Recently a large warehouse style chemist has opened up in the area near my newly purchased pharmacy.
My first reaction to the competition was to expect a drop in business and a lowered customer base.
The grand opening was mentioned in all of the local newspapers, with big glossy catalogues outlining the cost of prescription and non prescription medications, and a truck with a large A-Frame advertising being driven around the town, frequently being parked in front of some of the larger pharmacies.

That was one month ago.

In that time, I have had patients come in and ask about how the new pharmacy will affect my business. My customer base of predominantly elderly people who do not drive, were incredibly worried that their local pharmacy may be closing in response (partly due to large amounts of shop space being prepared for impending renovations).
Many of them freely admitted to having visited the pharmacy, but were not overly impressed with it.

I recently looked at the figures for the shop, and found an overall increase in prescriptions, OTC and herbal sections compared to the same time last year, and for the previous month.

This surprised me somewhat, as I knew very well that as a small independent pharmacy, we were not the cheapest pharmacy in the price conscious area of Frankston (Victoria).

What has surprised me even more is the power of word of mouth.
We have done no advertising so far, and yet in the four months we have owned the pharmacy, script numbers have increased by 15% based on the last three years figures. The average sale has increased from $14.89 over a four month period (Oct-January) this time last year to $17.32 over the same period of time.

When purchasing, my business partner and I were very well aware that we could not compete with the big boys on price.
We opted instead to have our point of difference as information based pharmacy, in conjunction with good, old fashioned service.
We decided to utilise the PSA self care cards, implemented the use of pharmacist referral pads, and installed a counselling bench.
We began writing up treatment plans for those with eczema and psoriasis, assisting them with which creams to use when, and how to best prevent outbreaks.
In the month of November, we offered to organise a written dry skin plan to five patients.
So far in February, I have not actively recommended a skin care plan to anyone, however, through word of mouth I have written twelve plans, all who came to us having spoken to previous recipients of skin care plan.

Now we have patients who get frustrated by the seemingly endless questions that are asked when they are purchasing scheduled medicines, and those who mutter that our goods can be purchased cheaper at other pharmacies.
We also have patients who almost painstakingly ask questions about their medications, and don't mind paying slightly more than our nearest big competitors.

I think it is important to have choice.
If a patient is happy that they know everything about their scheduled medicines and would rather have a low priced quick purchase, then they probably would not be satisfied with coming to our pharmacy. However, those who wish to know more about their medicines, conditions and treatments may not be satisfied with level of service they would receive from a large warehouse that is almost supermarket in appearance.

My realisation of this means that I am now less concerned by the prospect of Woolworths/Coles Pharmacies.

But only slightly less concerned.