Why MatchSquare?

It happened one day. As local pharmacy owners, Gabe and I realized that a lot was missing from our front-end retail space. We found that our customers were looking for more than just prescriptions. They wanted birthday cards, wrapping paper, and even gifts for friends and family. Quick, but unique gifts that they could grab on the go along with other necessities.

The more products we sourced for our store, that were on the spectrum of Health, Wellness, and Lifestyle, the more products began to fly off our shelves. More importantly, the demand for various products started to heighten and foot traffic started to increase. It was like instant gratification for us and a win-win for our pharmacy and our customers. We thought, ‘Oh my God this is working!’

Word quickly got around that our pharmacy offered more than just prescriptions. I started seeing a pattern when I would be stocking the shelves and I’d ask a customer who walked in if they had a pickup. They’d respond, “no, I’m just here to get a candle for a bridesmaid’s gift at this dinner party I’m going to.” And then they’d ask if I had a gift bag and wrapping paper.

They seemed happy that they didn’t have to hassle with running to the mall and finding a parking spot, etc. They could just make a quick stop at Village and be on their way. It felt so nice to have something that they needed and wanted. It was at this moment, that a lightbulb went off. Why not have a nice collection of curated gifts for everybody?

Regardless of our customer’s age, we wanted to carry everything your average person might need in a pinch. Despite our store being fairly compact, merchandising it and making it inviting for everyone, was worth the time and effort.

So MatchSquare was born. MatchSquare encompasses everything that one store could need. It’s not just buying a cocktail napkin. It’s buying a special cocktail napkin. It’s different, it's cute, it says something. Products are also often locally-sourced, eco-friendly, sometimes handmade, and not found on Amazon. With MatchSquare, we can offer something you can’t just find at the grocery store or chain pharmacy. What we have is unique.

As a local pharmacy, a lot of our customers prefer one-stop shopping. We are a brick-and-mortar store. They come in and pick up their prescriptions and from there they ask if we have something like a table runner and then it leads to placemats and then it leads to hand creme, etc. What’s nice is that our customers don’t have to go to 3-4 stores to get what they need. We encompass ALL of that in one local pharmacy.

Gabe has been a pharmacist for over 25 years and we’ve been working side-by-side, both realizing that the margins were very, very short in pharmacy. When MatchRX was born, which is our online business that helps pharmacists sell non-expired, non-controlled drugs, we realized why just focus on pharmaceuticals, why not work on our front-end retail space?

Shopping on MatchSquare will be a streamlined process from browsing products, to placing an order, all the way to its arrival at your independent pharmacy. Community pharmacists and retailers will no longer have to thumb through catalogs or keep up with email threads from multiple vendors, and shipment tracking will help manage their orders. Everything is on one marketplace and available at the click of a button.

Like many other local community pharmacies or small retailers, having access to a marketplace like MatchSquare will be life-changing for our industry.

Now people can rely on us and other MatchSquare customers, for more than just picking up and dropping off their prescriptions, they can come to us for all of their front-end Health, Wellness, and Lifestyle needs.