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PHI Pharmacy giving away free vitamins
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Posted on Jul 03 2019
The PHI Pharmacy inside the Commonwealth Health Center. (Mark Rabago)
As the song goes, nothing in the world is free. But don’t tell that to PHI Pharmacy, which is giving away complimentary children’s vitamins.
PHI Pharmacy general manager Joshua Wise said the free vitamins program is open for children 2-12 years old.
“It’s part of a healthy start for kids. It doesn’t matter if he or she is a U.S. citizen or not. Doesn’t matter about social status. We make sure all children between 2-12 get vitamins,” he said.
What allows PHI Pharmacy to give away the vitamins for free is that the company has also gotten a special contract from a supplier where it gets the vitamins at a far cheaper rate.
The way it goes, Wise said, is that parents or guardians get a punch card and can come once a month at PHI Pharmacy to get free vitamins for each child within that age range.
PHI Pharmacy general manager Joshua Wise literally is giving away children’s vitamins. (Mark Rabago)
“We started that a little over a year ago. We just register each child in our system and give parents a punch card. We don’t bother with paperwork for proof of child,” he said.
PHI Pharmacy’s free children’s vitamins program has become such a hit that some have even bought the same vitamins to send or bring to relatives and friends overseas, according to Wise.
“…Some people going off-island or wanting to send to family in other countries will [usually] buy extra. It’s only 85 cents per bottle of 30 [tablets or capsules]. Some people buy extra by the cases,” he said.
PHI Pharmacy’s Facebook advertisement seems to suggest that the children vitamins being given away are children’s multivitamin and children’s multimineral supplements under the Good Neighbor Pharmacy brand, which is an American retailers’ cooperative network of more than 4,500 independently owned and operated pharmacies.
If giving away free vitamins for children 2-12 wasn’t enough, PHI Pharmacy is also looking at making prenatal vitamins available also for a song.
“I’m trying to get the same program available for prenatal vitamins but [we are] still negotiating pricing,” said Wise.
PHI Pharmacy has two locations on Saipan—one inside the Commonwealth Health Center on Lower Navy Hill and the other at the Joeten Dandan commercial building.
