East Street Chemist Warehouse store to move down the road to former Commonwealth Bank building

The East Street Chemist Warehouse store suffered serious damage in a recent storm and the owner has been forced to relocate - twice. Find out the new location and see a video of the damage here.

Rockhampton CBD’s Chemist Warehouse has had yet another location change, after a storm two weeks ago completely destroyed its East Street building.

The chemist will move to 55 East Street, next to Cyrus Rugs, and is hoped to be open by the end of November.

Owner Paul Arnold has spent the past two weeks looking for a new location for the expansive chemist, set on staying in East Street.

He did approach the owners of Kern Arcade, which has been closed since January, but they declined as they are putting the building on the market.

There were plans in motion for the chemist to move into the “old old Commonwealth bank” building next to the courthouse, as was reported earlier this week, but it didn’t quite work out.

“(We are) disappointed to be moving from this part of East Street but still happy to be part of the East Street CBD area,” Mr Arnold said.

Mr Arnold owns two Chemist Warehouse stores in Rockhampton, the East Street store and the one at Aquatic Place on the city’s northside.

Heavy rain poured down on that Thursday afternoon, and the East Street store didn’t fare so well.

It started off with the gutter out the back overflowing.

Then Mr Arnold went upstairs, where he was met with an indoor waterfall running along the wall.

Staff rushed to grab buckets and protect stock, but the ceiling started to cave in and the flooring wasn’t stable, so they had to leave it as it wasn’t safe.

“It was just another old day in the zoo and it’s just snowballed since then,” Mr Arnold said.

“It’s been a challenge.”

A shop fit team will start work at the site on Monday (November 2), but it will be a scramble for tradies.

“We are going to need everything from flooring, painters, chippies, electrical and general labourers,” Mr Arnold said.

The main damage is across three aisles, across six to eight categories.

“There will be a lot of stock that will be written off in the storm,” Mr Arnold said.

Those who have prescriptions with the southside store are able to pick them up at the northside store.

COVID-19 vaccinations have also been moved to the Aquatic Place store.

“Customers have been fantastic, staff have been fantastic,” Mr Arnold said.

“This is something we can’t train them for, there is no how to guide for it. ”

More action has been happening in East Street with some work in the former Bangalore store.

Reid and Rose, the newsagency which opened earlier this year, will be opening a pop-up Christmas shop in the space.