Candidate Foulkes, former CVS exec, tours Woonsocket small businesses

Geraldine “Geri” Barclay-King, owner of Geri’s Bluffing Boutique on Main Street, hosted the tour, which began inside her store. Barclay-King recounted how she began the store during the pandemic, after she took a trip to Liberia and brought back gifts for her friends, who then asked her if they could get more like it.

“Next think you know, I had a whole basement full of stuff just looking at me and talking to me,” Barclay-King told Foulkes.

Foulkes, who launched her campaign in October, is no stranger to Woonsocket. She worked at the CVS headquarters for 25 years starting in 1992, commuting from her hometown of Providence. As she moved up through the company, she worked on initiatives such as the ExtraCare customer discount program and pulling tobacco products from CVS shelves, according to her campaign website. Her platform draws from her experience at CVS for governmental policies such as healthcare and economic growth.

“Retail is detail,” Foulkes told Barclay-King.

In addition to bonding with Barclay-King over their children (they each have four), Foulkes touted her recent plan to use the state’s projected budget surplus to give every resident making less than $100,000 per year a $500 tax credit.

“That way you don’t have to mess with the gas tax,” she explained, referencing legislation introduced in both the state House and Senate that would suspend the state’s $0.34 gas tax to give people relief from high prices associated with inflation.

Foulkes also stopped into the Blackstone Valley Prevention Coalition’s Woonsocket Office, nextdoor to Geri’s Bluffing Boutique, and spoke with Executive Director Lisa Carcifero about the work the coalition does to divert the city’s youth from drug and alcohol use and other harmful behaviors.

Carcifero and the other coalition employees gathered said their current number-one issue is opioids.

“I have a deep appreciation for just how easy it is for people to get access to opioids in their own medicine cabinets,” Foulkes said, referencing her experience with CVS.

Carcifero said the CVS medicine drop boxes have made an impact, with the coalition’s region collecting over 1,000 pounds of medication. Foulkes said she worked on the drop box program, which was challenging because the rules differed across states.

In Rhode Island CVS donated 14 drop boxes to police departments across the state, then expanded in 2018 and provided 14 more to CVS pharmacies. The Woonsocket Police Department has a drop box, as does the Walgreens on Cumberland Street.

Foulkes also said she’s been talking to a state senator about how to use the money Rhode Island received from settling lawsuits with opioid manufacturers, and heard suggestions from the coalition about creating treatment centers specifically for teenagers.

Eugene Monteiro, co-founder of the Providence County Wrestling Club, also met with Foulkes. He explained how he has been trying to open a location for his nonprofit wrestling studio in Woonsocket, but has run into issues working with the city to get the proper permits.

Such challenges are exactly the kind targeted by Foulkes’s proposal to create a “business navigator program,” which would train people to be a point of contact for licensure, permitting and other “compliance needs during the launch phase,” according to Foulkes’s campaign.

Small business aid has been a staple of Democratic candidates’ platforms. Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, who launched her campaign for governor last May, said she wants to focus on local economic development by helping small businesses grow after the pandemic, according to her campaign website. Gov. Dan McKee has also taken the opportunity to funnel aid to small businesses, launching a $12.5 million grant program in late January.

Follow Stella Lorence on Twitter @slorence3.