Together Grand Strand: How a Surfside Beach pharmacist is getting masks to those in need
Despite 35 years of experience as a pharmacist, Daniel Bundrick has been surprised by how many people have turned to him for guidance during the coronavirus pandemic.
The most common questions have been about where people can find masks they can trust.
“I get texts all the time saying ‘Do you have any?’ ‘Do you know anybody I can get them from?’” Bundrick, the owner of The Lazy Surfer, a retail business focusing on wellness products, CBD items and more in Surfside Beach, and the former owner and pharmacist at the now-defunct Surfside Beach Pharmacy.
For about a month, Bundrick has had to tell friends and customers — current or former ones from his time owning the local pharmacy — that he hasn’t been able to find a place to get them that is financially viable.
That all changed recently.
Bundrick found a supplier of KN95 masks in Ireland that he’s deemed reputable enough to put his name behind and sold a limited number at The Lazy Surfer on Monday whose profits will go to buying more to help those in need of legitimate Personal Protective Equipment.
“I bought 50 just to kind of test and see … and it did work [Sunday] because I was just like ‘Wow’ cause a lot of people started messaging me and saying ‘I’m coming tomorrow’ and ‘We’ve been waiting for somebody to get some that we can trust’ and that kind of thing,” said Bundrick, a Surfside Beach/Lexington dual resident who has been also been called upon by colleagues to help out part-time at Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation in Columbia, a company that specializes in generic respiratory medication and has been put into overdrive along the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.
Bundrick reported Monday that the initial 50 sold out in 15 minutes, prompting him to put in a bulk order that he hopes to have as early as later this week.
The KN95 masks — which on April 4 were approved for use in health care facilities by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — were priced at $7.50 as most of The Lazy Surfer’s PPE products’ prices have been reduced by 25 percent. Bundrick actually purchased 100 total — 50 had already been donated to health care workers — but said he did not initially want to buy in bulk because his only data showed the demand came from personal contacts.
And, he stresses, the purpose for buying them is not for profit.
“What little money we do make on them I’m going to donate that to buying more PPEs for technicians,” he said.
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Bundrick reiterated Monday that he’d gladly connect any health care facilities with his supplier since only those with proper credentials can buy them.
Bundrick said a KN95 mask is better than a cloth mask but is not necessary for everyone, and he encourages anyone who purchases one to make sure to follow FDA and Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines when using them.
While Bundrick’s business plan does not include personal profit from the masks, he said the sale of them at his store makes sense as The Lazy Surfer offers many other natural and environmentally-friendly wellness products — such as CBD, hand sanitizers, elderberry, colloidal silver, apple cider vinegar gummies, Vitamin C, zinc and others — that can also be useful during the crisis.
“It does go along with our wellness products,” Bundrick said. “We do have a lot of things that people wouldn’t think my little store has.
“Now, that kind of stuff we do want to sell and that will be a thing that will be a normal business thing.”
The Lazy Surfer, located at 411 Highway 17 South in Surfside Beach, is currently open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 4 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.
Editor’s note: Together Grand Strand is a series focused on the good deeds happening in our community during the coronavirus pandemic. If you know of an act of kindness that we should highlight, please email sneditors@thesunnews.com with the subject title “Together Grand Strand idea.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2020 at 6:24 PM.
