Self-Annihilation: Pharmacy vs Woolworth and Coles? NO LONGER!

Came home from work earlier today and not feeling very well thanks for all the coughs and sneezes customers brought in from work. But that's ok, after all, they are the ones who pay my bills and mortgage and put food on my table at the end of the day. I reluctantly picked up an AJP, a monthly pharmacy magazine which I apparently subscribed to but never get around to read them. I got a pile of them stashed in a giant basket in my kitchen still in their plastic wrappers.

It was the April 07 issue and as I flicked through the first few pages, the headline on page 4 cought my eyes: "The enemy within: aggressive pharmacy competition reaches new depths". Pharmacy industry was faced with a grievious challenge couple years back when retail giants, Woolworth and Coles Myers were trying to get a slice of this multimillion-dollars pie. Every pharmacists (well, almost everyone) were united in their voice to fend off these Walmart-inspired, profit-driven greedy giants. At the meanwhile, a "cancer" is growing within the industry which has slipped under the radar of most of us: big discount pharmacies aka "warehouse pharmacies"!

"NEVER BEATEN ON PRICES!! If you find a cheaper price elsewhere, we will match it and give you 10% off the difference" Heard that before, seen it before, now the cancer is spreading even faster in Perth and is coming to a place near you! FEAR THEM!! Yes, if you are a owner-pharmacist, you should be very worried and so do all of us hard working pharmacists, who are trying to make a living out of serving our community with our knowledge.

Here I quote from the article: "A new player within the Liverpool market, Chemist Warehouse, has gone on the front foot in its competitive campaign to attact customers away from its more established rivals..offering discounts well below cost. These reportedly include Panamax 100tab pack selling 69c and 89c, free gifts with prescriptions and volume discounts on a host of analgesics." As unbelievable as it sounds, the Chemist Warehouse was also reportedly sending their girls to dish out their discount catalogues within and outside of rival pharmacies! Other examples include dispensing three and four packs at once and telling customers that they would only receive their OTC discounts if they had their prescriptions dispensed with them.

How bad can it be? Have you seen people from Big W distributing their catalogues in Kmart? How unprofessional and unethical can those warehouse pharmacy owners be? Can you trust your health with those unscrupulous greedy minority "pharmacists" who want nothing but their aim to close other stores? What is the price you put on your health? I feel sorry for those new pharmacy graduates who are trying to make a living out of this endangered profession...believe me, I feel sorry for myself too!

p/s sorry about the language tone I used in this blog, that's just because I AM ANGRY!!