5 Ways British and American Pharmacies Are Very Different
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- Опубліковано 5 гру 2021
- VLOGMAS DAY 6: In which I outline the five major ways that British and American pharmacies are very different.
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"Why don't British pirates take acetaminophen? Because their parrots-eat-em-all."
Just going to put that one into my back pocket...
Boom boom
I know another- why are there no painkillers in the rainforest? Because the parrots eat em all
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Why dont Americans in Alaska take paracetamol? They just apply ice-to-my-knee-pain
lol, i tried
For myself I use pharmacy and drugstore to refer to different things. "Drugstore" works out to be a colloquialism for any store in the style of Wallgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, etc. While "pharmacy" is the specific area that provides prescription medications regardless of what building it's in.
Yep a pharmacy is an area in a store, be it in a drug store, grocery store, ect. There are some stand alone pharmacies, but those are being taken over by the big drug stores.
Precisely.
This. This is exactly how those words are used where I live.
I used to use both interchangeably, but now refer to the pharmacy if I mean the specific area where you get your Rx
Yup
One day when my daughter was five years old, I picked her up from Kindergarten right after a doctor's appointment. I had a prescription and told her that we were going to stop at the drugstore before going home. She started to fuss and cry and begged me not to take us there. I was concerned and asked her what was wrong with going to the drugstore. She said they had just had some policemen and nurses come to her class and talk to the kids about how drugs were bad and you should never take drugs. After that, we went to the pharmacy.
one of many reasons I'll homeschool mine on the unlikely chance I ever meet a girl.
Poor child!!
why are they teaching kindergarteners about drugs?
@@annistar9693 so they can sound like they're helping without actually doing anything positive. same as anything anyone does anymore.
When he was in grade school I told my son we only get drugs from Craig, our pharmacist.
Drive-Throughs at drug stores are so practical. You can stay in the comfort of your car when you just want to crawl in a hole and die because you feel so sick, and you aren't spreading your germs all over the store.
Right??
Over here, Walgreen's was too cheap to accept the offer for the numerous Longs Drugs locations. CVS ponied up the cash, so there are many more CVS branches, located in prime locations, while Walgreen's had to play catch up in less desirable locations.;)
@J LA I don't know. I've only ever picked prescriptions. I keep the basic OTC stuff stocked at home so I wouldn't need to leave the house while sick to get them, but I've had to pick up prescriptions phoned in by my doctor for stuff like antibiotics and was so glad I didn't need to expend any extra energy by having to actually go into the store and walk around and wait in line, etc.
@J LA Some stores offer drop off and delivery if you request it. Drop off allows you to get stuff put into your trunk as you drive and park in the parking lot.
@J LA, My local CVS stores have started to offer a few otc items to be sold at the window. They have a “menu” sign next to the window! This actually started about the same time as Covid, when no one wanted to go in the store!
"...the Sucrettes. Which, to be clear, are not a 1950s Motown girl group." You slayed me with that one!
And almost made me spit out my tea :)
“Suspiciously like a militia or maliciously like a suspicion “. Hilarious! 🤣. Really enjoyed this clip
It was the Nyquil! LOL!!!😄😅🤣😂👍 Merry Christmas!🌲🎅🤶
In the United States as I understand it, the drugstore is the whole store. The pharmacy is the part of the store where the pharmacist is. And where you get your drugs etc. that you can't buy simply over the counter. However perhaps this distinction is fading
You are correct. I’ve even gone into my local Walgreens for milk and ice cream.
That's pretty much it. A lot of the drug stores here could have been almost lumped in with the variety stores. Back in the day most of them also had soda fountains. Have you ever watched the Andy Griffith show? I watched it when I was a kid then as an adult realized its true value is in the nostalgia.
@@regsun7947 back then the number and variety of prescription drugs was considerably smaller.
@@kevinbarry71 So true!
@@regsun7947 My town has the oldest running pharmacy and old fashioned soda fountain in the state of Mississippi. It's really neat!
You didn't tell the Brits about CVS and their infamous 32 meter long receipts.
Best in the early part of the pandemic and the tp was hard to find. Go buy a candy bar and have enough for a couple days worth LOL
I call acetaminophen "Tylenol", even though I never actually buy the brand Tylenol because it's more expensive than the generic. Maybe because when it first came out over the counter, only the brand Tylenol was available. Probably the same reason I call all tissues "Kleenex" no matter what brand it is.
Same goes for "Band Aids" for bandages as "Band Aid" is a brand.
Have y'all seen the amazing music video by the people who make Velcro about this very thing? It's wonderful!!
Found a link- ua-cam.com/video/rRi8LptvFZY/v-deo.html
It's known as genericization of trademarks, and it's wonderful! It means we're recapturing the language from the corporations. Remember to lowercase it when you're using genericized names, they're properly written as tylenol, band aid, kleenex, legos, aspirin, and google.
(Oh, and aspirin is a great example of a fully successful genericization. It used to be a trademark of Bayer. It isn't any more.)
Plasters is also a brand name that count on on UK. Like how we call a vacuum cleaner a hoover. Or sticky tape sellotape no matter what make or brand they are lol
@@MrCalland While I love the UK and have often thought of moving there at some point in my life, I'm not sure if I could get used to constantly hearing my last name used to refer to a vacuum cleaner. We have Hoover vacuums in the U.S. but luckily for me that genericization was lost in the pond (at least so far)
I find a lot of Walgreen’s and CVS are literally across the street from each other.
In America - almost every grocery store also has a pharmacy - in Florida Winn-Dixie seems to be the least expensive place to buy drugs (expect arguments on that one)
True!
Because in the 1980s-90s they were engaged in an expansion war and very often opened directly competing stores. The turn of the century saw both chains having to close thousands of stores that consistently lost money as a result of market over-saturation. Ultimately it was stupid, pointless, and - other than for tax-dodging purposes as they got to write off no doubt inflated bad debts and so - on detrimental to both companies. Capitalism at its best.
Or kitty-corner!
And almost always on a corner.
I'm a pharmacy technician and I knew about paracetamol, but had no clue about Melatonin, Neosporin or Crest White strips! How fascinating & informative! Thank you!
What really stands out to me is that in the U.S. you can buy a bottle of acetaminophen with 500 pills. Or, if you're up for a slightly longer drive, head over to the Costco and buy 2 of those bottles shrink-wrapped together for about the same price. Then you'll have 1,000 pills that you won't be able to use before they expire. 😂
In the UK since 1998 you can't buy more than 16 paracetamol tablets at any visit to a shop or 32 at a pharmacy counter. (8g and 16g respectively.) It's supposed to reduce suicide rates but may not have had much effect on them.
@@nowster Its not really suicide that a paracetamol overdose causes, it's people presenting at a&e for acetomenaphen antidote or if they've left it too late- liver failure.
The drive-thru at our pharmacies may seem extra but imo they are a great thing because it gives sick people (or parents with very young sick children) a way of getting their meds without spreading their pestilence around 😋
I made the unfortunate choice of skipping the drive through at Walgreen's today to get my meds. 6 cars ahead of me so I went into the store. 16 people ahead of me in line. One hour plus...I made a lot of new friends while waiting lol
They're also being used for testing for The Virus.
One good thing is it forces the place to have at least two lines open. Because you know without the drive-through, they'd be unconcernedly funneling everyone through a single drag-ass queue
Not only that but because of location differences I see why the UK doesn’t have them. They are usually on a street where u would walk by normally and they have no space for anything but street parking and no where to drive around for a drive thru.
In the UK pharmacies do home deliveries. Drive through is so alien to us Brits
I fix up old houses, so to me “plaster” is something that goes on a wall (or more to the point, crumbles off a wall and needs replaced). Also, a “chemist” is a scientist who studies chemicals-if I were to go to “the chemist’s” I would expect beakers of liquid bubbling over bunsen burners, test tubes with silver deposited on their insides (an actual experiment I did in a college chem class once!) and the like. I wonder if they used to sell chemicals of all kinds, including medicinal ones, and later started specializing in drugs.
The answer is yes.
A long time ago, pharmacists would mix "chemicals" and medications to make your prescription. They were/are compounders. That's why some drugstores have a mortar and pestle logo. Most just provide ready made medicines, but some compounders are still out there.
Yes, if you read golden age whodunnits, the poisons used to commit the murders are often purchased --- under the pretext of being for other purposes, of course! -- from the local chemist.
Plaster is also used as the term for what goes on the wall in the UK. I dare say it was first given as the name to "sticking plasters" (which is the "full version", as it were. It's not used much these days) because they cover up damage to the skin in the same way plaster is used to cover up bare walls and often, in small amounts to cover up damage to the wall. It makes sense.
Iirc, "band aid" was a proprietary name which came to be the overarching name for them. Although I could have heard bad information - I would have picked that up pre-internet, or right in its early days when questioning what you found on the web wasn't as automatic a thing as it is now. It wouldn't be "out there" as a thought, though, because many company names have become the generic term for the thing it's most famous for, like Google/to google and in the UK Hoover/to hoover (up - often used for people or animals who eat so fast that it looks like they used a vacuum cleaner to do the job lol).
I used to pop down to the village chemist's to pick up prescriptions, but these days I live in an even more rural area and our GP surgery has its own dispensary. That word being the thing that distinguishes a pharmacy/chemist from a place where you can get everything _but_ your prescription, like Superdrug (I always thought that to be a weird shop name). I presume it's the same as a drug store but my old memories have people drinking sodas in them - from film and TV - which isn't what you get here.
You can get some OTC meds in places like that (a very limited amount of items, compared to the USA it seems), like vitamins and mineral supplements, aspirin and paracetamol (only a certain number are allowed to be bought in shops because of potential overdose risk. I actually have to have a prescription for paracetamol because I'd be having to buy them twice a week!), and things like straps for damaged joints, says she wearing a support brace from Amazon on her knee 😆, but it's mostly everything else connected to generally looking after yourself (physically and mentally) from hair brushes and make up, to deodorants and sanitary ware, and of course everything you need for babies. They widen their inventory a lot, but if you want something connected to you as a biological being, I guess is a good description(?), it's your best bet for finding what you want.
Another thing you used to find in old chemists' was photo development. Some would send them away for you (I remember this being a big part of holidays in the 70s. The first chore after settling back in at home was to drop your films off at the chemist's), but because they were originally run by actual chemists, some places developed them themselves (probably most did before big film processing companies came along). A week later, you went and got them. That time did dramatically drop, but that's my earliest memory of that.
@@y_fam_goeglyd I learned by watching the Brit-com "Chef!" that one wears a blue Elastoplast in the kitchen in case it falls off in the food. That way, it's easier to find and thus identify whether the food is contaminated. Granted that was a TV show, but it seems reasonable. Then I noticed that they use blue bandages in "The Great British Baking Show". It's my understanding that they are also metal detectable in food processing plants.
In many small, rural towns you can still find independent pharmacies/drug stores on Main Street or around the town square. Some used to have soda fountains ….
We had one back home. He made this black cherry syrup that could mask even the nastiest of medicines. And always had a supply of sodium silicate for leaky radiators.
Have one in VaBch
Here in Florida there's one in almost every town. Many are even in strip malls. They're usually called compounding pharmacies because it's the only place to get certain prescriptions that have to be mixed in custom amounts. I'd never heard of it before I moved here though so I'm not sure but I imagine it's the same in other places as people need this kind of thing all over.
HAd one in Chester, Va. when I moved here in '71 that had a full lunch counter. You could get a 'Chesterburger' (Double burger similar to a Shoney's Bigboy), order of fries and a large soft drink for just shy of two dollars. They also had the best limeades anywhere, hands down!
When we moved to Oklahoma back in 1980, our small town had three pharmacies with soda fountains on Main Street alone. We do still have several independent pharmacies, one of which is relatively new and has a soda fountain. When I worked as a hospice nurse back in the 90s, it was the independent pharmacies that we could call in off-hour emergencies for patient medications. One had a pharmacist who was especially talented in compounding unique medication formulations for us.
As a Brit I would say that a pharmacy is the counter where you pick up prescriptions etc., whereas a chemist is the whole store. You can also find pharmacies in other places such as in hospitals or some supermarkets etc., hence why the NHS would use the word pharmacy rather than chemist
I think my local chemist does probably say "pharmacy" outside, but it's not big enough at all for the distinction of "counter" vs "whole shop" to make any difference. They do have non-medicinal items like makeup but you're never more than a few steps from the counter, so I would never think to differentiate, though I see your point about pharmacies in other locations.
I thi
@@vickyc2573 I think the way I'd differentiate it, even though its all from the same counter, is that the stuff you can pick up in sthe shop and hand to the cashier is stuff you buy from the chemists, but anything you have to ask for and be given from behind the counter (either doctor prescribed or prescribed by the pharmacist themselves) you've hit pharmacy territory.
I'll notice in boots sometime they'll have sales staff and pharmacists, and sometimes you ask a sales person a question and you then have to wait for the pharmacist to be free because you've accidentally wandered over to pharmacy territory.
As an American pharmacy technician I'm very used to referring to pharmacies as legally defined areas. Inside a drugstore or grocery store, there may be a pharmacy and only pharmacy staff are generally allowed inside, and that is where prescription only medications are stored and prescriptions are processed (and some restricted over the counter drugs). It may be my bias from working in a pharmacy, but I think most people also would say "I need to go to the pharmacy" if they're actually going to get prescriptions, but if they're just going to pick up a few things at the same place but aren't intending to get prescriptions, they would likely just call it the drugstore, or by the name, CVS, Rite Aide, whatever.
During my first trip to South Africa to visit my in-laws, I had an unfortunate allergic reaction to the airplane blanket. By the time I got to my in-law's house, My face was covered in a dozen tiny red sores. So I decided a trip to the pharmacy was an order. Imagine my shock when I get there and I find out I can't buy triple antibiotic ointment without a prescription. But I can get codeine right off the shelf. Since I'm an asthmatic and I'm almost certain to have some sort of coughing fit. I bought the codeine and covered my face and honey, which is a natural antibiotic and took care of the breakout.
@Nicky L I had those. They stopped the spread but didn't heal the sores. The honey cleared them up in about three days.
Yeah they barely ever wash airplane blankets. Best bring your own throw blanket.
@@lissam8988 would be afraid of scabies as well as bed bugs.
when my dog had surgery the vet recommended that I buy from them Manuka Honey Ointment. I found that my local Walmart carried it...yes it was in the first aid section and yes it is just HONEY! I told my husband he could have the left over "ointment" to put on his toast.
@@purplehaze8471 I would bring a cheap one you are willing to throw away if you are on a long haul flight when you get to where you are going.
You forgot to mention that you can find CVS inside of Target stores which further confuses the people who are still wondering about Walmart/ Walgreens
And of course you can find Walgreens inside of Kroger. And Kroger inside of Walgreens.
(I'm not sure how widespread that is. But it's a thing here, Kroger has a Walgreens aisle, and Walgreens has Kroger Express inside.)
@@jonc4403 Not in my area, but the closest Kroger is about 200 miles away. I live in Missouri.
Saturday I was in Target with my mom and she kept telling me she was going to cvs to look for some candy we couldn’t find. I kept telling her there was no cvs around the area we were at. She insisted she saw a cvs sign while we were parking. I finally figured out she saw the cvs sign for the pharmacy in Target. I explained the mistake to her and drove her to cvs on the way to her house. They didn’t have the candy either.
@@jonc4403 What part of country u in?
Haven't seen the Walgreens/Kroger thing.
And Walmart has nothing to do with Walgreens. Walgreens was founded by a pharmacist named Sam Walgreen.
My first trip to England resulted in me needing to go to a pharmacy for a bandaid and acetaminophen for a blister. It took about an hour with the concierge to figure out I needed to go to the chemist for a plaster and paracetamol.
I've been watching " Inside The Ambulance", filmed in Britain, for quite awhile and I am a nurse. I have been wondering for ages what the heck Paracetamol IS!!! Was it Ibuprofen, Tylenol, or maybe Naproxen? I finally have my answer. YAY! I can sleep peacefully tonight! LOL! 👏👍😄😃🇺🇸
@@joannegaughan6132 I'm a UK nurse. Ibuprofen and naproxen are the same thing here. Acetomenaphen is the proper name for paracetamol it's just that most people call it paracetamol. If they looked on the packet it would say that it contains acetomenaphen
@@tweetypie1978 thanks!✋👍😀
@@tweetypie1978 ibuprofen and naproxen are not the same thing, although they are both NSAIDS that act in similar ways. But not the same drug. Acetomenaphin is not the proper name for paracetemol. Paracetemol is the international name for the drug, but the US had called it Acetomenaphin for so long that whilst they've opted into the international drug naming conventions (called IAN) they made an exception for Acetomenaphin, because they just prefer it that way.
Interestingly paracetemol and Acetomenaphin are both abbreviations of the same proper name for the compound N-acetyl-para-aminophenol. Can kinda see why we needed a version that rolls off the tongue easier than that!
As the saying goes, when in Rome.......
I went to Boots in Glasgow while visiting. I asked for acetaminophen and diphenhydramine, in case they weren't familiar with Tylenol and Benadryl. I was surprised that the clerk asked what medications I take and then asked the chemist if it was alright for me to take these over the counter medicines. I already knew that I could, but I appreciated the fact that she asked to be sure. Also, you can find Boots personal care products at Target in the US.
That always happens in the UK. You will be asked about medications you are on that may interact or if you have health conditions that may be affected by the drug you are taking, eg if you have asthma and want to buy ibuprofen. Some things you can buy no questions asked but a lot of drugs can only be purchased in a pharmacy if there is a pharmacist present when you buy it and also you may be asked why you want it to make sure you are buying it for the right reason.
@@Spiklething I wondered about whether that was SOP or just politeness. I thought the Glaswegians were very nice.
@@RobSchellinger You can buy Ibuprofen and Paracetamol at the supermarket too but if you go to a self-checkout rather than a person the red light will come on and a member of staff will have to approve it. It's the same for energy drinks and obviously alcohol.
@@blotski How interesting! What a genteel practice (speaking as an American, though I rarely use the self check-out aisles),
Walgreens owns Boots and P&G makes a lot of their store brand products
You didn't mention CVS has food, makeup, candy, drinks (non-alcoholic) etc. And receipts that are 3 feet long.
Probably because that isn't really that different from some place like Boots - the selection of items is obviously a little different, but the major Pharmacies in both countries have plenty of non-medical items for sale (though I will say that pharmacies in the US definitely sell more food items than where I was in Northern UK - though that might be because of their proximity to other food selling locations...literally right next to a bakery for the one I frequented)
Wine. I can buy wine at my local CVS.
We have booze at CVS and Walgreens in Indiana. Down in Florida, you have to go outside and into a separate liquor store part of CVS or Walgreens.
@@emersonpropst2886 If I remember correctly, the Boots I visited in Glasgow was more like a small convenience store with a pharmacy area.
@@RobSchellinger that's what my experience in the north of England was like too
I can’t believe the UK doesn’t have Neosporin! I would’ve never made it through childhood without it 😂
My doctor as do many recommends straight bacitracin over a triple like Neosporin as one of the ingredients many people have a reaction to it.
@@ryanhawkins1235 Luckily I don’t. I use neosporin all the time lol.
@@ToniaElkins Be careful, as I had no problem for years, but developed an allergic reaction to neomycin and I can’t use Neosporin anymore. Generic bacitracin is also usually cheaper for the same results.
@@ryanhawkins1235 That makes sense, but bacitracin /is/ the one I’m allergic to.
We just put antiseptic on our cuts and stuff in UK or jjst wash it with waem soaping water.
Laurence, your dry wit was on full display in this episode. I was laughing all the way through it!
"Band Aid" is a trademark. The generic term is "adhesive bandage", or simply "bandage". Geldorf knew what he was doing. He named the concert as sort of a play on the words.
The concert was Live Aid. The Band was Band Aid. Not sure Band Aid is a trademark as they are both commonly used works. If it is, it would be hard to enforce. Then again, they probably didn't want the bad publicity that would ensue if they went up against "f**k the address" Geldof.
@@hairyairey "Band-Aid ®️" is most assuredly a registered trademark of Johnson & Johnson. But note the hyphen.
The concert and records were so long ago, and I paid so little attention to them, that I can only blame my not-so-perfect memory for the confusion.
@@thelastremainingmoderate1997 Agreed about the hyphen that's probably what confused me. That and the fact that "Band Aid" is in such commonplace use that Johnson and Johnson would be unlikely to enforce the trademark now. Happy to be proven wrong on this.
I read the BBC often so told my friends here in the US "I'm getting my first jab tomorrow". They had no idea except one thought it involved a knife and surgery. I had added the word to my vocabulary weeks before after seeing also those UK headlines.
In Scotland it's a jag, not a jab. Because it's jaggy
I've heard jab a lot in US. It contains a negative connotation though.
A lot of Walmarts even have a pharmacy of their own. There's definitely no shortage of them.
Not just Walmart, a lot of the larger grocery stores have pharmacies
Don't most or all of them? I remember an old friend of mine who was studying to be a pharmacy years ago told me that Walmart was the largest pharmacy chain in the country.
@@BONNIEGRESHAM true. I got my covid booster dose at Hy-Vee for instance.
@@magister343 I think most of them do, yes.
In this area, all of the Walmarts have pharmacys. Even the smaller neighborhood Walmarts that are more focused on Grocery items, and sometimes have drive thru's like most of the Walgreens.
Navigating the differences of what's available without a prescription is one of the many joys of being an expat 🤣
I went in the other direction. It's weird how basic US first aid supplies like rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide are very difficult to obtain here. Then there's things that would be absolutely not sold in the US, like morphine-based GI therapies, that are just out on the shelves. But heaven forbid you want some melatonin 🤣
Another funny pharmaceutical difference is packaging. Pills, caplets, chewable things, are all in blister packs in the UK, where they'd be in bottles in the US. I suppose this is good for preventing overdose and misuse, but it's not as easy to recycle.
And art absolute hell to open if you have arthritis, or other dexterity issues
I remember hearing, at some point, that rubbing alcohol had run afoul of regulations because of it being pure alcohol... silly stuff.
all kinds of meds come in those awful blister packs here (amurica). they are such a waste of plastic and paper!!!! totally, environmentally negligent!! 🌷🌱
As a US-to-UK immigrant, this has driven me crazy as well. I use rubbing alcohol for cleaning all sorts of things, but here I have to order it specially because all the pharmacies carry is surgical spirit which is full of additives that I'm sure are nice for skin but leave greasy residue behind when cleaning! Also the prescription-only status of naproxen sodium, aka Aleve, is maddening.
@@feralbluee In the US, small quantities will come in blister packs, but prescription meds and larger quantities of OTC meds are usually available in bottles. Here in the UK, even my prescription meds are dispensed in individually boxed-up blister packs, and larger quantities of OTC meds are banned! No hundred-count bottles of allergy pills or aspirin to be found anywhere.
You got to Laurence credit, he moved to a country where no one speaks his language.
Having been a pharmacy tech for 10 years, this is something I have always wondered. Very interesting.
Ive been one since '06 and I remember the first time I had a patient ask me where the paracetamol was and I had no idea what she was talking about. Thankfully my pharmacist knew.
Had that happen to. But is was the resident user who knew...
I remember on a family trip to Vienna, my brother picked up a mild cold and we ran around trying to figure out A) what a Pharmacy looked like and B) what to get when the stuff you normal get isn’t available over the counter 😅
This has been mentioned in other videos besides this one, but I thought Laurence was going to mention the range of items one finds at a British chemists vs an American pharmacy. Especially non drug-and-vitamin items.
When I visited York a few years ago, I went to the Boots on the high street near The Shambles where I picked up some paracetamol for a headache. I was also able to get a small sandwich, a packet of crisps and a Coke.
Meanwhile, my local Rite-Aid here in California is basically a prescription pharmacy plus a convenience store selling many other items. After picking up a refill of my blood pressure pills, I can also get a bottle of Jameson's whiskey, a carton of ice cream, and Christmas decorations for my home and Christmas cards.
I don't know of any other generic drug name that changes between English-speaking countries like acetaminophen & paracetamol. Trade names, yes, but not drug names since learning of this difference about 8 years ago.
I have seen the term "jab" used more here since the COVID vaccine became available. Most of my UK medical terminology came from Peppa Pig, tho.
Also, it's common in the US to find a pharmacy inside major retailers (Walmart, Target, etc.), as well as large chain grocery stores (Kroger, Publix, etc.).
Aware of the paracetamol/acetaminophen distinction, I once very bashfully tried to find out from a chemist in a Boots what the British name for 'ibuprofen' was. After launching in to my careful explanation of the nature of the drug ("We call it ibuprofen. It's an NSAID, often used for, er, well, cramps, and..."), I was informed that in the UK this drug is called...ibuprofen.
Actually, the chemist was very nice about it, and we had a good laugh over it together, but I'm sure he thought I was an utter imbecile. Because of the paracetamol thing, I'd just assumed that *all* the generic drug names would be different!
Acetaminophen and Paracetamol are both shortenings of acetyl-para-aminophenol, the actual chemical name, as is APAP. I’m actually a bit surprised there aren’t variant shortenings for ibuprofen or naproxen.
Publix? I've heard of Kroger.
@@minnie2185 In Florida.
One that comes to mind for me is aspirin. Not that it isn’t known by that name worldwide, but rather that in some countries, it’s a registered trademark of the Bayer corporation. Conversely in other countries, the US amongst them, it’s the generic name, because in those countries Bayer’s trademark rights to the name were lost as war reparations from World War II.
When my dad was in the US for work, he needed some over the counter medication. The only pharmacy that was open was a drive through one, but he hadn't hired a car so he had to walk up to the window 😆
When I got struck in London by one of those black London Taxis, I was taken to Guy’s Hospital and checked over. The beautiful Scottish doctor prescribed a mild pain pill. I want to say it was the equivalent of ibuprofen (Motrin). After we got released we went back to Poole, where my friend lived. We stopped in an Apothecary Shop. I know that’s an old name for a pharmacy, but I had never seen it actually used outside books about times past. It seemed rather a small shop compared to US pharmacies like Walgreen or CVS/Rite Aid.
You never hear much about apothecaries on either side of the pond.
In the old days, medicines were custom made to order. There are some around called "compounding pharmacies", which make up things you can't buy in made up form because of limited application.
They are coming back! We get our bitters ingredients at an apothecary.
I guess I hadn't thought about how they're all buying each other up or putting other out of business. Walgreens recently bought out Rite Aid, who had bought out Brooks (and probably others regionally) before them. You used to see a lot of independent, smaller pharmacies. The drugstore annotation comes from my parents/grandparents generation where pharmacies expanded into having some everyday items for sale, and even soda fountains (the first sodas -- Coca-Cola especially, were medicines). At this point pretty much any pharmacy is a drug store with the products they sell. Walmart isn't excluded by the way -- they have their own pharmacy that notably has good prices on generic prescription drugs.
Apparently Doc Martin taught me a lot of these words!
Me too!
I don’t remember the brand name right now, but when I moved to Australia, I was pleasantly surprised to find the equivalent of our Tylenol III (containing Codeine) as an OTC (over the counter) medication, not requiring a prescription.
Nurofen or Panadole/Panadeine.
Co-codamol is paracetamol and codeine. Neurofen plus is ibuprofen and codeine. They sell it over counter in UK too
You can get a pack of the 8/500 dose of cocodamol over the counter in the UK too, but not the higher strength 30/500s or just codeine on its own.
@@tweetypie1978 - And also in Canada.
I hope you had a dozen episodes or more for December pre-recorded for your sanity this month Lawrence..I admire the goal, but man thats a tough thing to pull of(vid a day) through Dec.
I worked for a company that did business with Boots here in America and for a few years I assumed they were a shoe store.
On my first trip to London, many years ago, I needed to find a drugstore for a few things. I found a Boots near my hotel in the Earl's Court area and was looking for washrags (since the hotel didn't offer them, strange) and something like Pepto Bismol for an upset stomach. I found some pretty expensive wash cloths for face washing that did the trick but found that I couldn't buy Pepto Bismol because apparently it is made with bismuth that you couldn't buy in Britain at that time (that was in the 90s, so it may have changed.) I remember asking someone what they had that was similar for upset stomachs and bought something else. I remember thinking that another difference between Boots and say a CVS was that our drugstores carry a lot of other items like bread, small appliances (especially Walgreens where you can a toaster, electric knife, coffee maker etc.) Our drugstores are more like a variety store and the Boots was pretty focused on health type items. I enjoy your videos very much and hope that you and your wife have a wonderful holiday season!
The larger boots do carry much more lines but even then in terms of electrical appliances it's probably limited to hairdryers, electric shavers, hair clippers and similar things
The biggest section in the huge boots in the city centre (downtown) here is probably devoted to hair dye!
If you want a "wash rag" in Britain, you have to ask for a "flannel."
I totally agree with the COVID-19 shot feeling like a punch in the arm the next day.
Agreed. 2/3 didn't hurt when I actually got them, but I definitely had a very sore arm the next day.
@Bobb Grimley there's nothing wrong with people having trivial complaints. Saying this just makes you seem rude.
I was down for three days after the second jab. It felt like I got worked over by Mike Tyson. (NO third jab for me).
I got my booster shot, 2 weeks ago, my arm felt like, I got hit by a bus. it hurt worse than the 2 covid19 vaccines put together.
@Bobb Grimley you don't need to be rude and I was not commenting to you and the subject was about covid vaccines not injuries or Abuse of any kind.
I moved to the uk in september and the three things I needed fairly quickly were Tylenol, Neosporin, and melatonin. I spent ages in boots looking for them until I finally googled them. I wanted to CRY when I found out they weren't available.
Here in Canada (or at least Ontario where I live) the big two pharmacies, or drugstores, are Shopper's Drug Mart and Rexall. Of course Walmart has a huge pharmacy section as well. Plus, I'm almost positive I remember that we had Boots drugstores back in the 70s, perhaps into the 80s. I think they may have been bought out by another drugstore conglomerate.
Upon further research, I was right. (at least if Wikipedia is to be believed) We had Boots here from 1978 to 1989 when they were bought out by PharmaPlus, which in turn was bought out by Rexall.
Lots of Rexall stores here in the U.S. as well.
Rexall was basically a drug wholesaler/maker that licensed its name to independent druggists who sold their products. Walgreen had a similar concept with "Walgreen Agency" stores-those slowly went away as Wags began to expand their own stores.
From my observations, supplements in the US will take up a whole aisle, while the UK has a small section next to contraception and opposite dental health.
At my local pharmacy it seems to be next to all the nicotine replacement stop smoking stuff!
I remember when I was a kid growing up, when our neighborhood drugstore always smelled of gardenias, that is to say the left side of the store that actually sold medicine, sundries and filled prescriptions. The other side was the more frequented side, the lunch counter.
When I visited my father in FL, we would sometimes go to Rexall pharmacy and have breakfast. It was just a few years ago that we went. But now, both my dad and the pharmacy are both gone. I guess time moves on for us all.
Yes, pharmacies usually had a limited menu lunch counter. Mostly ice cream, which Rite Aid still has in some stores. The term "soda fountain" comes from the drugstores.
Woolworth's!
Moving from UK to Australia in the late 70's I asked for certain cough medicines (common in UK) only to find looks of alarm and horror as the UK ingredients had been banned there, years earlier.
The situation with painkillers is interesting. In the UK, you can walk into a pharmacy, ask for co-codamol, and buy it without a prescription, but co-codamol requires a prescription from a doctor in the US. The position is the reverse for low-dose naproxen.
Codeine is highly addictive is why you can't buy it OTC in the USA.
Thank you Mr. Brown. This episode was a real shot in the arm.
Some years ago I started watching makeup/beauty tutorials on this very platform. Most of my favorites have been Brits or Irish Ladies. When they said “high street brands” for the first time I was so confused. And when the words “go to the chemist and look for…” hit my ears I was even more befuddled. Until….I googled it! Lol
Point of clarification about US retailers mentioned owning UK retailers.
Wal*Mart sold ASDA just about a year ago, after owning it for just over 20 years
Walgreen's (WBA) is looking to sell Boots again after a significant period of ownership. It will be interesting to see if WBA keeps owning/operating the wholesale business (the "Alliance " part, a business that Boots bought before being taken over by Walgreen's)
Couple of other points:
For safety reasons, all retailers in the UK won't let you buy more than two small packets of Paracetamol at one time (and it is only sold in small packets, no 100+ bottles available)
Boots invented/discovered and launched ibuprofen (used to have research labs).
This was a excellent episode - thank you.
I need to remember not to drink my tea or coffee whilst watching your videos :) The "vitamin aisle" had me in stitches.
Did you get those stitches at the chemist's?
I loved that he kept saying it 😃
I absolutely adore your videos!! You're so hilarious and your monologues are ingenius~
You missed RITE-AID Pharmacy Chain...AND MOST Kroger Stores have a pharmacy inside! You can shop while your prescription is being filled.
You could also tell them that in the UK a 'shot' apart from something coming from a gun is a quick, short alcoholic drink. We also have a lot of small independent chemists/pharmacies dotted around residential areas. There are two within walking distance of my house. The word pharmacy is the word that the NHS uses that has spread now. But in everyday conversation we still say chemist. I'd always say 'I'm going to the chemist's' rather than pharmacy. Another thing that as a Brit I was really shocked when I visited America how many adverts there were on TV for drugs. And I mean prescription drugs. You might get adverts over here for non-prescription stuff like headache tablets but the idea of telling people to ask a doctor for a particular drug is unheard of.
It's interesting because someone else mentioned this somewhere and I have been paying attention since then...it's like 90% of the commercials are for prescription drugs! It's all about the $$$$$ because they are bloody expensive! My husband takes one that I see advertised all the time and it costs him over $700 a month. Keeps him alive and he's worth that!
@@xo2quilt I'm sure he is! I've been thinking about this and it occured to me that because, as you probably know, our health system is run as a public service financed by taxes we don't really regard ourselves as 'customers', if that makes sense. The drug companies deal directly with the NHS so advertising to the public is pretty pointless. We are of course free to discuss our drugs with our doctors and my personal experience is that they discuss and explain things and get your agreement but there's no sense of 'I'm paying so this is what I want'.
As far as I'm aware the US and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow the advertisement of prescription medicines to the general public, and as xo2quilt mentions that's probably because of the money to be made. To give an example, paracetamol (acetaminophen) in the UK is around $0.60 a pack after tax and the last I checked the same in the US would set you back around $5.60 in Wal*Mart _before_ tax.
The alcohol term is used in the US as well. It doesn't ever get confused because of context for the usage.
"Band Aids" touches on an interesting difference. The brand name for generic.
Both sides use brand names for certain things, even when it's not the brand. But we do have differences.
Band aids is a brand of bandage. ("plasters" cracks me up) We use that term for any brand though.
Kleenex is a brand of facial tissue. Same...we use it no matter the brand.
But we vacuum our carpets, while I understand that across the pond one Hoovers the carpet. That's a brand name, and we use the generic term instead.
Of course, in the South, "Coke" is a term for all sodas (aka "pop" if you're in certain states)
How many more of these are there on each side? 🤔
I think this is one of your better humorous episodes. Merry Vlogmas!
What shocked me here in Scotland was seeing a poster telling you to see the pharmacist (instead of a doctor) for treatment of a UTI if you have one.
There's a pharmacy in southern Indiana called Butt Drugs. Not kidding.
Thanks for explaining paracetamol. I hear this phrase used in episodes of "Doc Martin" and wondering if it was similar to Tylenol.
You should have also mentioned how many stores have pharmacies in them (Target - which has CVS pharamacies in them, Costco, Walmart, Kmart when they were still a thing...basically any grocery store).
I use the pharmacy in the local Publix supermarket. I much prefer it to the Walgreens. The wait time is generally less and a number of medications are discounted.
That's the same in the UK, most reasonably sized supermarkets have pharmacies in them.
As the son of an Australian Pharmacist, and having lived in Australia and New Zealand, and visited chemists/pharmacies in several European and Asian countries, the USA is the first country where I’ve been to where alcohol and tobacco are sold in pharmacies.
The most amusing thing is the mixture of two weight systems--doseages are calculared in mg per pound,
I was shocked when I moved to London that the chemist wanted to know my symptoms for my cold. Why? Because they wanted to know what medicine to give me. I was confused. I would have just wondered down the isle comparing different labels.
American pharmacists will make recommendations like that for you if you ask them. Lots of people don't think about the fact that a pharmacist is capable of being much more than just a pill counter, they've got doctorates.
That would be a pharmacist consultation for over-the-counter medications that can only be sold by a qualified pharmacist.
There are islands in stores? And what is there to "wonder" about?
@@jonc4403 as a pharmacist, I appreciate your comment ❤️ much more to the job than counting in multiples of 5 😁
I lived in Peru for 11 years and had to buy paracetamol there when I had a cold, and I never realized that it was the same as acetaminophen! I always wondered why there was no acetaminophen sold there. 😅 Thanks for enlightening me, Lawrence!
This vlog was just what I needed this morning. I laughed and laughed! Good Going Lawrence
More like this please! I love learning these "little" things that are different and why. It's really cool. I also get things from friends I've made in Belgium, Germany and Australia. Hope you're well that that those weird December tornados didn't find you. All the best!
Speaking of "Chemist," a photographic friend of mine went to Europe "on Uncle Sam's dime" to run a military drug detection lab in Germany before the fall of The Wall.. On vacation in the UK, she was (somewhat) nonplussed when people asked which Pharmacy shop she worked for after she identified herself as a "Chemist.";)
To add to the confusion between Walgreens and Walmart, many (if not all) Walmarts have a pharmacy section inside. In the same way many a grocery store has a pharmacy section as well. The pharmacy section in my local Kroger, for example, is where I got my flu vaccine last fall
Also not sure about wholesale clubs in general, but Sam's Club locations have pharmacy sections inside as well
4:00 We used to have another huge chain called Rexall which went into decline causing their stores to close. Also, CVS bought Eckerd Drugs which was founded in Florida and had outlets across the Southeastern US. By purchasing Eckerd's CVS was able to leap ahead of Walgreens in market share.
When visiting Denmark my wife had a migraine and we didn’t have any medicine, so we went looking for a “drugstore” only to find that they didn’t sell any medications, not even Paracetamol… we had to find the “Apotek” a word derived from Apothecary, which if you can read Russian is what you see in American pharmacies, “Apteka”. We actually found these really cool migraine tablets that dissolved in water and actually worked great. We wish they sold that stuff here.
Ask for "BC powder", it's been around forever.
There aren't enough drugstore options anymore. Less competition has meant increased prices and poor service. CVS is the worst offender, being the Starbucks of pharmacies.
Grocery stores have pretty much everything that CVS has. CVS prices are ridiculous, I just get stuff at the grocery store.
If I remember right Britain and other countries have a green cross on the sign for those buildings.? And it might say pharmacist or druggist if you're lucky
That's mainly a Europe thing. In different European countries the names for pharmacies are usually all cognates of the word "pharmacy" in English, e.g. "farmacie" in Romania. Even though the UK, as pointed out in the video, historically didn't call pharmacies pharmacies. Go figure...
I use Cohen’s Chemists based at Freshney Green Medical Centre where Yarborough Middle School upper school use to be, on Freshney Green Estate (formerly the Yarborough estate a council estate), I use to use Boots Chemists in Freshney Place Shopping Centre in Grimsby Town Centre regularly as well as Sainsbury’s Pharmacy inside (Sainsbury’s supermarket) which was taken over by Lloyds Pharmacy, I also used a Lloyds chemists which today is a Cohen’s Chemists.
I always seem to make a visit to the Pharmacy while traveling abroad; in Sweden the Pharmacy (the one I visited in Stockholm at least) had an entire beauty section complete with a chemist/pharmacist dedicated to helping you find the right products for skin care! I think it was the same in Paris too!😍
Hmmmm, maybe I should stock up on Melatonin while it's still legal. Great vid!!
"Drug store" "quarter pounder"....🤣 Tis quite amazing! The English language IS about the only thing we have that is alike.🇺🇲🇬🇧 I LOVE your channel
Always interesting, Lawrence! This is eye-opening!
I used to go to Boots to get my prescription but they never got it right or didn't have enough etc. So I changed it to my independent pharmacy down the road and they are amazing.
Wow! These differences are quite eye-openers! Didn't know a lot of what is OTC (over the counter)products are not available in the UK. I was aware of most differences you point out but this one was surprisingly revealing. Thanks.
We have free healthcare here so there is an incentive to stop people from self medicating on dangerous drugs. And some OTC drugs are pharmacy only medicines (POM), which basically means they may adversely interact with common prescription medications and require a pharmacist to check what you might already be taking before selling them to you.
"some have a drive thru". LoL. I think most of them do. Here in southern California ☀️ anyways
Same here in southern West Virginia
Some Europeans I've meet are shocked that US grocery stores have full pharmacies run by a real doctor (Pharm.D) with at least 6 years of college. They can legally dispense opioids and other controlled substances four feet from the frozen broccoli. After seeing the store's meat prices these days a dose or two of heroine derivatives might be necessary. $60 a pound for what?
You missed mentioning that in the UK there is often a pharmacy are often located in the same building or next to the GP surgery so that you can get your prescription without driving or excercise.
Drugstore always has me earworming Madness's "House of Fun".
I have a funny feeling that "Getting the jab" is going to become common usage in the US as well. Reporters have picked it up and your starting to hear it used more and more often. And it's fun!
Are you not able to buy a bottle of hydrogen peroxide in the UK?
Good question 🤔
You sure can. Just not in over the counter dental products.
It's really hard to find. The only way I've been able to get some is special order it through an online company. It's not like the US where it's cheap and in every first aid section of both the drug store and the supermarket and probably at the home improvement store too.
You get a jab in England (maybe Wales and Northern Ireland too, I don’t know) but in Scotland you get a jag.
While traveling and staying in the UK, I could not believe that I couldn't get my hands on Neosporin. And I needed it because my niece is small dog bit me. What I was given was a disinfectant that was incredibly painful. And a plaster.
@Nicky L the dog had his shots and so had I
@Nicky L hence the disinfectant used to clean the wound and thus kill the bacteria.
I got food poisoning on a trip to London once*, which only knocked me out for about 24 hours but I was alone and miserable in bed for that time
Didn't know about the acetaminophen/paracetamol difference, so spent minutes looking for like the most basic painkiller at Boots before finally just asking someone lol
Just want to give a shout out to that kind Boots employee who knew exactly what to tell this sick American
* Avoid the Tesco Express watermelon
First Like!
Where I grew up the major business was a pharmaceutical company. It was always referred to as “the pharmacy.” A store where prescriptions were filled was to as a drug store or referred to by its name: Rite Aid, Service Pharmacy, etc.,
One of the biggest differences I noticed is that British pharmacies just stick to well health stuff. IE: medication/bandages. The US ones are basically convenient stores where you can purchase anything from alcohol, milk, or party balloons.
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Britain is much more of a nanny state than the US... although our government is trying hard to catch up.
Your joke about the girl group 😂😅 Here in Australia we use the terms chemist and pharmacy interchangeably. We don't say drugstore. We say paracetamol instead of acetaminophen, shot or jab for an injection, and vitamin aisle for ... well, vitamin aisle 😛 We have big pharmacy chains including Amcal, Terry White, Chemist Warehouse, as well as locally owned independents. Depending on their size, our pharmacies sell everything from prescriptions to vitamins, make-up and cough syrups. I always end up buying more than I intend to!
Actually most shots I have received we accompanied by a cotton ball and an excessive amount of clear surgical tape, or "Self Adhesive Elastic Bandage Wrap", which is complete overkill. We generally refer these as athletic wraps or "Ace" bandages, but that is actually a brand name. "Band-Aid" is also one of brand names that became so popular that we use it to refer to all bandages, regardless of the brand. When I got ny COVID shot they used something new. She placed the bandage on first, and administered the shot through a clear window in the bandage.
We call the self adhesive wrap Coban in the hospital. Likely a brand name. Not clear, it comes in colors. The Ace wrap is made of cloth, needs a metal or tape fastener or comes with velcro on each end of the roll. This is in US.
@@lisamessina5952 I have a hard time finding the cloth ace bandages with metal clips. Walmart has them on their website, but I have ordered them several times and they always get replaced with the new Ace "Reusable" bandages that seem to get irreversibly tangled on the first use. These new Ace bandages are the same as Coban, which is trademark of 3M, and do not have metal clips or Velcro. I prefer the older product as it is truly reusable. The clear tape I was referring to is a different product sold as surgical tape in pharmacies.
"Boots"
You guys give everything such cute names. That's like a name you give a cat with white paws.
Boot was the founder’s surname/family name. The company was originally named Boot’s with a possessive apostrophe.
Laurence mentions that there are two major pharmacy chains in the US, but Rite-Aid is clearly a third major player here. Also, pharmacies can still be found in American town centers, especially in smaller towns, but they will usually be local pharmacies and not one of the major national chains. In a town of, say, 500 people you're just going to have the mom-and-pop drugstore on Main Street, since the bigger chains don't operate in towns that size.
We used to have a pharmacy chain called Eckerd, but it was purchased by CVS about 20 years ago. There was also a regional New Orleans-based chain called K&B (standing for Katz & Besthoff) which operated across the Gulf South and was purchased by Rite-Aid some time around 1997. Everyone in my area (of a certain age) fondly remembers K&B and its purple color scheme, and its ads that ran on local television.
When my daughter spent a semester abroad (a few weeks after 7/7, in 2005, I was a wreck, she was hours late arriving, but the Porter was lovely and promised to look out for her) she had to go looking for a pharmacy as she’d gotten a bit of a cold after the flight and she called me from Boots the chemist asking what was “chesty cough”, you mentioned no neosporin, a week later she was looking for antibiotic ointment to no avail, and bandaids after getting a blister going on a hike to King’s Lynn.
Also, just to mention, pharmacies are in most all larger food chain grocery stores Walmarts and big box stores like Costco and Sam's Club.
Good show! Thanks!