The Pharmacy at Xmas

[anotherbanana]

One part of French culture that always amuses me is the pharmacy, packed as it is with skilled salespeople who are not only able to describe your medication in detail but also to prescribe whatever you need for whatever imaginary aches and pains you might have, and to make you pay through the nose for it, and leave the shop smiling. With, clutching an often large bag of pills, lotions, branches, plasters and whatever paraphernalia they have foisted on you.

My local pharmacy surpassed itself today; the tons of unnecessary medications they had distilled into what you needed were packed into either paper or plastic bags with, wait for it, Menthe,  Father Xmas on his sleigh printed on it and a huge bucolic smile, brought on no doubt by being very pi**ed at this time of year. I burst out laughing but the pharmacy  found it entirely appropriate that pharmacies should celebrate the spirit of Xmas. 

Whoever needed Brexit.

[Hectorsdad]

“With, clutching an often large bag of pills, lotions, branches, plasters and whatever paraphernalia they have foisted on you.”

Our pharmacy was all out of branches so I settled for a bag of twigs.

[Henry100]

You say about all this money your spending on bags of pills etc,

Do as we do and pay a top fee and claim the lot back,👍

[anotherbanana]

I get my pills free at the pharmacy.

[menthe]

On the whole, I think that pharmacies are amateurs when it comes to relieving you of your money, compared to banks.

And they do open a lot more hours!

[Judith]

Sadly Menthe, the banks are very expert at charging you for almost anything if you let 'em.  Pharmacies vary, and I am now learning that the one in our village (since it merged with its competitor when the pharmacist retired) has become very unreliable as well as incompetent.  And I still don't know who is in charge there, impossible to work it out!  When I can, I go elsewhere now, and get better and faster service too. That pharmacy is also much better arranged with only one queue.  The local one has two different serving spots (it's poorly laid out), and thus 2 queues ..doesn't mean you get served more quickly though!

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Judith

[Ferdekalen]

The pharmaceutical business is growing because many new diseases appear once every few months. Nowadays, many viruses lead to complicated health conditions, and for each symptom, there’s a pill to cure it