I was lucky enough to be invited to be a guest speaker at a wonderfully well run conference in NSW a while ago. It was well attended by, predominantly, pharmacy owners, and I had the pleasure of having many one on one conversations with business owners and their pharmacy managers.

What struck me was the level of engagement and responsiveness to the ideas of change, coupled with an inertia brought on by shock and fear of what is happening to our industry.

It left me with a question in my mind that had not been there previously: Will community pharmacy survive?

And, as I was standing in front of 150 pharmacists, business owners, I saw how apprehensive many of them are about the future of pharmacy. Is the writing on the wall? Has the situation spiraled so far with supermarkets and discounters, with uncertainty about government support, that the future for community pharmacy is irretrievable?

I thought, no. Now I’m not so sure.

It happened to stationers. It happened to hardware stores and it’s happened to video shops. Anachronisms, all….and (mostly) no longer in existence. Will it happen to community pharmacy? Here are the arguments in favour and against.

In favour of their survival:
• Pharmacists are amongst the most trusted professions in the world. Number 6 in the survey…
• Community Pharmacists are the most accessible health professionals available, and their services are expanding in a world of overworked and busy doctors
• Community Pharmacists create a culture and atmosphere in their pharmacy and with their staff of being welcoming and helpful. They are paid above award rates and not stuck in the dispensary like in the big boxes. These are people who care about, advise and help people. Customers love that.
• Some are savvy in looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition

But too many are:
• suffering the “deer in the headlights” syndrome. Frozen with fear and watching the lights of the oncoming truck as it’s about to hit them. They’re still relying on prescriptions as their main source of sales.
• refusing or don’t know how to train their staff to sell proactively and with integrity
• Marketing is ineffective, expensive and doesn’t bring in and build a growing base of ‘advocate’ customers
• Not understanding their customers’ real (often unexpressed) needs.

Now is not the time to sit around, take notes and collect CPD points.
It’s time now to take action in each and every one of your businesses.

In these uncertain times, will you stand by and be silent and stunned (into appeasement) or will you rise up and create a new renaissance in pharmacy and use the current circumstances to get smarter in the way you do business?

Which will it be? Fear or fight? Community pharmacy’s survival is at stake here. Choose.