To think Pharmacies shouldn't shut for lunch anymore

[MrsBrie]

Hi,

It just seems so old fashioned and unnecessary and I don't see any argument for it. Yes, everyone is entitled to a lunch break - of course, but why does the entire pharmacy need to close? Can't they stagger the staff lunch breaks, like everywhere else?

It's not like it's not an important place? What about the people who need their prescriptions and can only pick it up in that hour? I suspect that's a lot of people.

Also, with GPs now really encouraging people to see their pharmacists first, this just seems even more unjustified.

Assuming it's not just me who thinks this?...

How do you know staff aren't subjected to abuse in Pharmacies?! It has been a big problem in recent years. I don't think the pharmacy side of Boots is making much money in the UK either. They've shut a lot of shops recently.

Rubbish working class women always worked , My own mother managed and so did my Granny , with plenty children . Why do some people think all women sat at home twiddling their thumbs , they didn't .

I said they aren't subject to non stop abuse. Obviously you will get the occasional stroppy customer.

If there is only one pharmacist, why shouldn't he/she have a lunch break? plus their assistant too.

The level of entitlement is incredible, most people going to the chemist between 12 and 2 and are on THEIR lunch break.....

What do you define as occasional? Sometimes is it physical. Why should they put up with it?

We are in a community pharmacy. Only one pharmacist so we shut 1 til 2. It is the mid point of the pharmacist's open to the public hours. (9 to 6). They arrive an hour early and can be there till 9pm. So during their often 13 hour day, they need a break.

Downtime is about half an hour, the other half an hour gets spent on stuff that needs "extra" attention (with no customers distracting) like end of life medication (which community pharmacy is dealing with every day nowadays)

@wombat15 the nature of retail is that you will sometimes get pissed off customers or people who are rude. The only way to avoid it is to not open shops at all!
Maybe fewer customers will be annoyed, if the shop staggers lunch breaks so that people who need non prescription items can still buy them on their own lunchtimes.

"Occasionally" I guess.

I deal with 70+ customers an hour. 4 or 5 will be vile... abusive - verbally usually. 10 more will be stroppy and 10 more will be a bit whingy.

We deal every day with people who are ill and/or in pain, as well as addicts and people worried sick about little ones, so we expect some level of testiness.
It has become significantly worse since covid/brexit/war in Ukraine/even the blockage of Suez canal and Ozempic popularity on TicTok.

All the pharmacys i know still stay open for non prescription items, just that the pharmacy itself closes for lunch, unless there are two, how can it be anything but?

It is not similar to other retail jobs and the behaviour they are dealing with is a bit more than the occasional annoyed or rude customer. Healthcare staff including those who work in pharmacies are getting abused and that is sometimes physical. Have you not seen the news?
I'm not saying it is the only reason for not opening at all lunchtime but it will be one of them. The other will be reducing operating costs.

I think the reducing of operating costs is more likely to be the reason than anything else tbh. Or pharmacies would always have closed for lunch.

I think some businesses have given up on customer service altogether since Covid and act like they are doing us a favour by opening at all. I now buy the bare minimum in these places and go to those shops which are still making an effort. Or who have great websites.
Moving totally online is fine if they offer a really good online service (although this still neglects those people who need physical shops), but Boots isn't one of those.
The one is my nearest decent sized town went through a phase of closing 2 hours for lunch in the week and at 3 on Saturdays.

They would be doing you a favour if they are operating at a loss. Why should they stay open if they make a loss? Many have always closed at lunchtime particularly if their main business is dispensing prescriptions.

It makes sense to close the dispensing bit when the pharmacist is unavailable, but I don't buy that shops like Boots are making a loss by staying open for lunch - the people picking up prescriptions may or may not buy other things while there, but loads of people go in to buy baby products, perfume, make up, tights for work etc. And if a shop is closed when it's convenient for them to shop, those with other options will find them.
I got out of the habit of going to Boots when it started having reduced opening and I've not really been back much and I used to spend a lot of money in there.

In the end, it's up to them but nature abhors a vacuum and if they leave that gap someone else will eventually fill it. Seems a shame though to kill existing businesses and lose the people who already work in them.

If they made more money by staying open at lunchtime why do you think they decided to shut?

I don't think they necessarily make more money during those specific hours. But it's a trade off they may lose a bit during the lunch hour when the pharmacist is off site, but they don't piss off their customer base and therefore protect future income because their customers won't seek alternatives and therefore lose the habit of shopping with the store that closes at inconvenient times.
It's always the case that at some points in the day, shops are busier/quieter than others. Those businesses tolerate that because presumably it balances out. But If they close when it's quiet and when it suits some of their customers to shop, those customers will eventually end up in the supermarkets which are open at lunchtime etc.

The main customer base of Pharmacies will be those receiving prescriptions and the majority of those people will not be working. Those that are can go after 5 p.m. or the weekend. The main business won't be people like you buying tights in their lunch hour. Do you not think they have worked it out?

"The main customer base of Pharmacies will be those receiving prescriptions and the majority of those people will not be working".

Not sure about this.

Re, whether they've worked out whether they lose money by staying open, I think many businesses enjoyed the reduction in operating costs during Covid and want to continue prividing minimal physical service now. But we aren't in lockdown and forced to shop online and I think that ultimately businesses which don't have a strong usp will suffer from reducing their physical presence on high streets. When you can buy shampoo and make up anywhere, why would you go to a specific shop that isn't making the experience attractive or convenient for you? I know that when Boots is shut I walk a few shops down the street and go to Savers or Superdrug!
So yes, it might be cheaper for them now but it costs them passing trade and customer loyalty in the long run and ultimately this will reduce their profits.

Or it could be a cynical move to close shops and gradually manipulate staff out, without having to pay redundancy?

Idk, I'm not a retail expert, just someone who would quite like high street shops to be open, reasonably well stocked and ideally clean. I much prefer physical shops to online and dislike feeling pushed into online shopping. I know that if it goes that way, I probably won't buy toiletries on one website, then other things elsewhere, I'm likely to just go to the supermarket and get the whole lot or do an Amazon order.

Pharmacies were actually open and very busy during lockdown so probably didn't "enjoy a reduction in operating costs" or provide minimal service. I worked in a pharmacy long before internet and even then the shops were very quiet during lunch time. Selling shampoo to people in the lunchbreak wasn't their main business then and certainly wouldn't be now. They are in financial trouble because they are paid very little for the services they do for the NHS, not because people are buying shampoo from the supermarket. That was never their main income,

You say you are not a retail expert and yet seem to think you know more about running pharmacies than the huge companies that have managed them for years. It's a bit laughable,

In my local Boots the other day which doesn't close for lunch the pharmacist came back with his dinner - which he had to try and eat in the photo booth - and was immediately pulled away from it to deal with problems.

It's not very fair.

@wombat15 if Boots are paid so little by the nhs, then clearly a big chunk of their income is coming from somewhere else - likely all the other stuff they sell! So you'd think it would make sense to stay open during normal business hours so they can continue to sell these other products. If they weren't making good money from outside the dispensing business, they wouldn't bother with it.

The dispensing side of pharmacies were busy during Covid, but people were not shopping as they normally did in the rest of the store. In my town we had to wait outside, only 2 people were allowed in at a time, there was no browsing.
I certainly don't believe it cost my local Boots as much to operate as they would have spent in normal times. And of course most of us were shopping online.

Working in a pharmacy in the past doesn't make you a retail expert either. Unless you're secretly Mary Portas or on the board at Boots, in which case I apologise unreservedly and bow to your greater knowledge We are all just giving our opinions - mine is that I don't think this policy will benefit them in the long run. Time will tell.

It doesn't mean that a good chunk of their income comes from elsewhere. Why do you think pharmacies are reducing their hours and closing everywhere! I don't need to be on the board of Boots to know this. It is in the news everywhere that pharmacies (not just Boots) are shutting because of funding cuts. Staff shortages are also a problem.

Why wouldn't they need to be seen between 1 and 2?

As I said, pharmacies here don't close for a lunch hour, even the local independent one. The pharmacist takes his or her lunch on the premises. There's always a queue for prescriptions, and they do vaccinations too - flu, shingles, pneumonia, covid. They also have a drive-through lane for prescriptions.

The local chains are open from either 6am to 11pm or 7am to midnight. There's one a few miles away that is open 24 hours, even on Christmas Day. It's very handy for emergency prescriptions.

The chain pharmacies sell all sorts of other stuff on top of prescriptions - makeup, sanpro, cards, toiletries, frozen groceries, beer, liquor, basic dry goods, candy, seasonal tat, hair care stuff, school and office supplies, otc medications and small medical devices like blood test strips, Zimmer frames, various bandages, vitamin supplements, etc. They also take passport photos, and you can print out your digital photos.

If you go to the emergency room here you can be prepared to pay for your visit.

That makes sense. You're far too sensible to be on Mumsnet, be gone 😁
You're supposed to rant and rage and wotnot

The pharmacist won't be getting much of a break if he is eating lunch on the premises so that he can constantly be interrupted. We have laws about breaks in the UK.

If the US model is so fantastic I wonder why it hasn't been adopted by Boots given that it is actually owned by the US company Walgreens.

The GPhC set the rules in Pharmacies and their rules state that Pharmacies cannot operate without a responsible pharmacist signed in. They sign out at lunch time for 1 hour. Some Pharmacies are allowed to stay open to sell general retail stock during that time, others are not. This comes from GPhC. It's nothing to do with retailers or individual Pharmacists. We have 5 Pharmacies in ours small town. 4 of them have 1 pharmacist each and close for 1 hour over lunch time. The 5th is an independent Pharmacy who has 3 Pharmacists on site so can stagger meal times and not close for lunch.