Pot Calling the Kettle Blackmores

It’s easy to get outraged. Sometimes it feels like we seek out a ‘worthy outrage’ to justify our visceral response. There are probably many reasons why we seem more outraged and polarised today than we ever were - our VUCA world, our fear of COVID, our constant need to stimulus, our attention spans and our echo chambers all being part of it.

So I probably wasn’t surprised when the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, outraged at the suggestion that Woolworths might buy Australian Pharmaceutical (owner of Priceline Pharmacies) came out on the attack. The pharmacists came out swinging. To think, they posited, that Woolworths would deem to get into the ‘pure as driven snow’ world of health and wellbeing when they are peddlers of the very opposite. This was anathema to them and their membership and by implication should be for the general public as well. They cited Woolworths being the purveyor of cigarettes, alcohol and gambling. All legal, but when in excess problematic areas (smoking aside of course!). At least Woolies has a sugar-free isle and as I noticed in my local Woolies just before New Years the ‘big night out and I might get lucky’ aisle (see below). That's creative thinking folks!

Upon hearing this the phrase ‘people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’ immediately sprung to mind. At the top end of the pharmacy market is the ‘megamart’ which sell a range of products that might well not pass the Guild’s own sniff test. Certainly a couple of aisles contain products that have no, or little, empirical evidence of health improvement but do give you the most expensive urine ever! We also all remember the 'deal' that pharmacies had done with Blackmores to upsell their products to customers who had called in for mainstream pharmaceuticals. As it turned out there was an embarrassing backflip made even more galling because it was the Australian Medical Association (the doctors' lobby group) that forced their hand. 

But here’s what really irked. At least in Woolworths you can go to a checkout at most stores that is kid-friendly. That is, it’s lolly free. This can’t be said at practically every pharmacy I visit nowadays. The ‘rot’ started some time back when the Pharmacy Guild bought Glucojel jelly beans which they package prominently with the Guild’s highly recognisable gold cross brand. The bag shouts ‘Glucose power’ at you. The Glucojel website, in self-congratulatory tone, announces that you can buy the jelly beans and now bears (in case the beans were not enticing enough for children) in ‘almost every pharmacy in Australia’ (over 5,700).

You don’t have to scratch the surface too deep to find that there is a mass of empirical evidence, peer reviewed in reliable clinical journals, that agrees that sugar is dangerous to our health. Many and I'm one of them would suggest sugar is the most addictive of the lot. Harvard Medical School is pretty reliable so check this out https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/the-sweet-danger-of-sugar

Don’t get me wrong, glucose is needed if a diabetic goes into ‘shock’ (hypoglycemia) and jelly beans (or if they are in a state where they might want a choice – bears) can be provided. I know diabetes is at epidemic proportions but I doubt our problem is that big that requires that amount of glucose! If we did have that scale of a problem surely a dedicated aisle alongside laxatives or arthritis creams might be more apposite. We all know about shelf placement. Those products are there for one reason only and it’s not to improve your overall health and wellbeing. So if you are going to throw stones it’s always good to make sure your own glassware is in order and I’m not sure most pharmacies can say hand on heart that it is.

The real issue, disguised as moral outrage, is a concern that the control that the Guild has over the placement of outlets will be subject to competition and market forces. It’s no different to taxi license holders outrage when Uber disrupted their business model. Disruption is part of the natural business order. Energy currently expended in moral outrage would be better spent by pharmacists disrupting their own business model for the benefit of their customers.

That said, the best course of action when your energy is depleted is a quick intake of guess what ? - glucose. I wonder where I might find some of that close to hand? 

Full disclosure - all photos are of local pharmacies that I am a customer of. Photo 2 is my local Woolies.