After a couple of weeks of searching, I have finally found a location for my pharmacy.  It’s happening quicker than I thought it would (two weeks instead 6 months).

This morning I contacted the center’s manager and was given a decision to allow a pharmacy in their center only a few hours later.  Now the real work begins:(1) applying for a specific use permit with the city–make sure you do this first before going any further, because nothing happens unless the city wants a pharmacy to open.  Then you can contact a wholesaler to get a contingent approval letter–you need this before you can apply for the pharmacy license.

After note: I skipped over the whole location analysis part, but that is actually the most important part of starting a pharmacy.  You want large population (preferably with a greater proportion of elderly residents), lots of traffic, high visibility, and low competition.  You can pay big bucks for a  company to do demographics reports for you, but you can obtain the same information for free if you work with a commercial real estate broker.  They can help you find locations that meet your criteria and do location analysis free of charge.  Just make sure you work with a CCIM (google it).