Did Watford City Get What They Bargained For?

They put in the infrastructure and expected hordes of entrepreneurs and companies to pull into town. Watford City has attracted several information-dependent service companies and boasts some great amenities (surprising for a town this size), video-conferencing centers, high speed internet providers, e-banking, and an e-pharmacist, but hordes of companies isn’t exactly what happened.

Watford City learned an important lesson- technology alone can’t save the heartland. The community quickly learned that most telecommuting professionals prefer mountains or the ocean in their backyard. But the current residents are feeling more encouraged to stick around and local entrepreneurs were eager to experiment with the new technology.

Yesterday I mentioned the e-pharmacist. Larry Larsen, local drugstore owner became North Dakota’s 5th e-pharmacist. He sells prescriptions online, but that’s not what makes his operation unique. He uses internet video to monitor (remotely) each step of the prescription filling process at his second pharmacy 50 miles from Watford City. Then he and his customers can converse e-face to e-face in private rooms. This technology has lowed Larsen’s costs by allowing him to employ a less expensive pharmacy technician rather than a full-time, hard to find pharmacist. Larsen believes that the forward-thinking people that came back to Watford City saved Watford City.