This pharmacist has them coming back for more — emu oil that is.
Dr. Gary Reeder, Senior Pharmacist at Professional Village Pharmacy in Sacramento, California is proud to market and compound with emu oil. Reeder was introduced to emu oil four years ago after it was marketed to a local group of independent pharmacies called Leader Pharmacy Group, of which Reeder is a member.
"Some of the pharmacies in the group began marketing and using emu oil so we decided to pick it up also," say Reeder. "The oil ties in fairly closely with our busy compounding pharmacy. We do a lot of work with natural products. It's evolved into emu oil being an extension of our natural products that we work with every day."
Initially Professional Village began selling emu oil over the counter to gain a feel for public acceptance. "It has done very well for us," maintains Reeder. " We've sold a lot of the oil and I think that primary to that sales success is that every one employed by the pharmacy has used the oil themselves. That makes a big difference when you have a product that people are not that familiar with – it makes for better recommendations from the sales staff if they're also using it."
Reeder says he is greatly impressed with the oil's "rapid anti-inflammatory" ability. "You can use it on small joints – small areas of the body that are aching (muscle and/or joint pains). You rub it in and I've observed myself that within just a few minutes you experience relief. I have a little bursitis in the knuckles every once in a while. I rub in a little oil and within five minutes all the pain is gone."
Professional Village Pharmacy clients response to emu oil products is notable. Reeder relates that the establishment has a lot of repeat business from individuals coming back to purchase more of the pure emu oil and an emu oil lip balm the pharmacy markets.
Adds the pharmacist, "Recently I introduced emu oil to my massage therapist I work with. She has her own set of oils that she normally works with but I let her do a full body massage on me several times using just the emu oil and it was a great improvement over the other oils that she was using. She related that her hands ached less after she was through."
Professional Village has done some compounding with emu oil as well. "We have added it to a few of the creams and lotions that require a little bit of an emollient – a skin softener ingredient as well as some of the other anti-inflammatory ingredients that we use," relates Reeder.
Customer satisfaction is important to the pharmacist. Says Reeder, "To me, emu oil is a very exciting product and I enjoy selling something that works. We all sell things that often times we don't hear back any response at all or it's a negative response. And it's enjoyable to have a natural product such as emu oil that we can almost be sure in every case that it's going to help, and people are going to like it and are coming back asking for more. I would like to see the oil get a little more publicity."
