UniChem unveils joint pharmacy and convenience store
in Sussex
UniChem Ltd and Londis Holdings, a convenience store
symbol group, have unveiled their first combined pharmacy and convenience
store.
The store brings together elements of UniChem's
Community Pharmacy Initiative package and Londis's Genesis convenience
store format in a single design.
Martyn Ward, sales and marketing director, UniChem,
says that it is easier to bring elements of convenience stores into community
pharmacies than vice versa. He says that initial trading at the pilot
sites has shown that the new format can increase sales.
"We are sure that this does not detract from pharmacists'
professional role — it helps them to build a stronger business."
The store, at Copthorne, West Sussex, previously
traded as adjacent but separate businesses under joint ownership. The
pharmacy counter and dispensary can be closed off using metal shutters,
leaving a trading area containing general sale list medicines and other
pharmacy goods open.
Naveen Khosla, the owner of the store, says that
this allows customers to buy these items during the extended opening hours
of the convenience store, something that was not possible under the old
arrangement. Mr Khosla, is planning to convert two more of his 11-strong
pharmacy chain to the joint format.
A second store at Haydock, St Helen's, Merseyside,
has involved the minor relocation of a pharmacy business from a traditional
corner shop location to much larger refurbished premises and the inclusion
of a large convenience store at a cost of almost £500,000.
Both the convenience stores sell cigarettes and
alcohol but, as yet, no concerns about this have been raised by the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society. Mr Ward said that the design clearly separates
the pharmacy area from the rest of the store and places it as far from
the cigarettes and alcohol as possible. He noted that similar products
are sold from supermarkets that include pharmacies.
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Lloydspharmacy has opened a specialist
beauty store in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, which also moves
the emphasis away from the professional services that pharmacists
traditionally provide. The store has been designed to ensure that
beauty consultants and staff are easily accessible to customers
with the focus being on beauty products. There is also what Lloydspharmacy
calls a consulting room for treatments, such as facials and makeovers,
and private consultations with beauty advisers.
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