Apothecary by the Sea

Getting behind the wheel of a Ford Bronco – and learning how to drive it – was DENISE HAYES’ introduction to offering pharmacy care with a personalized touch. At just seventeen, she took a job making deliveries from the pharmacy next to her parents’ business in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

For Hayes, now a registered pharmacist and owner of The Apothecary at St. James in Southport, people are her first priority.

“Caring for people, helping people, and establishing long-lasting relationships brings me great joy,” she says. 

The Apothecary at St. James, located at the St. James Marina, is the only outside retail store within St. James Plantation, the coastal neighborhood spanning 6,000 acres. The pharmacy, which has a partnership with Thomas Drugs, offers prescriptions and vaccines, over-the-counter medications and supplies, nutrition and vitamin lines, greeting cards, and unique specialty gifts.

Hayes attended the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and then earned her master’s degree in pharmacy administration at Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy in New York. After graduation, Hayes worked part time for local hospitals and full time for The Valley Hospital Ridgewood Campus in New Jersey before becoming the director of pharmacy for Caremark, a home care company.

After six years, Hayes took a marketing leadership role with AT&T but kept one foot in pharmaceutical retail as she continued working nights and weekends in retail and hospital pharmacy. Ten years later, Hayes returned full time to her roots, purchasing Haworth Pharmacy in New Jersey. She personalized the shop’s name to Haworth Apothecary and D’s Gifts and serviced the local community, nursing homes, and hospice. Hayes sat on the board of every hospice in Bergen County, a role that enabled her to touch nearly every hospice patient in the county. The pharmacy also carried a large selection of luxury gifts. And it was an after-school haven for her young son Jason, who followed in her footsteps and is now a pharmacist for Merck KGaA in Germany.

Hayes first met her husband, BILL HAYES, in her college freshman year. They went their separate ways but reconnected twenty years later and married in 1997 when he joined her in her pharmacy business. 

In 2016, she and her husband sold the pharmacy in Haworth and relocated to Southport. In December 2022, she opened The Apothecary at St. James. “We are all about providing the same great customer service as we offered in Haworth through our convenient location with an amazing waterfront view. We have the best waiting room, inside or outside,” she says. “The gift business is also fun. I love to hear customers laugh out loud while reading the greeting cards.”   

Denise Hayes is also a real estate broker for St. James Properties. “I work with two great Roses,” she says. ROSE HOLSKE works in The Apothecary, and ROSE GIBBS is Hayes’ real estate business partner. The duo was named Top Producers in Brunswick County in 2024. Hayes is a member of Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce, a member of St. James NEST for neighbors helping neighbors, and a volunteer pharmacist for New Hope Clinic, a volunteer nonprofit providing health care for underserved, low-income residents of Brunswick County. 

“I love being in The Apothecary,” Hayes says. “It’s about relationships and helping people.” 

The Apothecary at St. James is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon as well as handles after-hours emergencies.

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