WholeLife Pharmacy and Healthfoods opens at Bateau Bay Square
It’s a mix between a traditional pharmacy and a new-age, hippie health foods store — and it has a really cool robot. What makes this unlike any pharmacy you’ve been to before.
Central Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It has organic lentils, herbal teas and Himalayan salt lamps but it’s not a new-age, hippie health food or supplements store.
It has a state-of-the-art robot which can dispense medicines and drugs to pharmacists in a manner of seconds but it’s not a chemist.
WholeLife Pharmacy and Healthfoods is both — and now the Queensland-based chain has opened on the Central Coast.
Pharmacist Vaneeta Kennedy said she was introduced to the WholeLife Pharmacy and Healthfoods concept in Brisbane and loved it so much she and her business partner of 12 years Andrew Walker decided to bring it to the coast.
“What really appealed to us is it’s got a focus on wellness rather than focusing on the sickness and treating the person (after) they get sick,” Ms Kennedy said.
The shop offers a range of health, wellbeing and lifestyle products along with prescription drugs, vitamins and medicines found at traditional chemists.
Ms Kennedy said the concept was as much about preventive medicine and wellbeing as it was dispensing scripts.
She said what also set it apart from other health food or supplement shops was they were bound by pharmacy codes of ethics, which prevent them from selling any products that purport to have benefits not backed by rigorous “evidence based” research.
“We are pharmacists first and foremost,” she said.
She said there has been a shift in people’s approach to wellness — exacerbated by the current COVID-19 pandemic — with many wanting to take a more active role in improving their health and prevent disease.
“By rebranding as a WholeLife store, we can still provide a traditional pharmacy offering, but can now offer the community access to products and services they would previously have had to order online,” Ms Kennedy said.
“There’s also an opportunity to provide a more comprehensive approach to health and wellness through medicines, food and lifestyle choices. With our holistic method to preventive health we bring together a wider range of products and services to support all diet choices like organic, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free.”
Founder Damian Young said WholeLife Pharmacy and Healthfoods provides a start to finish wellness experience where consumers were able to fill their scripts and purchase their vitamins, natural supplements, collagen, essential oils, and dietary needs in one location.
The new shop officially opened at Bateau Bay Square on Friday and features the latest in automated dispensing with a robot named “Angie”.
Co-owner Mr Kennedy said instead of people dropping off a script and going off somewhere to wait the robot dispensed the medicine in a manner of seconds for the pharmacist to check.
He said this also gave the pharmacist more time to talk to the customer about their overall health needs.