Saudi Gazette Pharmacies across the Kingdom do not only sell medicines now, their shelves now adorn other attractive products to lure customers such as oil treatment products, dyes for hair, hand and body lotion, fragrant lip balms, and a plethora of other beauty products. In this beauty conscious age, private pharmacies have become a frequent stopover for women and girls, and quite often not for medicines, but for cosmetics and other such products. Al-Watan spotted one so-called-pharmacy which was selling drinks, sweets, accessories, and believe it or not — shoes, too! Not only have pharmacies grown in the number of items they sell but they have also exponentially expanded in numbers in almost every city of the Kingdom. It is common to find two or three pharmacies adjacent to one another on the same street, even in small neighborhoods. A pharmacist who has been working at a private pharmacy for the past five years, Khalid Bin Abdul Lateef, said, “Customers in Saudi Arabia trust the products sold in pharmacies, even if the same product can be found at a regular store. The population growth and the influx of more people into cities have resulted in a proliferation of pharmacies to almost every street corner.” “Over 60 percent of our daily revenue of our pharmacy comes from the sale of cosmetics, beauty products, and other regular items. And the remaining 40 percent comes from the sale of medicines,” added Abdul Lateef. Another reason for the spread of pharmacies, according to the Dean of the College of Pharmacy at the Northern Borders University in Arar, Dr. Mutleq Al-Jahdali, is due to ‘guaranteed' profit from owning a pharmacy. In his opinion, there is no financial risk in opening a pharmacy as it is a lucrative investment option because any expired medicines remaining in the pharmacy can be returned to authorities without any financial loss. In addition, the sale of beauty products makes private pharmacies a highly profitable business. Assistant professor of pharmacy at Northern Borders University, Dr. Ahmad Al-Abdulsalam, disapproves of this recent transformation of pharmacies into beauty shops. “The pharmacy was traditionally limited to storing and selling medicines and some medical supplies to the general population, upon the physician's prescription. The pharmacy was more of an essential social service provided by businessmen. I think the profession of pharmacy is losing its previous respect, prestige, and high status. In my opinion, the sale of regular items and cosmetics robs from the reverence of the pharmacist, and equates him with the salesmen at the local mini-markets and grocery stores. Some pharmacists refuse to sell non-medical products so the owner of the pharmacy is compelled to retain a second employee to sell these over-the-counter products,” said Abdulsalam. __
