Boots plans to sell alcoholic drinks at Christmas
Boots The Chemists plans to sell alcoholic drinks from 300 of its larger stores. In order to do so it will have to change the registration for its premises so only part is the pharmacy. In addition, it will need alcohol licences as well.
A Boots spokesman confirmed the company’s plans, saying that alcoholic
drinks had been sold from some of its stores last year. He said that
the aim was to sell drinks aimed at the Christmas gift market. Other
opportunities, such as Father’s Day, might also be catered for.
The sale of alcohol from registered pharmacies is prohibited under the
Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Code of Ethics. The code says that
pharmacists must not purchase for sale on registered pharmacy premises
any product which may be injurious to public health or bring the profession
into disrepute. Tobacco-containing products and alcohol are specifically
prohibited by the code.
Lyndsey Balmer, head of professional ethics at the Society, said that
the code applied equally to pharmacy owners and the superintendent pharmacists
of pharmacy businesses as well as to individual pharmacists employed
by them.
She pointed out that supermarket companies that operate pharmacies only
register sections of their stores as pharmacies and said that some of
the multiple pharmacy companies intended to de-register parts of their
premises.
“
The situation Boots will be getting into will be no different to the
supermarkets,” she said. |
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