They call it a typical immigrant story.
Anita Jalzabetic-Maravic and her husband Srdjo (pronounced Sergio) Maravic lived in a small town in Croatia, but the young couple knew they wanted a different life for themselves and their infant daughter. So they began the process of moving from the Eastern European country they’d known all their lives to Canada.
In Croatia, Jalzabetic-Maravic worked as a licensed pharmacist while Maravic was a mechanical engineer. But Jalzabetic-Maravic and Maravic wanted to own their own pharmacy, something that was impossible in Croatia at the time because the country banned private pharmacies. It wasn’t until they decided to leave that the ban was lifted, and by then it was too late for Jalzabetic-Maravic and Maravic to change their minds.
“We came as landed immigrants in 1994 – the two of us and our daughter,” Jalzabetic-Maravic said.
The small family found themselves living in South Burnaby shortly after arriving to their new home.
“It was a little bit difficult for us because we lived in a smaller town and Burnaby, Vancouver and all this and the distances and everything. That was different,” Maravic recalled.
After a couple of odd jobs here and there, including a brief stint at a health food store, Jalzabetic-Maravic got a management position doing quality control in the pharmaceutical industry. Maravic, meanwhile, applied his mechanical engineering skills to posts in the food industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry.
“We worked all the time,” Jalzabetic-Maravic said.
“Typical immigrants,” Maravic laughed, adding their daughter was only two-and-a-half at the time and needed to be looked after, too, because they had no family Canada.
As the couple settled into their new life in Canada, eventually Jalzabetic-Maravic and Maravic set out to make their dream of owning a pharmacy a reality. The first step was getting a Canadian pharmacist licence, which Jalzabetic-Maravic did off the side of her desk while caring for her toddler.
Twelve years after coming to Canada and five years after getting her pharmacist licence, Jalzabetic-Maravic and Maravic finally made their dream a reality and opened Anita’s Pharmacy at 4343 Hastings St.
Sunday, Sept. 25 will officially mark 10 years since Jalzabetic-Maravic and her husband opened Anita’s Pharmacy in the Heights. The pair chose the Heights for its community feel, one they equate to the small town they grew up in in Croatia.
“It’s a community pharmacy, it’s like a family business,” Jalzabetic-Maravic said. “Our daughter, when she was going to Moscrop (Secondary) to French Immersion and when she was studying at Simon Fraser University … she used to help me here. She used to work part time.”
After 10 years in the neighbourhood, the pair knows most of their customers personally – especially after moving to the area themselves shortly after opening the pharmacy. They pride themselves on the relationships they’ve built with their clients, noting it’s a very personal thing, going to the pharmacy. Anita’s Pharmacy is open seven days a week, and most mornings, Jalzabetic-Maravic and Maravic are out making deliveries to the customers who can’t come in and pick up their prescriptions themselves.
“Mostly we have elderly people … and we’re really trying to help them out, to make it more convenient for them. We offer free home delivery for the whole of Burnaby,” Jalzabetic-Maravic said, adding Maravic makes the bulk of the deliveries so Jalzabetic-Maravic can greet customers at the shop.
Although they have nothing special planned to celebrate the 10-year milestone, that’s not the couple’s style, they’re proud they’ve stayed in business so long.
And Both Jalzabetic-Maravic and Maravic agree, they’d be happy to continue operating for another 10 years.
