Where everyone knows your name

Blenders are buzzing, burgers are sizzling and oldies are drifting gently through the bright booths of Sutton’s Drug Store at lunch hour.

Listen closely, though, and something more can be heard within the photograph-littered walls of the store that has stood on Franklin Street since 1923.

“We’ve always said that everything that goes through Chapel Hill floats through Sutton’s first,” said manager Don Pinney.

“If we haven’t heard about it, it hasn’t happened yet,” said the 27-year Sutton’s veteran.

Anyone who walks through its door can tell Sutton’s is rich in history and tradition.

John Woodard, the store’s owner and pharmacist, said that when he bought Sutton’s in 1977, he promised then-owner Elliott Brummitt that the drugstore wouldn’t be changed.

Brummitt bought the store from the original owners, Lynwood and Lucy Sutton.

“I was only 33 years old at the time, so he felt if he sold it to me, I would keep it for a while and keep it an independent drugstore,” said Woodard, a 1968 UNC graduate.

“When you’re an independent business owner, you become a real member of the community,” Woodard said.

“We offer (the customers) a home away from home.”

In 1977, there were seven independent drugstores on Franklin Street, Woodard said. Sutton’s is the only one that still exists today.

“It’s not any big secret to why we’re here,” Woodard said. “We love our people.”

Customers seem to reciprocate. David Lee Austin has been a customer of Sutton’s for about 25 years, and said he knows Woodard a little too well.

“He’s been married nine times and has 50 kids,” Austin said jokingly.

But as Woodard handed him a prescription, Austin showed his appreciation, saying, “He’s fast, he’s quick, he’s smart.”

Sutton’s has made itself into somewhat of an institution through a reputation that hinges on its familiar and friendly atmosphere.

“The counter makes people talk to one another,” Pinney says, “You can hear anything from church to politics …”

“To sex,” offers a female patron at the counter.

In addition to the playful banter between customers and staff, a striking characteristic of the store is its extensive collection of photographs.

They’re pasted onto the walls, hanging from the ceiling and even displayed digitally on slide shows that air on televisions. The pictures feature everyone from students to town residents.

Woodard took the first picture in 1981 of the “morning breakfast crew,” many of whom still frequent the store, Pinney said.

“We basically started taking them of our best customers,” Pinney said, “Then the next thing you know, everyone’s asking for their picture on the wall.”

The pictures that seem to garner the most attention are those of UNC’s legendary athletes, including the 2005 men’s basketball team.

Senior Melvin Scott, former point guard for the Tar Heels, has been known to frequent Sutton’s as many as three times a day, and he said he is addicted to the store’s cheeseburgers.

“This is the best place to come, man,” Scott said, “Look around, everybody’s smiling and laughing.”

Sutton’s seems to mean something a little different to everyone.

Woodard said the store is much more than his livelihood.

“When you’re happy with your work, there’s not a lot more you can ask for,” Woodard said.

While Woodard said he might see himself cutting back his work hours in the next five years, it’s going to be hard to walk away from his store.

“There’s nothing in this world like waiting on students,” Woodard said. “They make it such a pleasure to work; they make you feel young.”

Pinney’s parents met at Sutton’s in the late 1950s when his mother ran the cosmetics counter and his father worked behind the soda fountain.

But, Pinney said, everyone he gets to interact with at Sutton’s is part of the family to him.

“As long as I’m breathing, this place will be standing.”

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.