe.
Joyce, a Campbell University pharmacy graduate, had worked as the director of the pharmacy at First Health Richmond Memorial Hospital. With the encouragement of local business owners and other pharmacists who believed the Seven Lakes and West End communities could support two independent pharmacies, Joyce opened Quality Care Pharmacy at 1104 Seven Lakes Drive, West End, in 2007 with his wife, Tamela, also a pharmacist, his brother Van and longtime mentor, Ward. The business expanded to Pinehurst in 2011.
Things came full circle when McLean attracted Rob Barrett, a UNC Chapel Hill pharmacy graduate, to run one of his new stores in Pinehurst. After that venture did not come to fruition, Barrett purchased the Seven Lakes Prescription Shoppe from Waters in 2010. He expanded to the Whispering Pines location in 2021.
Both pharmacists speak with respect for one another and for the shared roots connecting their businesses.
The Prescription Shoppe Rx
Barrett oversees 32 employees across two pharmacies, including seven pharmacists. Under his leadership, Seven Lakes Prescription Shoppe has expanded services beyond traditional dispensing.
“Our motto is ‘Where smiles and solutions meet,’” Barrett said. “We’ve really tried to hone in on the customer service aspect of pharmacy.”
Among the distinguishing features is a state-of-the-art compounding lab that meets USP 795 and USP 800 standards, allowing the pharmacy to create customized medications for dermatology, women’s health, pediatrics and more.
The shop offers full vaccination services, a medication synchronization program to align refill pickup and multi-dose bubble packaging for patients managing multiple prescriptions. The Seven Lakes location has a drive-thru window and offers delivery for a small fee.
“We want patients to feel known,” Barrett said. “A lot of our customers really do become like family.”
Barrett points to broader industry challenges facing independent pharmacies, including insurance consolidation and pharmacy benefit managers that often steer patients toward mail-order services.
“Patients should be able to go to the pharmacy of their choice,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest challenges right now.”
Despite those pressures, Seven Lakes Prescription Shoppe has continued to grow through the support of the community and the dedication of its team. “I’d put our team up against anybody in the country,” he said. “They’re the reason we are who we are in this community.” For more information about services provided by the Seven Lakes Prescription Shoppe, visit rxshoppenc.com.
The Quality Care Pharmacy Rx
Quality Care Pharmacy operates with 19 employees across its two locations, including four pharmacists whose average experience approaches 30 years. Built on “old time-y pharmacy tradition and Christian values,” Joyce said it is their team’s goal to know customers by name and address them when they come through the doors or swing through the drive through.
Some team members are students, a deliberate reflection of the mentorship Joyce received from Ward and Woody.
“We strongly believe in giving back to the community by mentoring young minds, just like Ron and Kester mentored us,” Joyce said.
Former student employees have gone on to careers as nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, teachers, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists like Ryan Garner who serves as the pharmacy manager at Quality Care’s Seven Lakes location.
“At the core of our business is a team built on care, compassion, and community,” said Joyce. Central to Quality Care’s identity is the mission statement, “Our Family Providing Quality Pharmaceutical Care to Your Family.”
Quality Care offers free delivery, Medi Planner and pill-pack services, full vaccination services and support for local hospice and nursing home facilities. The business sponsors youth sports teams across the county, participates in school career fairs, guest lectures in pharmacy technician classes and supports annual mission trips to Honduras.
Learn more about Quality Care’s services at qualitycarepharmacync.com.
“We truly enjoy serving the Western Moore County and Eastern Montgomery communities because of the people who call it home,” said Joyce.
“Our customers are warm, patient, and down to earth, and they make our work a joy. The relationships we build with our neighbors and patients are at the heart of what we do, and they remind us every day why serving this community is so special.”
A Tale of Two Counters
In many communities, independent pharmacies compete against national chains.Yet two privately owned pharmacies in Seven Lakes manage to thrive.
“These local businesses have easily beaten some of the largest chain pharmacies in the nation that have vast resources and have a much higher prescription volume,” said Joyce. “This luxury of choice has not always been the case for our area, nor have these two fine pharmacy organizations provided the first apothecary care to our little slice of heaven.”
Perhaps their success has something to do with the strikingly similar values they hold of relationship building, trustworthiness and community service.
“Seven Lakes is very unique in that you have two independent pharmacies that really do a great job with customer service,” said Barrett. “There is obviously a big support system for these two companies.”
The two pharmacies share history, mutual respect and customer bases that feel like family. And that is, in Joyce’s words, a luxury.
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.com.
