New IDA Drug Mart opens, owner hopes for downtown revival (10 photos)

Saultites have been visiting the new Queenstown Drug Mart on the corner of Queen and Bruce Streets this weekend.

“It’s the newest IDA Drug Mart in the city of Sault Ste. Marie. It’s the first drug mart to be on Queen Street in many years. We’re happy to be here. We’re happy to be revitalizing the downtown core of Sault Ste. Marie,” said Joseph Greco, Queenstown Drug Mart co-owner, speaking to SooToday Saturday while busily performing some fine tuning and finishing touches to the location.

Previously the site of The Summit and New Life churches, locals old enough to remember will recall the two-storey building as the site of Davis Clothing.

The space not only includes a pharmacy and associated merchandise, but also houses a Sweet Greetings Gifts/Decor/Gourmet location and a Queenstown General Store/Postal Outlet/Groceries/Lottery/Ice Cream site, Greco and partners having purchased an old house, sports store and the former Glassworks shop to make room for the new Queenstown Drug Mart complex, with additional parking available for customers at the rear on King Street.

“By the end of 2021 we hope all four of our IDA Drug Marts are renovated and brand spanking new, the newest pharmacies in Sault Ste. Marie, and we hope to have a fifth location by the beginning of 2022,” Greco said.

Greco and his business partners purchased the downtown property in April, the former Station Mall IDA Drug Mart now closed.

Greco said they will be adding an elevator to the two storey Queen and Bruce property, hopefully installed before spring 2021 to accompany a planned upstairs renovation.

“After the renovations, after the two properties we purchased, after the renovations upstairs, the total amount invested into Queen Street will be over two million dollars,” Greco said.

Friday marked Queenstown Drug Mart’s soft opening, Greco stating Monday will be what he described as “the big opening.”  

Queenstown Drug Mart includes a virtual walk-in clinic.

“All four (IDA Drug Mart) stores now have virtual walk-in clinics, by appointment or walk-in. This one will be up and running hopefully by the end of this week. There will be a walk-in clinic on Queen Street for the city of Sault Ste. Marie. Don’t go to emergency with minor ailments (at Sault Area Hospital),” Greco urged.

“(Walk-in clinics) are healthier and safer. They’re quick, they’re easy and they cut the load down on our emergency room doctors and nurses.”

Patients in need of walk-in clinic services present to staff and are then treated by a doctor virtually from communities outside Sault Ste. Marie.

Queenstown Drug Mart will be open seven days a week, Greco said.

Hoping for a return to normal life post-COVID, Greco said “we can’t wait to get the Greyhounds games back. We’re going to try to get a permit so we can have an outdoor vendor situation where we can maybe serve some coffee and stuff outside on Greyhounds game nights, serve sausages, we have the equipment and the people to do it, to have some fun stuff going on at this corner.”

Greco said he has approximately 60 security cameras inside and outside the building, including electronic eyes on King Street, as well as security guards on duty.

Greco said he and his business partners have approximately 200 employees across the board, Queenstown Drug Mart with approximately 50 full and part time employees.

Apart from the new Queenstown Drug Mart location, there are IDA Drug Mart locations at Wellington Square Mall, 1416 Wellington St. E. near Churchill Plaza and at Market Mall on Second Line West.

While still located at 740 Queen St E., Tamar's Trends Flower Shop owner Tamar Tucker told SooToday she has some of her merchandise for sale at Queenstown Drug Mart, adding she may also display her goods at the Wellington Square Mall IDA Drug Mart location in the future.