[DMS Short Take] Seasons Pharmacy and Culinaria – Sudbury, ON

Seasons Pharmacy and Culinaria in Sudbury is far from your typical full-service pharmacy. Co-owners and veteran pharmacists Rachelle Rocha and Laurie Pennell are improving the quality of life for their customers with a “food first approach.”

They work to increase “food literacy” and wean people from their dependance on processed and junk foods. Customers are counseled on how they can manage chronic illness with lifestyle changes rather than just pills. The team cooks from an onsite kitchen every day, sells local farm-fresh food, and works to build relationships between customers and local farmers.

This unique business has built a devoted audience over the past two years but still found itself challenged to monetize that online as it adjusted to the pandemic. Rachelle and Laurie turned to Digital Main Street (DMS) for advice and the DMS $2,500 Digital Transformation Grant to build a stronger website and to develop a marketing plan that would bring the Seasons brand to a broader audience through social media. Seasons continues to work with DMS to enhance its online shopping experience.

“We have found that collaborations with other businesses, or influencers with an extensive social media following, results in exposure to overlapping networks of potential clients,” Rachelle said. “With any brick-and-mortar business, there is only so much trade that can be done in the local area. We needed to be online to reach a broader base of customers, and we knew there were resources out there, like DMS, to help us acquire those skills.”