Drugstore
A drugstore is a specialty store or a larger corporate market (drugstore). The range can be divided into five areas:
- Remedies ( teas , essences and tinctures )
- Beauty and wellness ( personal care products , perfumes , essential oils , cosmetics , etc.)
- Organic health products and wholesome foods
- Articles for property maintenance in the home and garden
- electronic aids ( single-use cameras , batteries , USB cables, etc.)
Definitions
The drugstore is interpreted differently in the German-speaking area: In Germany and Austria there are mainly drugstores and only a few managed retail drugstores where advice can be obtained. Large drugstore chains in Germany are dm-drogerie markt , Rossmann and Müller , DroNova, and locally also Budnikowsky . Specialist drugstores are practically dying out in Germany.
The online drugstore has recently been establishing itself more and more. This allows you to order drugstore items online and have your purchases delivered to your home. The online drugstores are part of the growing online trade (see electronic trade ).
In Austria there are still specialist drugstores alongside drugstores. A large number of the specialty stores have come together to form a purchasing and marketing cooperation under the name “Know how”. Austrian drugstores are also authorized to sell herbal medicines. Therefore, a qualification test is required in order to be allowed to run a drugstore independently in Austria. Among other things, appropriate knowledge in botany, chemistry, health and nutrition, drug science , pharmaceutical science and chemical science must be proven.
In Switzerland, on the other hand, a drugstore is a specialist shop for health and beauty that is run by chemists and that values expert advice. The large and varied range of products offered by a drugstore includes around 15,000 items. Since many of them are remedies, the requirements to run a drugstore are stricter in Switzerland. So it needs to run a drug store an operating license, which is a four-year apprenticeship as a chemist requires EFZ and a two-year study to Drogist HF. One of the most famous drugstore franchise chains is Dropa .
The situation again differs significantly in other countries. In Great Britain, for example, there is no clear separation between pharmacies and drug stores. The market is dominated by large chains such as Alliance Boots or Superdrug , which also have prescription drugs in their range.
history
The word drug comes from the Dutch droog (dry). It was used in medieval trade for dried goods such as spices and dried medicinal plants. Drug stores evolved from the medieval drug stores. Corresponding goods were offered by pharmacists as well as "specerey dealers" or spice dealers (Würzkrämer). For a long time, however, only pharmacies were allowed to sell medicinal and poisonous herbs. It was not until the imperial ordinance of March 25, 1872 in Germany and the ordinance of June 17, 1886 in Austria that herbs could be sold again as medicinal drugs in drugstores. In addition, druggists made their own toothpaste , toothpowder, baking powder , skin cream , shoe polish cream or sheet metal cleaner from various ingredients at the buyer's request . The products differed from dealer to dealer. Bleaching water , herbal mixtures and rubbing alcohol were either filled in containers they had brought with them or sold in paper bags.
When photography emerged, photographers in the drugstore stocked up on the materials they needed to develop the images. At the beginning of the automobile era there were no gas stations - people stopped in front of the drugstore and bought fuel in small barrels or larger bottles. For a long time, certain articles such as condoms and sanitary towels were only available in drugstores.
At the beginning of the 1970s, in addition to the classic drugstore specialty shop, the drugstore type developed in Germany. In significantly larger areas and with narrower ranges but significantly lower prices, drugstores increasingly gained market share and displaced specialist drugstores.
As a reaction to this, drugstores specialized differently: some increased the perfumery, others strengthened the health food range or switched completely to a health food store . The old drug product ranges such as chemicals, photography accessories, varnishes or detergents and cleaning agents largely disappeared.
The drugstore newspaper has been published since 2004 .
In Switzerland, the drugstore is the specialist shop for health and beauty. The drugstores generate over seventy percent of their sales with OTC products, depot cosmetics, perfumery, body care and health products. Efforts are currently being made to allow Swiss drugstores to sell all non-prescription drugs. A corresponding motion is currently being discussed in the national parliament.
In Catholic areas of 15 August Assumption , the feast of druggists. This goes back to the traditional herb consecration that day.
literature
- Germany, your drugstores . Documentation by the ddf editorial team with the assistance of Dieter Graff. Hoffmanns, Neu-Isenburg 1976, ISBN 3-87347-023-3 .
- Pain go away. Drugstore advertising of the GDR . German Hygiene Museum, Dresden. Westermann-Kommunikation 1992, ISBN 3-928710-01-X .
- Gustav Adolf Buchheister: Handbook of Druggist Practice. A textbook and reference book for chemists, color goods dealers, etc. Berlin 1888, ISBN 978-3-662-36325-6 .
- Karl Schoene: 100 years under the sign of the mortar. Hoffmann, Darmstadt 1973, DNB 740060988 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Law Gazette Republic of Austria of December 13, 1996
- ↑ Werner Dressendörfer: "In apotecis circa realtum". Venice as a shopping center for medicinal drugs during the 15th century. (= Contributions to the history of the drug trade in the Middle Ages. Part 2) In: Orbis pictus. Cultural and pharmaceutical historical studies. Festschrift Wolfgang-Hagen Hein, ed. by Werner Dressendörfer and Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke , Frankfurt am Main 1985, pp. 73–86.
- ↑ Hans-Peter Baum : On the southern goods range on the Würzburg market in 1725. In: Ulrich Wagner (Ed.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume 2: From the Peasants' War in 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1477-8 , pp. 445–447.