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You see, Fidel
Castro couldn't take away their knowledge or their desire to own their own
business. You are about to experience our Master Class.
Jose and Luis
Navarro will tell you step by step how they created something from nothing, how
they learned the language of a new country and at the same time never forgot
their roots.
(Voiceover) This is
a love story, and this man started it all from his pharmacy in Havana. Jose
Navarro Sr. opened his business in 1940, and his sons grew up in Cuba watching
him take care of people.
HATTIE: (Voiceover)
Jose Jr. and Luis Navarro have built the most productive pharmacy chain in the
US. Here, they sell more per square foot than any other pharmacy chain in the
country. And on any given day, they fill more prescriptions per store than any
other. That means they beat the big boys like CVS and Walgreen and Rite Aid and
Eckerd and everybody else. How? They love it. And they love their families, and
their families love the business, too. Gloria, Jose's wife, and Maria, Luis'
wife, both work in the business. And now Jose and Gloria's children Marcel,
Gabriel and Patricia are putting their minds and hearts to the task of growing
the company.
GABRIEL NAVARRO:
I'm going back, you know, to seven, eight years old. We'd always work in the
stores here during the summer and on the weekends.
PATRICIA NAVARRO:
It's pretty much inbred in us, I guess.
MARCEL NAVARRO:
Well, I think I've been here since birth. But I've...
HATTIE: Yeah, since
birth. (Voiceover) The Navarro family is seeing what loving customers for over
30 years brings. It brings 12 stores, generating $160 million in annual sales
and jobs for nearly 600. All because one family pulled together in the same
direction. After Castro came to power, Jose's family sent him to the US, where
he swept floors in a drugstore to make a living.
JOSE: I start
there. And then little by little, I went from cleaning the floors to working
behind the counter to store manager.
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