Metropol

I was going to say "don't most Boots stores have a pharmacy in them?", but then remembered this tiny one which lasted about a year and didn't. It's about two minutes walk from a full-sized store though.

From the Alliance takeover until last year we had the odd situation of two Boots being across the road from each other, surely that wins.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Hes ... f?hl=en-gb

You'd think they'd have closed one down in that case. That's what happened in Hull's North Point Shopping Centre - the Alliance (formerly Selles) became Boots, and the smaller Boots closed down (it became Co-Op Pharmacy).

I think you’ve made the case for why they haven’t closed one down yet.

The nearest Boots to me is a small shop in Forest Hill where the majority of the footfall is for the pharmacy. There's a limited amount of stock for sale in-store, which means if I do go there, it's for meds or to pick up a click or collect order.

Until a year ago, Boots was the only shop of that type, then Superdrug came along, which is larger (it replaced a M&Co), but doesn't have a pharmacy, which Superdrug tend to only have in busier areas.

wells wrote: ↑Sat 01 Jun, 2019 16.59 I think you’ve made the case for why they haven’t closed one down yet.

They're keeping a clearly unnecessary store open to prevent a competitor moving in?

It’s possible.

Pharmacies operate on a license type deal don't they, whereby the pharmacy has to prove to the NHS that the Pharmacy will in some way fill a gap in demand? Hence why newer ones tend to open late at night, so they can prove they provide a service not already available.

When Boots surrender their license there's a pretty strong case for another chain to 'back-fill', I guess.

Quite how lucrative pharmacies are now, I don't really know. I'm lead to believe a tightening of the rules on Medicine Usage Reviews was behind JS' exit from the market.

We've got a Boots in a retail park that has had its pharmacy application turned down. Which is deeply annoying as you have to use either the pharmacy with the tiny car park up a big hill, or the god awful city centre branch with the slowest service and rudest staff imaginable.

WillPS wrote: ↑Sun 02 Jun, 2019 21.19 Pharmacies operate on a license type deal don't they, whereby the pharmacy has to prove to the NHS that the Pharmacy will in some way fill a gap in demand? Hence why newer ones tend to open late at night, so they can prove they provide a service not already available.

It was certainly once the case that pharmacies offering extended hours were completely exempt from having to prove any local service need - leading some to speculate that popular chains could open next to local pharmacies and accept a temporary "hit" by paying for extended hours until the local pharmacy was driven out of business.

I've no idea whether or not that rule still exists!

In the case of my local Lloyds Pharmacy, they replaced an independent chemist with extended opening hours and also Sunday opening, yet there are four additional pharmacies within 10 min walk of the Lloyds which are independent. (One was previously a Co-op Pharmacy).

Presumably Independents do well in some parts of London, while other areas are dependent on chains.