Buying painkillers at Sainsburys

Malevolence

Malevolence

Malevolence

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Just popped down Sainsburys to grab some painkillers because I've bit down on something and it went right down the side of my tooth into my gum and is currently throbbing like a bitch. Grabbed four boxes of Ibuprofen from the counter and proceeded to to the self-checkout.

"Item quota reached. Please wait for assistance".

Apparently you're only allowed to buy two boxes (32 tablets) at a time. So, after I'd explained the situation I had the assistant cancel them and walked to the in-store chemist. Pharmacist didn't have a problem selling them to me, but even he had to scan them as two separate purchases of two boxes. I asked the fella if anybody could realistically OD on 64 Ibuprofen and his answer was, "I doubt it, but we do sell boxes of 250 over the counter."

So you can't buy 64 tablets without a palaver, but you can buy 500 tablets without a problem. How is that not messed up?
 
hey, could be worse, try finding paracetamol in germany....

kid you not, i've been getting a bunch sent over from mother dearest in the uk and i'm basically a dealer for anyone here with a headache :D
 
Malevolence said:
Just popped down Sainsburys to grab some painkillers because I've bit down on something and it went right down the side of my tooth into my gum and is currently throbbing like a bitch. Grabbed four boxes of Ibuprofen from the counter and proceeded to to the self-checkout.

"Item quota reached. Please wait for assistance".

Apparently you're only allowed to buy two boxes (32 tablets) at a time. So, after I'd explained the situation I had the assistant cancel them and walked to the in-store chemist. Pharmacist didn't have a problem selling them to me, but even he had to scan them as two separate purchases of two boxes. I asked the fella if anybody could realistically OD on 64 Ibuprofen and his answer was, "I doubt it, but we do sell boxes of 250 over the counter."

So you can't buy 64 tablets without a palaver, but you can buy 500 tablets without a problem. How is that not messed up?
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I've always said this, if I wanted to OD on that kind of stuff go to the 99p store, then Superdrug then Boots, or just shoplift considering I'll be dead (hopefully). I understand the idea behind it but it's flawed, massively.
 
Doogles said:
I've always said this, if I wanted to OD on that kind of stuff go to the 99p store, then Superdrug then Boots, or just shoplift considering I'll be dead (hopefully). I understand the idea behind it but it's flawed, massively.
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The same reason why all the painkillers are in those foil slots.

Time.

It takes time and effort to go to separate stores for separate time and effort, which is crucial, it could and probably does save lives.
 
It is annoying.

But 500 means you are seeing a pharmacist.
Why anyone would commit suicide this way is beyond me.
 
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Diddums said:
Talking from experience here?
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Of course not, but do you want an extremely unreliable and can be horrifically painful death which can take weeks.
Or a death where you either can't feel it at worse or euphoric at best.
And as long as someone doesn't find you for 5mins or so that's it.
 
I got caught out when restocking on various things too.

I wondered afterwards, if I'd placed one of those dividers on the checkout, and put it through as two transactions, would they have blocked it? :o
 
Raymond Lin said:
The same reason why all the painkillers are in those foil slots.

Time.

It takes time and effort to go to separate stores for separate time and effort, which is crucial, it could and probably does save lives.
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True but screw killing my liver with paracetamol, use alcohol!

Pho said:
I got caught out when restocking on various things too.

I wondered afterwards, if I'd placed one of those dividers on the checkout, and put it through as two transactions, would they have blocked it? :o
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No because it's automated, although if you got a busybody cashier then you might have had an issue.
 
Ibuprofen doesn’t typically contain paracetamol, but in higher doses or longer term use it can cause kidney damage.
You can of course overdose as well, but I believe the above is the primary reason to limit numbers purchased.
 
people kill themselves on painkillers, so the decision was made some years ago to limit purchase of painkillers to 2 packets without seeing a pharmacy counter
Irritating yes, stopped overdoses yes.
Now ibuprofen,(which is best for dental pain) doesn't tend to cause overdoses, but in a simplification of a system, everything got tarred with the same brush.

Thus the effect you saw demonstrated.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
people kill themselves on painkillers, so the decision was made some years ago to limit purchase of painkillers to 2 packets without seeing a pharmacy counter
Irritating yes, stopped overdoses yes.
Now ibuprofen,(which is best for dental pain) doesn't tend to cause overdoses, but in a simplification of a system, everything got tarred with the same brush.

Thus the effect you saw demonstrated.
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Isn't it only those containing paracetamol that the law limits, however most store computer systems don't allow that level of customisation and store staff tend to be cautious or taught to apply it to all painkillers?

A little like being asked to do a TVL form when buying a monitor, computer or even DVD player (before the notification was done away with), as the store staff didn't know the difference or their POS system was too simple to account for the difference between a monitor and a TV.
 
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