FOR years the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has worked to ensure the nation's supermarket duopoly does not establish a foothold in the sector.
The threat of supermarket pharmacy domination has not been a problem for Keeseville Pharmacy in rural New York.
With no supermarket in the town, and the nearest store more than 40 km away, the pharmacy has branched into groceries, offering "farm fresh" produce including butter, yogurt, sauces and chutney, alongside medications.
Since 2017 the pharmacy has been working with local farmers and producers to create a "Farmacy" within the pharmacy.
A-D-KAction Farmacy Project Coordinator, Kiana French, told WAMC Northeast Public Radio that when the grocery store closed in 2013 the town was left without a retailer selling fresh fruit and vegetables.
"That's where this comes in... we are able to stock and offer a lot of local produce as well as staples," she said.
"It's a centralised location downtown. It gets a lot of foot traffic and a lot of families already come in for prescriptions and other pharmacy needs."
So popular has the Farmacy within the pharmacy model, that a second store in Port Henry, about 60 km south, is to open later this week.
However, unlike Keeseville Pharmacy the new store will go toe-to-toe with an established grocer.
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