Uptown Drug & Gift began as Uptown Drug in August 1945 whenJerry Shapiro's father, Peter Shapiro, opened his drug store atOlympic Boulevard and Western Avenue. Jo Ann and Jerry bought thebusiness from Jerry's father in 1969 and operated at the originalUptown location until the move to the Mid-Wilshire store that theyrecently vacated. Their new location is in the Citibank building at444 S. Flower St., at the corner of Fifth and Flower, which Jerrydescribes as arguably the most desirable retail spot in DowntownL.A.

Besides seeing potential for growth in the emerging DowntownL.A. retail market, Jerry Shapiro says Uptown needed to movebecause of the changing demographics of the store's previouslocation. The Mid-Wilshire location is in the middle of Koreatown,where, he says, the residents are loyal to Korean-owned businessesand the retail sales portion of his business had fallen offprecipitously. Uptown has remained profitable by specializing indelivering prescriptions to a 100-square-mile area, a service thatit is continuing to provide at the new location, but rebuildingretail sales was one of the chief reasons for the move to DowntownL.A. Retail sales at the new location are already higher than theywere in Mid-Wilshire, about 10% of the sales volume versus 5% atthe old shop, Shapiro says. "I think the front end can go a lothigher than that, probably up to 40% of our sales," he says. Thenew location carries an expanded line of gifts and cards, includingNao by Lladro, jewelry, executive gifts, cosmetics, perfumes andpersonalized baby gifts, according to Jo Ann Shapiro, who overseesthe gift and merchandising operations of the store.

The Shapiros have signed a nine-year lease for their newlocation, a 4,600-sf store that's about 1,500 sf larger than theirprevious location. "This is the only space in Downtown that we wereinterested in because it is probably the hottest corner in DowntownL.A.," Shapiro says. The store is near a number of the newapartment loft and condominium projects, which include conversionsof office buildings into housing as well as some new ground-upconstruction. "We probably have about eight or 10 high-rise officebuildings within a three-block radius of us, and five or six majorhotels," Shapiro adds, saying that these should also contribute towalk-in traffic. Only three other drug stores are open for businessanywhere near his new location, Shapiro says, and none of those isclose enough to represent worrisome competition.