In today’s economic environment, it’s an uphill battle for local businesses looking to keep up with their big competitors. With the increasing power and presence of huge national/international businesses with their unlimited budgets and buying power, the little guys have to fight harder than ever before to keep their heads above water.

In Vancouver, one local business has truly withstood the test of time. This month, Macdonald’s Prescriptions celebrates 90 years serving the local community.

Macdonald’s Prescriptions first opened it’s doors in 1926. In this time, Vancouver was far from the world city that we know today. In fact, the city’s Town Planning Commission only began operating in February, and the road to Horseshoe Bay and Whytecliffe was opened.

Founded by Austin and Vans Macdonald, two pharmacist brothers from Nova Scotia, the first Macdonald’s store was located inside the newly established Georgia medical and dental building at 925 West Georgia.

The Macdonald’s store at 925 W. Georgia St.

19 years later the store underwent its first renovations and doubled in size. Due to the company’s growing success, the Macdonald brothers opened a second store in the 1960s inside the new Fairmont medical building at 746 West Broadway.

By 1968 the company expanded again, opening a third store inside the Regent medical building at 2188 West Broadway. Ten years later, Bruce, the son of Austin Macdonald, opened a fourth store inside the Broadway medical building.

“90 years is a long time for a business to be around. Many businesses are only around as long as their founders before they’re either bought out or closed,” says Vince Zuccaro, the current owner of Macdonald’s.

Vince first started working at the company as a staff pharmacist at the Fairmont store in 1974 at the age of 23.

“I was fresh out of university, and it was a great learning experience to get to know the real industry rather than just what you were taught in school,” says Vince.

“What I liked about Macdonald’s was their location at the Fairmont Medical building and the direct contact we had with the physicians in the building”, says Vince.

Vince was particularly interested in compounding, something that Macdonald’s was doing a lot of at that time. He was also responsible for serving customers and providing them with expert knowledge about the medication they were taking.

“At that time, patients weren’t really getting a lot of information about their medication, how it works, or what side effects it might have. I made sure that they were informed, which some traditional pharmacists were not used to doing,” laughs Vince.

By working at Macdonald’s, he gained valuable experience about the business side of pharmacy and the importance of customer service.

“I quickly learned how customers expected to be served quickly, professionally, and in a friendly manner, and that is something we still focus on today, although I’m not spending as much time at the front of the store anymore,” he says.

By 1980, Vince was promoted to store manager. Only five years later, he bought the store from Bruce Macdonald. By this time, Macdonald’s was the largest distributor of government prescribed Vaccines across BC.

In 1988, Vince renovated his 2000 square foot store and expanded its retail space. Thanks to the extra floor space, the company was able to begin stocking basic medical supplies, including compression stockings and basic daily living aids.

“When I started working at Macdonald’s the front store was very small. There were just some basic medical supplies near the counter with almost everything happening in the back,” says Vince.

Shortly after the renovations at the Fairmont store, Vince’s interest in compounding led him to buy the Macdonald’s compounding lab. He relocated the laboratory to 746 W. Broadway area where it became the leading compounder in Vancouver.

In 1990, the company was able to help the Kidney Dialysis Service in distributing Eprex to the 342 renal patients in BC that were being prescribed that drug. Today, 26 years later, Macdonald’s Prescriptions is still dispensing and distributing Eprex and Aranesp to over 5400 patients all over British Columbia.

In order to take care of this distribution along with other services for the Provincial Renal Agency, a second location was needed to take care of Renal Agency patients.

This second location at 138 W. 6th was able to accommodate all the shipping requirements needed for the Eprex and Aranesp to be distributed in styrofoam cold boxes. In addition, Macdonald’s started to take care of the medications for the Renal Agency’s patients.

The second location has 12 employees comprised of 4 pharmacists and 8 support staff to service its contracts with the BC Renal Agency. Thanks to the hard work of Ben Lee, another pharmacist and partner in the company, the work with the Renal Agency has been able to excel and expand.

Vince’s daughter, Michelle, started working full time at this location in 2006 and along with Ben Lee have been able to expand the services provided by the Renal Pharmacy.

Vince Zuccaro, the current owner of Macdonald’s, working as a pharmacist in 2006.

In 1995, the store at the Fairmont building was able to expand to almost double in size.

“There was an old cafe located behind our store which wasn’t being managed very well. When the cafe’s lease was not renewed, I jumped at the opportunity to take the space and use it to expand our floor space to 4000 square feet,” says Vince.

Thanks to the extra retail space, Macdonald’s was able to branch out further into home health care in addition to maintaining a large full service pharmacy. In 1999, one of Vince’s staff pharmacists, Jeffrey Curtis, joined Vince as a shareholder and eventually became the Pharmacy Manager of the Fairmont Pharmacy.

Providing customers and patients with exemplary customer service, the business grew in the pharmacy and medical supplies sales. Today, Macdonald’s Prescriptions continues to be a leader in the compounding of prescriptions but also specializes in new innovated treatments for many chronic diseases and cancer care that require prescriptions and home health care needs.

In 2008, Vince’s son Patrick joined the team along with his high school friend Evan. The two quickly taught themselves as much as possible about mobility/seating and have helped the business build it’s now comprehensive home health care inventory.

Around 2012, Patrick and Evan opened a new retail location, named Macdonald’s Home Health Care – Rehab, at 138 West 6th. The store is dedicated to durable medical equipment sales, service, and rentals.

In the last 2 years, Patrick and Evan doubled their staff to include an amazingly dedicated team of experts who work extremely hard to make sure all customers have the best experience possible.

“This was definitely not planned. I am extremely lucky to have had such success and to have built a great team and a business that my family can continue to run for many years to come,” says Vince.

Today, Macdonald’s continues to pride itself on providing Vancouver locals with expert information about health care and friendly, dedicated service.

“My dream for this place was always to turn it into a one-stop health care shop. Thanks to everything that’s happened, I have been able to do that,” says Vince.

When asked of how he plans to celebrate this special day, he laughs.

“Well, like my birthdays, I like to keep things quiet. We’re going to be celebrating by working hard and continuing to provide all our customers with the service they love and expect.”