Family-owned business seeks to stay afloat in economy

Summer Crosby

When one thinks of what might be purchased inside a drugstore, the obvious conclusion is that is where you go to buy products such as Tylenol or to refill prescriptions. And while that’s usually the case, it’s not the case with Ben and Buffy’s Superior Drugstore. Rather than having shelves stocked with medicine bottles and Band-Aids, the business inside is an old-fashioned soda fountain restaurant. Tables and chairs, as well as stools along the counter, invite customers to sit down and order from a selection of sandwiches.

“Originally, this was the pharmacy fifty-some years ago,” said Buffy Kelley, who owns the business along with her husband, Ben. “We still occasionally have people who call and ask for Tylenol because they think we’re still the drugstore and we direct them to the Mineral County Pharmacy over there.”

Ben and Buffy purchased the business from Ben’s father, John, who started the sandwich shop about a year ago, back on December 1. Buffy said that she had been working at with Mental Health in Superior, as it was a way to work with kids, but there wasn’t much room for her to move up. Ben wanted some work that would keep him close to home and his family.

“I’m from here and I love being here, but because there’s no work here, I’ve had trouble finding work,” Ben said. “And I was trying to find something to keep me at home. I was a logger for nine years and worked away from home a lot. Eventually, we got to the point where we couldn’t find anything and fortunately, I was hired onto Montana Rail Link about a year ago. And my dad was ready to retire, so we decided we’d try and see if we could make it work so we could stay here in Superior and raise our kids.”

The couple said it’s been scary taking the business under their wing in this economy, especially since in the past the place had lost money in the prior year. In this past month, Buffy says that they have barely managed to break even.

“Our whole goal is to stay in business and keep our employee working because things are tough right now and it’s important to have a job here,” Ben said. “Our goal is to make enough to keep this place open.”

Helping them to do that, Buffy also sells insurance on the other side of the building. Buffy started doing the insurance about a year ago, inheriting the books from Farmer’s. It’s all typical: auto, home, life and she is also licensed to sell securities.

“I’m the only one in town where the person who actually owns and acts as the agent is from Superior,” she said.

“And that’s important,” Ben added, “to have that face be from the local community.”

A typical day at the soda fountain begins with the coffee club. Everyone shows up just before 9 a.m. to drink their cup of coffee to start of the day.

“Everybody has their own cup and they’re real specific,” Buffy said. “They all have their certain type of coffee. Around 9:30 a.m., they all play a game and whoever loses the game has to buy coffee for everyone.”

The coffee club was started way back when Bill Pike owned the building and is known as “Pike’s Coffee Club.” Buffy said after the coffee crowd, they usually catch working-class locals for lunch. Occasionally, a tourist might straggle in, but for the most part they serve the local community. They joked that some people who live in the area don’t even realize they are open because they are sort of hidden. For reference, take a left off of River Street, onto Mullan Road, and they are located on the right-hand side across from Cessna’s Hardware.

Buffy said that they are hoping to add more ice cream flavors to the menu and extend their hours over the summer.

“For some reason, John only had two ice cream flavors, where a soda fountain is typically known for its syrups and ice cream traditionally,” she said. “And so we want to add more ice cream flavors and plus, there’s not really a place like that in Superior right now. In the summer, we’re thinking we’d like to extend our hours. We want to keep it traditional. We’ve had people come in and tell us that back in 1965, they sat in here next to their grandfather. So we want to keep the traditional feel to the place.”

The couple is excited to be undergoing the adventure and hopes that it will all work out down the road.

“I was raised here and we want to be able to raise our kids here,” Ben said, “so we just want to keep it successful so we’re able to do that.”

“Really, before this,” Buffy added, “the only other thing to do was to move.”

The sandwich shop, Ben and Buffy’s Superior Drugstore, is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. The insurance side of things is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.