COARSEGOLD — Coarsegold is about to have its own local drugstore again.
Yosemite Drug, a new, family-run pharmacy will open next month in the Coarsegold Historic Village across from Wild Fig Kitchen, according to the owners of the new business.
Katie Bass, the pharmacist at Coarsegold’s new Yosemite Drug, poses for a photo while getting the new drug store set up last week.
“We’re going to do a soft open on Monday, August fifth and will hold our official grand opening on August fifteenth,” from 3 to 5:30 p.m. says Mary Bass who, together with her husband, daughter and son-in-law, will be operating the new drug store.
“We’ll have raffle prizes and food and lots of festivities at the grand opening,” Mary says. “We’ve already started hiring our staff and can’t wait to get up and running and start serving the mountain communities.”
The Bass family has run San Joaquin Drug in Planada since 2000 and will continue to operate in that location as well.
“From San Joaquin Drug, we actually deliver to five towns in the area,” Mary notes. “We like to run our business like the old-fashioned, traditional drug stores. We feel like there’s a real need in Coarsegold for a pharmacy like that.”
The Bass family’s new, 1,700-square-foot drugstore is in the same building as the former Coarsegold Wellness and Compounding, which closed in 2018.
“We’re hoping to be able to keep up at least some of the compounding [business] that went on there before,” Mary points out.
Bruce Clark, who used to be a pharmacist at Coarsegold Wellness and Compounding, will also be joining the staff at Yosemite Drug, according to Mary.
And just like in Planada, the Bass’s new Coarsegold operation will be a family affair, given that Mary’s husband Mike and daughter Katie are both licensed pharmacists.
Katie Bass will be the staff pharmacist at the new Coarsegold pharmacy while her mother Mary will continue to manage the Planada store — where Mary’s husband Mike is the staff pharmacist.
Katie’s husband, Jeff Meyer, Jr., will manage business operations and marketing at the new Yosemite Drug.
In addition to pharmacy services, Yosemite Drug will also sell over-the-counter medications, personal grooming items and health and wellness-related products.
Mary says there are also plans to offer regular immunization clinics and health fairs.
Yosemite Drug’s business hours will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“We’re hoping to be able to offer free delivery,” Mary says. “We found that when we have free delivery, most people don’t need us to be open on Saturday. They can get their meds delivered at work or at home and get to sleep in on Saturday.”
Mary says the delivery area could be from Coarsegold “all the way to Mariposa. We know some of the dirt roads in the area can be pretty tough to get to but we’d like to try to cover all of the little pockets that nobody else services. That’s just how we’ve always done business.”
