Main Street Shoppers store changes owners

Things might not look all that different at the Shoppers Drug Mart store on Main Street, but employees there are reporting to a new, though familiar, owner.

Things might not look all that different at the Shoppers Drug Mart store on Main Street, but employees there are reporting to a new, though familiar, owner.

After 12 years of operating both Shoppers outlets in the city, Darrell Pasloski has sold the store on the corner of Third Avenue and Main Street to one of his former staffers. Tracey Keefer took over the store on Nov. 2.

“It’s lots of stuff, I guess,” Pasloski said this week when asked about the reasons for his decision.

It was a decision that was coming for a while, as it became evident each store needs someone who can commit himself or herself full-time to that location.

With his kids getting older, Pasloski also wanted to slow down his work life a bit to have more time with his family and to commit to his other activities .

“I’m excited about that,” he said.

As his daughter Bronwyn left his office to go to swimming practice, Pasloski was quick to note he’s looking forward to spending more time at her swimming meets and other events family members are part of.

Though he decided to sell the Main Street store to focus on other parts of his life, he’s not concerned he’s created competition for his Qwanlin Mall outlet.

“It’s more about the brand,” he said.

While he and Keefer will be running separate Shoppers, he said, they’ll be working in co-operation in some ways.

Similar to when they were both run by Pasloski, he expects deliveries of stock might be made between the stores when one runs low on a product, for example.

Both shops benefit when they’re both the best they can be, he said, noting each has the same product lines, prices and so on.

The move brings Pasloski back to his early days in the Yukon, when he was responsible for just the mall location.

After graduating as a pharmacist in 1982, Pasloski worked until 1987, when he bought his first pharmacy in Saskatchewan.

In 1991, he and his family moved to the territory with the purchase of the Qwanlin Mall location.

At the time, he also knew of the other Shoppers store in town and thought there might be the opportunity at some point to run both locations, which sealed the deal for his relocation to Whitehorse.

That opportunity came in 1996, when the previous owner of the Main Street store retired.

In that time, products sold at the store have changed. Just a little more than a year ago, the Qwanlin Mall store went under a major renovation, greatly expanding the size of the store.

“Now, almost 13 years later, it’s time to slow down,” Pasloski said.

When he decided to sell, he knew just who should be in charge, though the sale went through the Shoppers corporation.

A pharmacist at the Main Street Shoppers location for six years before she and her husband left for Alberta in October 2007, Keefer seemed the perfect candidate.

“She knows the Yukon,” Pasloski said.

He contacted her to let her know he was selling and told Shoppers of his plan to focus on one store.

From there, it was in the corporation’s hands to work with a prospective new owner. When franchise owners sell their Shoppers stores, it is the larger corporation that maintains control over who buys them, Pasloski explained.

“It worked out great,” Keefer said.

After about a year of being Outside, she and her husband were already thinking of returning when Pasloski called her about selling.

The couple had originally moved south to be closer to family members, but didn’t see them as much as they thought they might. They also missed the territory.

“We wanted to come back to Whitehorse,” Keefer said, noting at the time they were thinking they would spend another year in Alberta before coming back to Whitehorse.

But with opportunity knocking, the timing couldn’t have been better.

After Pasloski’s initial call, Keefer worked with officials at Shoppers on the sale.

Since returning to the territory and taking over the store that once employed her, Keefer is focused on running the business well, continuing to make it a community pharmacy.

Now overseeing a staff of about 45, she said she’s been fortunate to also continue her work in the pharmacy portion of the store.

“The staff is great,” she said.