89-year-old Joep Adank from Breda was forced to close his drugstore due to dementia. Yet his shop is getting a second life. He now has his own mini drugstore in his room in the nursing home. This way, Joep’s iconic Blue Shop with Licorice lives on to some extent. “He wanted to continue,” says his daughter Chantal.
The jars of licorice, the gapers and a photo with his now deceased wife: it’s all in the mini shop in the nursing home. “He really thinks it’s fantastic,” his 60-year-old daughter beams. “He proudly shows it to everyone who comes in.”
Joep continued with his shop as long as he could. He strolled through the drugstore with his walker. “He couldn’t miss the contacts with customers.” In the end, the 89-year-old retailer only opened a few hours a week. “It was no longer financially profitable, but he enjoyed it so much.”
“My father wanted to continue. He found it very difficult to stop.” Yet this had to be done shortly after the corona crisis. “We tried a few more times, but it really didn’t work anymore.” And so he had to go to the nursing home he so feared. This month the store was completely emptied.
“Joep no longer hears from old customers.”
Yet Joep still hopes for a message from old customers. “He doesn’t hear from customers anymore. We hope there are people who still miss him,” says his daughter. That is why there is a notice on the door of the store to send a card to the Ruitersbos residential care center on the Boeimeerweg in Breda.
The drugstore was a household name in Breda for more than a century. Joep took over the company from his mother. He worked in the business for almost seventy years. Customers often received a penny with their year of birth on it. The store on Boschstraat still had a nostalgic character: everything was behind glass.
“A customer wrote a farewell poem.”
Joep sold 104 different types of licorice. There was always a current and funny poem in the window. “An anonymous customer wrote a farewell poem and stuck it on the door.”
“He breathed the store. Joep lived for that. He was the store,” Chantal continues. “I used to be annoyed by the fact that his identity was the store. But it is actually very beautiful. He did it with so much passion.”
Watch the video to see how Joep still proudly stood in his business in 2019:
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