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Residents of Bean Station and western Hawkins County now have a new pharmacy, option as Walgreens has opened its location at 1149 U.S. Highway 11W.

The old pharmacy, which was leased by the former Rite Aid pharmacy for many years, became a Walgreens pharmacy in 2018. The Bean Station store is one of the few Rite Aid’s to survive the merger. As a result, the pharmacy did not receive a remodel, but received a new store and location.

The pharmacy is one of the first in the area to be built under the “Cooper Store” concept. Inside of the company, the project was dubbed “Cooper” — a reference to the Mini Cooper, a small BMW car with a cult following. The stores are typically less than a quarter of the size of a Walgreens store, which average about 13,500 sq. ft., and are focused on delivering pharmacy and health and wellness products and services.

Currently, the small-format stores are being piloted in Michigan, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Tennessee, and Texas. Knoxville was among the first areas getting a “Cooper Store” in 2019.

Walgreens Bean Station Pharmacy Operations Manager Angela Dalton has been with the store for the last 23 years.

“A lot of people that that the new pharmacy is just a drive-thru,” Dalton said. “It is not. You wouldn’t believe the people who have said that ‘I’m not going to like it because I won’t be able to come inside.’ They can still come inside.”

The pharmacists will have plenty of room for dispensing prescriptions, compared to the small space in the old location, Dalton said.

“Our old pharmacy was tiny,” Dalton said. “It’s given us a lot more room, plus there is not a drive-thru pharmacy in Bean Station.”

Pharmacists at the store are Rosalyn Guardino and Pharmacy Manager Scott Thompson. Dalton serves as pharmacy operations manager while Koren Hoskinson is the senior pharmacy technician and Donna McKee is inventory specialist.

The new store will not have makeup and will have a limited selection of the items people have been known to buy. Gone are bulk items, such as paper towels and 12-pack soft drinks.

“Walgreens kind of looked at what we sold (the most of),” Dalton said.

In getting the new store ready, Dalton has worked 14-hour days over the last two weeks. The previous location closed for good Wednesday night.

Walgreens is the second pharmacy in Grainger County to have a drive-thru window. The other is located in Blaine.

Walgreens is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The store is closed from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. daily for a lunch period for the pharmacists. Each pharmacist works 12 hours per day.