Uptown Drug Moves Downtown

LOS ANGELES-Several thousand apartments and condominiums are under construction and in the planning stages in a revival of Downtown Los Angeles living that has been under way for half a dozen years, but one of the recurring themes of discussions about the new Downtown is the lack of shopping, restaurants and retail services. Owners Jerry and Jo Ann Shapiro of Uptown Drug & Gift Shop are doing their part to fill that void with the opening of their new store at Fifth and Flower streets in an expansion and relocation of a pharmacy they operated for 28 years in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, kitty-corner from the now shuttered Ambassador Hotel.

Uptown Drug & Gift began as Uptown Drug in August 1945 when Jerry Shapiro’s father, Peter Shapiro, opened his drug store at Olympic Boulevard and Western Avenue. Jo Ann and Jerry bought the business from Jerry’s father in 1969 and operated at the original Uptown location until the move to the Mid-Wilshire store that they recently vacated. Their new location is in the Citibank building at 444 S. Flower St., at the corner of Fifth and Flower, which Jerry describes as arguably the most desirable retail spot in Downtown L.A.

Besides seeing potential for growth in the emerging Downtown L.A. retail market, Jerry Shapiro says Uptown needed to move because of the changing demographics of the store’s previous location. The Mid-Wilshire location is in the middle of Koreatown, where, he says, the residents are loyal to Korean-owned businesses and the retail sales portion of his business had fallen off precipitously. Uptown has remained profitable by specializing in delivering prescriptions to a 100-square-mile area, a service that it is continuing to provide at the new location, but rebuilding retail sales was one of the chief reasons for the move to Downtown L.A. Retail sales at the new location are already higher than they were in Mid-Wilshire, about 10% of the sales volume versus 5% at the old shop, Shapiro says. “I think the front end can go a lot higher than that, probably up to 40% of our sales,” he says. The new location carries an expanded line of gifts and cards, including Nao by Lladro, jewelry, executive gifts, cosmetics, perfumes and personalized baby gifts, according to Jo Ann Shapiro, who oversees the gift and merchandising operations of the store.