Chemist Warehouse at Boorooma shops set to open on Monday

Relieved that a decade-long dream to bring a Chemist Warehouse to Wagga is finally realised when the doors to his new pharmacy at Boorooma finally open.

Mr Bassaly first tried to bring the Aussie pharmacy chain to the city back in 2012 and again in 2015, and things finally seemed to be falling into place when the opportunity to fill a spot out at Boorooma came up, but progress has been held up by 6 months.

"Chemist Warehouse has been trying to get into Wagga for close to 15 to 20 years," he said. "We had this store set up and ready to rock since October last year, stocked, hired staff ... unfortunately we've been held up by the pharmacy council, we had to transfer the licence from [My Chemist Estella]."

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Construction delays also put a spanner in the works, but after keeping his staff on for six months they got the stamp of approval last week.

Pharmacist Ramy Gerais said he's glad he'll finally be getting back to treating customers.

"Everyone is very excited, staff customers, we've been waiting a while for this," he said.

As Chemist Warehouse managing partner, Mr Bassaly has opened over 40 Chemist Warehouse locations nationwide, but the need to get that Wagga store was personal.

"I came up here in 1999 and studied pharmacy at CSU and I actually met my now wife and my in-laws live here," he said.

"23-years later down the track, I've been part of the chemist Warehouse group since its inception, I always said I'd love to get something down here.

"Wagga has been very very good to me, I've got people I love from Wagga, I got my degree from Wagga, it's a great opportunity to give back."

The biggest online group of Chemist Warehouse shoppers are from Wagga, but the nearest Chemist Warehouse store is currently in Albury or Canberra, he said.

As he took a break from frantically organising shelves and pricing items to chat with the Daily Advertiser, locals approached the door hoping to get in, it's been like this for weeks, he said.

Yesterday they had around twenty cars pull up throughout the day and as happy as he'll be come Monday, residents of the northern suburbs will be rapt. Former Estella Progress Association president Bruce Durham said it will be a draw card for the northern suburbs.

"Definitely happy it's happening, it's been a long slow process," he said.

"It's going to be a meeting point ... it will bring a lot of people from town when they hear Chemist Warehouse is open."

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