The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7426 p572
11 November 2006

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· Pharmacy in Spain
· Controlled drugs
· Community pharmacy
· Prescribing
· Medicines use reviews
· Safety (2)
· Supermarket pharmacy
· The profession (4)
· The Council
· Statutory Committee
· Retention fee
· Section 60 Order
· The Society
· Pfizer products

Letters to the Editor

Supermarket pharmacy

Sale of alcohol

From Mr P. J. Sealey, MRPharmS

Perhaps J. Tull should cease working in a supermarket altogether. Before his letter (PJ, 4 November, p544 (PDF 40K)), it had not occurred to me that swiping a customer’s bottle of self-selected gin through the pharmacy till of a supermarket was such a sin. After all, I neither procure the sale nor profit from it. My thoughts would be one of envy that he might get his evening gin and tonic before me, and then, that I am helping to reduce check-out queues.

Mr Tull has combed the Code of Ethics and found that we should not be selling anything that is “injurious to public health”. Taken to its limits (and pharmacists are masters of that), we should thus be refusing to sell tubs of lard, bottles of gold-top milk and beef-burgers (“Tut tut. All that saturated fat sir/madam and what with your waist-line and all…”). As for selling fresh produce, well that requires weighing and it is a great irony that scales are not to be found in pharmacies these days.

I am currently trying to decide whether to retire. Letters like Mr Tull’s and the response from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (was I the only one to be amused by the use of the word “spirit”?) cause me to consider accelerating the process by being struck off for assisting customers to exit the supermarket with their chardonnay.

Cheers!

Philip Sealey
Warwick

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