The Grand Case pharmacy has reopened
The Grand Case pharmacy reopened its doors on Monday 29 February after being closed for four months. During the night of 25 - 26 October, the store had been completely destroyed. The cause of the disaster remains unknown. The only sure thing: the spontaneous combustion of the electrical panel, which spread to the whole circuit (buried cables, walls…) and caused very intense heat. To intervene, the firefighters had no other choice but to open a door, which caused a stack effect and therefore caused flames. Luckily, no one was harmed. But Guy Leduc, Doctor of Pharmacy and the pharmacy manager recalled: "All the products, the equipment and the walls were afterwards covered with a slimy substance which looked like chewed liquorice ".
The damage was such that the store had to be fully dismantled. The walls had to be stripped down and everything removed: "You suddenly discover that you have lost everything, except the 265 m2 of empty floor space". Then having to rebuild everything after quickly making a new project. "My life has been a nightmare for four months" said Guy Leduc who hasn’t stopped running all about since the disaster.
Rather than totally laying off his staff, he has chosen to place his twelve employees under limited employment. A sign of confidence towards his staff. Out of the 22,000 euros for monthly payroll, the State must pay him 9000 euros. In addition to the payroll and the reconstruction work, he had to pay the costs for destroying damaged drugs. A huge cost since he had to send them to Metropolitan France. The manager is grateful to his bankers who granted him loans despite the lack of revenues. For the time being, he has received an advance from the insurance company while waiting for the reopening in order to calculate the operating loss and therefore the compensation amount.
New therapeutic consultation booths
Despite the advice of architects, interior decorators, and experts of all kinds, the pharmacist admits having enjoyed working alone. Even if it meant starting again from scratch, he took the opportunity to complete the project that he had started six years ago. "The pharmacy is not like how it was before." Among other innovations, there are now new booths which are used as consultation rooms. "Customers with illnesses requiring customised advice can now receive it privately". According to him, reopening the pharmacy after only four months instead of six seems "miraculous". Although he felt alone, he believes the speedy reopening is due to the support he received. There are still a few finishing touches to complete (lighting, sign, parking, varnishing the wooden floors,…). Even though he is exhausted, the manager remains confident: "For now, we’re dealing with minor issues, the store window is a mess, but in a month and a half, the pharmacy will be 100% operational and all this will be nothing more than a bad memory".
