The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-03-05
THE DRUG BUSINESS.
The Impression that there is Great Profit
in Prescriptions Erroneous.
iDr. Geo. F. Paine in Merck's Pharmaceutical
Journal

iDr. Geo. F. Paine in Merck's Pharmaceutical
Journal.l
The average modern retail drug store
sells soaa-water, cigars, brushes, combs,
perfumes, various toilet articles, patent
medicines, drugs and prescriptions. The
pharmacist prides himself upon the ex-
cellence of his soda water, but charges
no more for it than the street vender
charges for the veriest Stops. He sells
cigars and certainly his profits on them
would not please the proprietor OF
cigar store. Brushes, combs, perfumes
and toilet articles are sold in direct
competition with the dry goods stores.
The druggist sells better article, but
has to take smaller profit for selling
them. Patent medicines are often sold
at actual cost, to cater to the public
fancy that the druggists profits are
large No one, of course, understand
the matter better than the pharmacist
himself; but when it comes to prescrip-
rions, the ancient superstition regarding
enormous profits has been inherited even
by some pharmacists themselves.
When the prescription business is looked
into closely, it proves to be far less
profitable than the pharmacist himself
fondly imagines. How profitable our
business would be, exclaimed one :" if
we could all keep busy putting up pre-
scriptionsn Upon actual count with this
gentleman it was found that his three
prescriptionists if kept gong all day
could compound one hundred and twenty
prescriptions-or forty each at an aver
age of fifty cents apiece. This was twenty
dollars day to each man. The same
clerk if kept steadily employed selling
toilet goods all day could readily dis
pose of one hundred and sixty dollars
worth; this at the rate OF twenty live
cents for fifteen-cenG tooth brush, one
dollar for a seventy-five cent hair brush
ten dollars for an eight dollar dressing
casket. would pay at least a clear profit
of thirty-two dollars. The prescription
clerks were men who each drew 500
monthly salaries The fancy goods
could be sold just as well by $50 man
or woman. Yet suppose all the prescrip-
tionists' work were profit which is far
from true how much poorer is the re-
ward won by the hard days labor and
mental strain of the prescriptionists than
that of the ordinary salesman? To the
PROPRIETOR this is really a serious matter;
competent prescriptionlsts he must have
and if they are kept judiciously en-
moved their cost is kept at the lowest
point. Yet the smaller the number of
prescriptions compounded by the estab-
lishment upon any given day the greater
the proportionate eXpence; as but for
the necessity of keeping men ready for
this compounding cheaper men could
take their places for the ordinary work.
AS an illustration the following is an
actual occurrence. A customer brlngs
in a prescription calling for Leptandrin
Podophyllin and Calomel to be made
into two pills. He is charged twenty-five
cents and exclaims: Why you must
m axe 100 percent. on that My dear
sir,o was The reply of the pharmacist II
make 1000 per cent. on the cost. OF the
drug: interviewed in that way it is all
profit. The medicine only cost small
fraction of cent; you are welcome to
help yourself to more than this prescrlp-
ton calls for free of charge. But if you
will consider the responsibility involved
in preparing the prescription and will
figure it's cost to be in actual expenses, l
am sure you will appreciate my position.
In the first place you will concede that a
more than that of plumber. A plum
her's time is usually conceded to be
worth fifty cents an hour, even when he
is sitting down waiting tor his helper to
90 on an Grand. The time and skill OF
a dentist is considered still more valua-
| BILE AS it takes fifteen minutes for the
pharamcist to put up the prescription,
record and label it, you see that twelve
and half cents of the charge is on ac-
count of the skilled workman required:
| 1t costs one-half cent to keep the record
and file for each prescription. The pill
| box costs three cents This amounts
to sixteen cents as cost for the prescrip'
ton. Almost any little 25 cent trifiee
picked up in dry goods, fancy or hard
fifteen cents each. So you see the profit
is small when the heavy responsibility is
considered. Your physician probably
spent fifteen minutes time with you, and
| his fee of So was thought perfectly falr ;
| vet YOU wonder at the enormous pfoht OF
| The pharmacist on a twenty-five cent
p pre- Which may be actually the
means of saving your life, IT prepared
| properly, or of destroying it, if not COM