For more than 90 years, Pilgrim Pharmacy has remained a staple in the Pelham Bay community, serving generations of customers from its longtime location beneath the Buhre Avenue train tracks. The family-owned business, which first opened in 1934, has become known not only for its service but also for its close ties to the neighborhood \u2014 even making an appearance in \u201cThe Equalizer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owner Ray Macioci took over the pharmacy in 1976 and said he never expected to spend decades running the business. He credits the community for keeping the pharmacy thriving through the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact that the community has had on us is really where it\u2019s at,\u201d Macioci said. \u201cPeople come in and put their trust and faith in us, and it\u2019s important for us to reciprocate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macioci said the pharmacy\u2019s family atmosphere is reflected in the loyalty of its employees, some of whom have worked there for decades. One of them is co-owner Michael Coscia, who began working at the pharmacy as a teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers that I\u2019ve known since I was a kid \u2014 I used to deliver to them when I was younger \u2014 now I see their kids and grandkids,\u201d Coscia said. \u201cI think everyone likes walking into a place and feeling like people know who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite competition from larger chain pharmacies, Macioci said the business continues to succeed because of its personal approach to customer service.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave people be satisfied with the kind of service that they get, with the kind of attention that they get,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for the future, Macioci hopes the pharmacy\u2019s legacy will continue for decades to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been around 50 years, and hopefully I\u2019ll be around another 50 years and we can do this interview again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than 90 years, Pilgrim Pharmacy has remained a staple in the Pelham Bay community, serving generations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-244087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}