The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy of Wilson Creek Plaza is looking at the glass half full today after a vehicle crashed into the store, but didn’t injure anyone.
On Aug. 4, some time around 1:30 p.m., “A lady drove through the front of the store and her entire car was in the store,” owner and pharmacist Ken Grunenberg told Coast Reporter.
There were three staff members and one customer in the shop at the time, and no one was injured. The customer had just approached the till, out of the way from where the car landed.
This isn’t the first time a vehicle has struck the Shoppe. In Feb. 2020, Grunenberg said a similar incident happened just before COVID-19 shut things down anyway. Then, the main door was hit, but the vehicle only ended up halfway into the store.
In both instances, older drivers hit the gas pedal and panicked, Grunenberg said. The store is now reconsidering the location of the parking.
While the damage is assessed, cleared up and repaired, Grunenberg said the pharmacy will continue to provide prescriptions to customers. Although customers will not be able to enter the store in the meantime, the staff will coordinate prescription pick-ups at the front of the store.
“We plan on being up and running as best we can once we clean up here. We can certainly keep filling prescriptions, we can do all the important things. And there's no structural damage,” he said.
The total damage has yet to be determined, but will be taken care of through ICBC.
“I’m a glass half full kind of guy, so something positive will come out of this,” Grunenberg says.
