by Troy Treeby
Meet Eric Chrenowski, the new owner of both the Bremer Bay and Jerramungup Pharmacies. Recently we sat down with Eric to hear his story of how he came to be our new Pharmacist and his vision for the future.
Eric Chrenowski, new owner of the Bremer Bay and Jerramungup Pharmacies.
On first impression of Eric, it is his warm customer service that really shines through along with his passion to help people. As Eric notes, prices for all goods, let alone medicine can often be higher in the country, but this is something Eric wants to change.
“I’m very passionate about helping people with different services and also to be able to provide a low-cost solution that offers affordable medicine in the country,” Eric said.
Eric was born in Poland, before migrating with his family to Canada at the age of 6 where he completed his schooling and initial degree in science. From there his family moved again to the United States of America where Eric was looking to become either a doctor, pharmacist, or a dentist.
Ultimately it was the Pharmacist route that a young Eric took, but the high cost of tuition in America caused him to look to other English-speaking countries to continue his studies. Eventually he settled on Australia and was accepted into the Pharmacy program at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.
Following his studies, Eric completed his training year prior to receiving his licence in Stanthorpe, which is west of Toowoomba in country Queensland. Since that time, Eric was looking for a place to practice and eventually moved to WA from Adelaide in 2015, where he started working for the Pharmacy 777 group.
“During that time, I did further training to get accredited as a sleep apnoea consultant.
This is one of the blockbuster services I am hoping to introduce soon to Jerramungup and Bremer Bay, so I have been busy getting the office and equipment ready to enable us to do sleep studies,” Eric said.
Eric and his wife Thais have been busy afterhours getting both pharmacies in ship shape, including creating a new baby
products section in the Jerramungup Pharmacy.
“Basically, whatever the community wants we are happy to get in whether that be a particular brand of baby formula or any other products. I also received additional training in nutritional and complimentary medicine so I am familiar with the role vitamins and minerals can play in helping to maintain overall health,” Eric said.
“We had Alice, our new baby who is seven and half months old and with Thais being on maternity leave, I decided to locum, as at that point, WA was free from COVID-19. So, we were going around from place to place, contract to contract,” Eric said.
“I then got in touch with Nurse Pat, who said you should call Ho. I did call Ho and found out that these two pharmacies hadn’t been put on the market yet, but the owner had to sell soon. So, after a lot of phone calls and coming here to visit from Hopetoun, eventually we were able to put an offer to buy in.
“This was not in our plan to do this during Thais’s maternity leave as we had planned to go back to Adelaide, but we fell in love with the country and jumped at the opportunity. My wife loves riding horses, so we are hoping to get some acreage at some point,” Eric said.
A chance meeting on a flight from Sydney to Adelaide in 2010 ended in a fairy tale romance for Eric and Thais.
“I met my wife, who is from Brazil in 2010 on a domestic flight from Sydney to Adelaide, she sat next to me, I helped her with her bag and the rest was history.
It was a like a Hollywood movie, it just doesn’t often happen that way,” Eric said.
Despite settlement only happening on the earlier this month Eric and Thais have hit the ground running.
“We have spent that time getting everything restructured, sourcing new products and getting the pharmacy looking full. We are doing flu shots, COVID-19 vaccinations and I can vaccinate kids from as young as 5 and all the way up. I am also connected to the national immunisation register so all shots can be uploaded straight away to your health record,” Eric said.
The opening hours for both pharmacies have been adopted to fit in with the schedule of our local doctor so that each pharmacy is open on the days Dr Paget is consulting in either town.
“My goal here is just to serve the community in the best way I can without burning out. Starting this Saturday 21st May I will be open in Bremer Bay from 9am-1pm,” Eric said.
Eric’s long-term vision is to be able to open fulltime in both Bremer and Jerramungup however that may be some time away.
“Eventually if we can build up this business enough, then you can hire a really good pharmacist to be here in Jerry so this store can open 9-5 Monday to Friday, and we can do the same in Bremer.
“Any feedback from our customers on our products or our hours is welcomed. We try to balance out our hours between both towns.
“I love both towns, everyone here supports you and they take care of each other which is something you don’t get in the city, everyone’s like one big family.
The drive can be quite exhausting sometimes, but I always say the day that you don’t hit a kangaroo is good day," Eric said.
Jerramungup Opening Hours | |
Monday | 9:00 - 1:30pm |
Tuesday | 9:00am - 4:00pm |
Wednesday | 9:00am - 1:30pm |
Thursday | CLOSED |
Friday | 9:00am - 1:30pm |
Saturday | CLOSED |
Sunday | CLOSED |
Bremer Bay Opening Hours | |
Monday | 3:00pm - 6:00pm |
Tuesday | 5:30pm - 6:00pm |
Wednesday | 3:00pm - 6:00pm |
Thursday | 9:00am - 6:00pm |
Friday | 3:00pm - 6:00pm |
Saturday | 9:00am - 1:00pm |
Sunday | CLOSED |