How well is BOOTS doing ??

Monserrat said:
That's another thing. Why does everyone call it the pharmacy nowadays? When I read the word pharmacy, it makes me think of those spam emails advertising online pharmacies, viagra etc. Back in my days it was called the chemist. "Just popping down to the chemist m'love." etc
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Probably because it doesn't really satisfy the definition of "chemist".
 
There's a couple of bootses in both high streets I frequent and they all seem to be doing fine to me. As said, they must make a killing on lunch, plus their pharmacies always seem busy and they sell loads of other stuff that people need on a regular basis and all seem to have reasonably good staff.
 
Boots are doing extremely well, but just like every store group, they'll have stores that are in dying high streets and don't have a great level of turn over. Boots also have different store formats, for example, they have (don't know if it's still there) a tiny store at Brindley Place in the centre of Birmingham which generates a lot of foot fall from people taking advantage of the meal deal.

The Boots stores I find confusing are the large stores found on out of town retail parks as they're pretty much empty during the week and tend to stock your larger, more premium and low volume items like prams and buggies.

The chemist, opticians and photo processing services are also massive foot fall drivers for them and no one else really has the same breadth of product range that Boots offer, especially their beauty services and concessions such as Clarins and the like. Boots' share of health and beauty is very impressive considering your typical family shopper will pick up their health and beauty products whilst doing their grocery shop in the likes of Tesco.
 
spoffle said:
Probably because it doesn't really satisfy the definition of "chemist".
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Maybe not your definition but it certainly satisfies one of the definitions in the Collins English Dictionary:

"a qualified dispenser of prescribed medicines"

Chemist was always the word used in British English until fairly recently.
 
There are 2 boots and zero super drugs here so boots don't really have that much competition. Plus the fact that both are within the town centre area, for the meal deals. Plus one has a 24 hour pharmacy which is always where everyone goes.
 
Boots are bigger than the high street store, they have an extensive pharmaceutical research arm. They invented Ibuprofen for example.
 
Monserrat said:
That's another thing. Why does everyone call it the pharmacy nowadays? When I read the word pharmacy, it makes me think of those spam emails advertising online pharmacies, viagra etc. Back in my days it was called the chemist. "Just popping down to the chemist m'love." etc
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Didn't yourself or somebody else ask that in another thread recently?

Pharmacy is the correct term for a shop dispensing Pharamcutical products by a staff member who has a degree in pharmacy or equivilant qualifications.

The reason it has been known as a Chemist is because the original term to describe a Pharmacist was a 'Dispensing Chemist' in a Pharmacy, so that got shortened to Chemist. Of course a Chemist could be mistaken for somebody working in an entirely different industry. The correct term for a Pharmacist today in the UK is a 'Pharmacist Independent Prescriber'.

Somebody also suggested last time that it was an American term, but that is rubbish because they call them drugstores in North America.
 
Boots are (very) expensive if your only buying 1 or 2 of an item but if you keep an eye on the deals - forever doing 3 for 2, etc. and buy a few months worth at a time it usually ends up just as cheap or even cheaper than elsewhere.
 
boots aren't just a retail outfit, they have a whole division called crookes healthcare which holds multiple licences for products in the UK/EU, so even if the stores went they would still have a masive outfit in the pharma industry connected to manufacturing and sales (wholesale) of OTC and prescription medicines.

I'd say the chnace of boots coming to a mischief on the high street is very low as they have got a lot of non high street based revenue streams that would keep them going through the lean times.
 
they're a pharmacy that will also sell you your lunch, process your photos and stock their own product line of toiletries

seems pretty diversified to me... while they've got some online competition in some areas they're not some one trick pony

they're also useful for last minute Christmas gifts when you're in a rush - perfume boxed sets etc..
 
Spook187 said:
Indeed it is full of scroats, but shower gel and toothpaste is a nice price:p although boots used to do nice sandwiches, i go to M&S for them now.
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Exactly, and how many middle class ladies are going to want to go slumming it to buy their toiletries?
 
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