When I moved to Sweden, there was a pharmacy monopoly. Only the state-run company, Apoteket AB, could provide medication of any kind. You could not buy aspirin or nose spray in the supermarket, for example. Opening hours were limited. Which was a pain in the ass if you had a pounding headache on a Sunday afternoon. The range of non medicine items in the stores was very limited. Pharmacy-brand dandruff shampoo, plasters/bandages and cream for very dry skin, perhaps. The staff were all trained – there were pharmacists (4-year degree) and ‘receptarie’ (3-year degree). So if you needed something for cracked heels or allergies they could tell you the difference between all the different products down to what each ingredient did.
In 2009 the pharmacy monopoly ended, and the market was privatised to encourage competition. Big companies like British Boots arrived, but they really didn’t understand the Swedish market. Pharmacies here are not really like an American drugstore or British Boots/Superdrug. They aren’t like French pharmacies either. People go to the pharmacy to buy anti-fungal foot cream, not hair colour or the latest trendy makeup. So we have ended up with a few big companies who make more money online than they do in store. They can have a wider range of items online that different customers can buy.
The weird thing is the prices. Prices of non-medical products in physical pharmacies are 39% to 100% more expensive. Even if I buy online and pick it up at the pharmacy 2 hours later, it can still cost 50% less.
I preferred the old monopoly in that they always had medicine in stock, they were responsible for stockholding for times of war and crisis (which was not the case during covid, leading to serious medicine and PPE shortages), good advice, and expertise. The downside was that you if you got sick at an awkward time, there was no medicine available unless you travelled to the one 24/7 hour pharmacy in central Stockholm.
