Take A Powder!
GOODY’S HAS BECOME A SOUTHERN INSTITUTION AFTER MORE THAN 50 YEARS
OF TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE’S HEADACHES.
By Tucker Mitchell
They just don't make 'em like
they used to, but at Goody’s
they tome pretty darn close.
In an aging, six-story brick
building on the edge of restored Old
Salem, you can still hear the rumble of
milling machines on wooden floors as
thousands ol packets ol headache pow¬
der are produced in one of the few
American factories operating in a his¬
torical district.
That it wasn’t a historical district when
the factory moved there, replacing a
Fletcher Brothers' “Big Winston" blue
jeans operation, says something about
the age and the stability of Goody's Man¬
ufacturing Company, a Winston-Salem
institution now for more than 50 years.
The company has grown and the prod¬
uct is now used more or less nationwide.
But they still make it in the same place.
It is not exactly the same as it used to
be. though. The machines are newer
and smarter, and the company no
longer hires an army of young women to
wrap up powder packages by hand.
But it’s not Ihal different.
It's the same brick building that Win¬
ston-Salem businessman Thad I-cwallcn
bought in 1941 to house his expanding
business, and it's the same old Goody's,
an analgesic compound consisting most¬
ly of aspirin with a touch ol "secret ingre¬
dient” — caffeine — thrown in for good
measure, that people across North Car¬
olina and the South and even the coun¬
try have grown to love.
“We're still just a little family owned
business.” says Ann I.ewallen Spencer.
Goody's heir and its latest president.
Well, not that little. Although phar¬
maceutical giants like Johnson & John¬
son dwarf the Winston-Salem-based
company. Goody's has grown steadily
through the years. Industry analysts say
it's the leading seller among hcada< he
powders nationwide, and that its annu¬
al retail sales probably top S30 million.
Exact figures aren't known. The
Lcwallcn family has rebuffed every over¬
ture to sell, so Goody's remains an in¬
tensely private concern.
( )ver the years, Goody's has expanded
in other ways. too. acquiring several new
product lines. These days the
сошраш
also sells NUMZIT. a toothache remedy,
STOPZIT, a bad-tasting brew for stop¬
ping thuinbsurkiug, an astringent called
OJ’sand the Isodct throat lo/cnge. And
it owns the Mayran Company, which
makes vitamin supplements and similai
items for sale to pharmacists.
But ( ’.oody's is still really Goody's. I'he
other items are part of the company's
line, but they’re more like mercenaries.
I he manufacturer is contracted out to
other companies that produce them at
distant sites. Only the headache remedx
is made in Winston-Salem.
Thai’s tin* way it has Ireen ever since
pharmacist Martin C. “Goody" Good¬
man began making his own pain reliev¬
er at his Winston-Salem drugstore back
in the 1920s. It seemsa little odd now to
think of a druggist, or anyone else for
that matter, cooking up their own reme¬
dies. But in the days before Excedrin
and Tylenol, that's the way it was done.
A druggist would purchase the raw mate¬
rials and whip up his own personal pre¬
scription for pain or just about anything
else.
That archaic method produced a
spate of pain powders and pills, as well
as one notable offshoot that dominates
modern society. It's called Coca-Cola
and an Atlanta pharmacist mixed it up
to cure headaches and other ills bat
к
at
the turn of the century.
Goodman never went into liquids so
he missed his chance for greater glorv.
In fact, except for lending his name to a
Southern institution, lie missed it with
the powder, too. That's because in 1953
he sold his pain-relieving formula to
Thad I.ewallen. wlio'd In-come familiar
with it while making calls on Goodman's
store.
I.ewallcn owned a wholesale tobacco
and candy business with partner Bert
Bennett Sr., an eventual s« ion of the
Winston-Salem business cominunitv.
and one ol his regular stops was Good-
man's Drugstore in the heart of Win¬
ston-Salem's manufacturing district.
«ялоу Ы
Coaly', M«uif«tu»ni Cimpmj
Tin SlalcMpnl 1993
