Several little Santa secrets live along the main strip in downtown Glenwood Springs for those last-minute gifts, including on the shelves of a long-time Grand Avenue staple — Downtown Drug.
Margie and Pete Crow founded the pharmacy and gift shop a few doors down from its current location at 825 Grand Avenue in 1998. In 2021, they and business partners Myra Tobias and Bridgitte Doane sold it to Jason and Amanda Gotzinger.
What was already a go-to pharmacy and unique gift shop for locals has only continued to grow and thrive under the Gotzingers’ direction.
The pairing of an independent pharmacy service, alongside a gift shop that carries out-of-the-ordinary merchandise, is a niche business that only a few downtown main streets across the U.S. have managed to maintain.
“We originally thought that we wanted to narrow the scope of what we sell, but part of the fun of owning a gift shop is discovering new, unique products and not limiting yourself to specific categories of gifts,” Amanda Gotzinger said.
Currently, they carry everything from snow globes, greeting cards, souvenirs, pet toys, tea, purses and earrings, to board games, Pokémon and up to 9,000-piece jigsaw puzzles.
Amanda does most of the merchandising for the store, while also holding down a full-time job as a pharmacist with Valley View Hospital. She and Jason both graduated from CU Health Sciences in Denver.
“I look for things that I haven’t seen before, things that are unique, not found on Amazon and the big box stores,” Amanda said. “I often search for Colorado-based products, but I don’t limit our selection to Colorado alone.
Most of the gift items cost less than $50.
“Our primary goal is to serve our community’s interests and hopefully gain repeat customers who always find something new and interesting that they haven’t seen before,” she said.
Amanda added that their 6-year-old daughter enjoys helping with product selection, especially anything that might appeal to children.
Jason Gotzinger is the head pharmacist at Downtown Drug. He spent about 10 years working in the pharmacy at Target in Glenwood Springs before learning of the Crows’ plans to sell Downtown Drug and taking a leap of faith to buy the business.
The pharmacy side of things has had its challenges, especially with insurance reimbursements favoring the larger corporate pharmacies. However, a new law in Colorado (HB 25-1222, aka “Preserving Access to Rural Independent Pharmacies”) that goes into effect when the calendar turns to 2026, is meant to level the playing field.
It essentially says that insurance companies can’t pay the big pharmacy corporations more than the small, independent pharmacies for doing the same thing, Jason explained.
Amid shareholder pressures for corporations to downsize, he said Downtown Drug has actually been able to grow in recent years. Between the pharmacy and the gift shop, they now employ a staff of a dozen, he said.
“The shopping goes straight back into the people who are here having fun and enjoying what they do,” Jason said, as shared laughter between workers and a customer could be heard from inside the store.
Unique personalized services like home prescription deliveries, plus the friendly interaction between staff and customers on the floor also go a long way to enhancing the experience, he added.
“We’ll even do back door pickups to help patients if they don’t feel comfortable getting out and walking on the ice, or something,” he said.
There’s also a health and wellness synergy between the drug store and the gift shop, which he noted has a distinct focus on spending time with family, or learning about something new and away from the distractions of electronics, Jason noted.
“Whether it’s board games or role playing games or card games, we really try to encourage more hands-on, educational, interactive activities,” he said.
Jason also encouraged holiday shoppers to check out the downtown Glenwood vibe in general.
“It’s just fun to come out and see everybody who’s out on the street, and all the other shops down here,” he said. “Even if you just stop in to say ‘hi,’ you’ll get a smile or two.”