‘You have got to start stocking up:’ Naperville pharmacy owner recalls beginning of COVID-19 pandemic

In January 2020, Alex Anderson, owner of Oswald’s Pharmacy in Naperville, got a tip from a friend in the medical supplies business.

“You have got to start stocking up” on face masks and hospital-grade cleaning wipes, the friend said. The new COVID-19 respiratory virus out of China was going to affect the supply, his friend warned.

It was the first inkling that Oswald’s would face the challenge of dealing with a pandemic the family-owned store had not seen since Anderson’s great-great-grandfather dealt with the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918.

Anderson listened and started ordering extras.

Soon, lines started to form at the Postal Service counter inside the store, as many customers of Chinese descent were buying masks and wipes and shipping them to relatives in China.

Amid history

Sensing something historic was happening, Anderson started documenting life at the store in photographs, including one of his 5-year-old daughter by an endcap display of masks, hand sanitizer and Microkill wipes.

And then came the second week of March. The NBA canceled the season in the middle of a game, and the NCAA canceled its “March Madness” basketball tournaments. It seemed like everything ground to a halt.

In addition to pharmaceuticals, Oswald’s sells durable medical equipment and home health care supplies.

On March 14, 2020, a Medline sales representative had bad news: Stores were being cut off from getting hospital-grade supplies of masks and sanitizing items, as hospitals were given priority.

The following day, there were long lines outside the door as people rushed to stock up on toilet paper, Anderson said.

He told his supplier to “send us as much paper product as you can.”

Business changes

Oswald’s was deemed an essential business and allowed to stay open while other nongrocery stores could not.

The store has long had a gift boutique and a toy area. Anderson expanded its stock of jigsaw puzzles to meet the demand driven by people looking for things to do while stuck at home with their families.

He found a local vendor making pandemic-themed souvenirs, including cocktail glasses that said, “Surviving social distancing one glass at a time.”

He sold cloth masks from a local company that had pivoted from making promotional materials.

“We kind of had our hands in a little bit of everything,” Anderson said.

That included testing people for COVID-19. The store hired a phlebotomist and a laboratory director to do antibody testing.

Long-term effect?

Now, most of the barriers are down, and the stickers marking where to stand 6 feet apart are long gone.

There are still reminders of the pandemic, including a display of COVID-19 tests, masks, and sanitizing wipes.

“Curbside pickup became such a thing of 2020” and has lasted. But it is not used nearly as much, Anderson said.

The demand for in-store COVID-19 testing has faded. But people are buying more gloves, masks and other home health items, including flu testing kits, Anderson said.

“It (the pandemic) did reframe people's thinking about common cough and cold,” he said.