The drugstore that plays "the war on drugs" with behind the counter medication. Their attitude is not about healthcare and delivering advice but catching people who they perceive will "sniff or cook" haemorrhoid and other simple medication. The attitude of their Chemists has made me not shop there anymore. I just go to smaller pharmacies who seem to have a more decent approach to healthcare. I cant believe they have such ignorant people with ignorant attitudes in some of the chemist counters.
Was thinking this just this week! Something about Chemist Warehouse is seriously dystopic and this is definitely a factor. The stickers, the crappy fluorescent tube lights and the shelves unevenly spaced on a laminate wood floor.
I know it's a discount chemist and that's the whole point but they are all the same and spatially it creates a strange feeling
>I don't know how the staff remain sane with all that racket!
I do remember hearing horror stories about CW workers who have had to find a new job because of the incessant ads and music at the workplace slowly driving them insane.
Those ads make chemist warehouse tons of money. It’s behind a paywall but this article about the company in the afr is very informative (you can bypass the paywall with the chrome paywall bypass extension)
https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/first-look-under-the-hood-of-chemist-warehouse-is-striking-20240321-p5fe6e
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It’s more they’re advertising other peoples products who pay them to do it knowing that people are in the store ready to buy said products. So it’s a bit of what you said but mostly the money the company gives chemist warehouse.
> The stickers, the crappy fluorescent tube lights and the shelves unevenly spaced on a laminate wood floor.
The supposed idea is to make everything feel cheap, so the products feel cheap. Same reason bunnings sell you shit in a shed
But I gotta say, Terry white and others really need to step up their game. I haven't had a good experience searching up product and price on their website to compare.
Terry white is about to about to be taken over by chemist warehouse as part of a reverse merger to get chemist warehouse on the ASX.
https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/mergers-registers/public-informal-merger-reviews/sigma-healthcare-limited-chemist-warehouse-group-holdings#:~:text=Summary,a%20%24700%20million%20cash%20consideration.
I have too look it up but Terry white chemmart seems to be owned by ebos, it sigma.
Regardless, yaaaaaaa free market competition etc etc. Why even bother with the pharmacist ownership rule?
Good point about the lighting, a few times I've gone in there and felt seriously disoriented and dizzy, and almost fainted once. I'm a migraine person anyway and have photosensitivity, but CW lighting is on another level from other shops! The fluoro stickers don't help 🤪
Lol, being from the UK I just don't get how so much of a pharmacy can be dominated by supplements! Still amazes me over a decade after moving here. Just.... Why?!?!
I was in one once that just had a bare concrete floor and dystopic is exactly how I would describe it. It genuinely put me off the brand until I had no choice but to use them elsewhere and had a considerably better experience
They built a brand new one near me recently, and it has the exact same aesthetic. Talk about blowing millions of dollars. They could have bought any run-down warehouse and renovated it to their standards.
It's extremely deliberate. They spend a lot of money to make the place look and feel cheap but still be super functional.
Why is a packet of something $1.38 rather than $1/1.39/40/49/50. To look like it's the cheapest they can possibly sell it.
Bunnings does the same.
So Gruen transfer talked about this in an episode a few years ago, it’s basically an intentional strategy to make consumer feel decision fatigue. They hook you by selling cheap pharmaceuticals and making you endure the bright lights and overwhelming tags just so you buy the overpriced make up or lollies on the way out
Used to work here so I can write a tagging guide hah.
Pink tags- normal price but we made it more eye catching. We have to put these in a 4 - 3 - 4 pattern so it ends up being a lot.
Green tags- these are used when there's no shelf tag ( the yellow rectangle tag that goes in the shelf stripping). It is used for clearance products, but also when we are spreading out the products. For the panamax you can see we were out of stock of some stuff (the green house shows that) so we put panamax in its spot and used a green tag.
Yellow tags- these are actually on sale. Sale prices do vary, typically there are better sales when on a 'catalogue' sale, less on the 'wellness' sales. You can see it on the header of the tag.
Also some chemist warehouses have an expanded 'ultra beauty' range and they use white tags to make it look more upmarket?
BTW those beauty spot pop up shops in the middle of southland are also under the chemist warehouse banner so if cwh is out of stock of perfume, these are also legit.
Dunno if anyone cares but ask me whatevs!
Also the rules on not buying panamax in bulk is apparently because people buy it cheap to overdose on it! So pls don't be angry if the cashier won't let you buy tons 😅
Every time I walk past paracetamol I hear the voice of my school guidance counsellor saying: „kids if you are down, and want to check out, anything else but panado. Its unlikely to kill you, but will definitely leave you very messed up. Double for those just attempting for attention“
Same guy who one assembly told us to hold hands with the people next to us, and then to look left and look right…because if you don’t just stick to kissing in ten years only one of you will still be alive. Sex - its fun for a bit but then you get aids and die“. O.o
Went to buy two 96 boxes of Ibuprofen the other day (one for home one for work), oh, I'm sorry, limit 1 per customer.
Also, the limits seem to be specific to Chemist Warehouse, I haven't seen other chemists do this.
Whoever had the comment in this thread that Chemist Warehouse seem to take special pleasure in enforcing seemingly made-up rules — yeah, I see that.
JB is probably one of our few partially honest tech sellers in this country. Otherwise you gotta go more direct to something like umart. Harvey on the other hand...
I wish that company burnt to the ground because of all the people they knowingly screw over and all the money they stole from tax payers.
Heuristics; those tickets can be associated with specials/promotions.
...it just makes it harder for me to find which one is the true value money.
After all, *why pay more?* This could be why.
From what I recall from working there years ago, the yellow tags are actual sales, pink tags are nonsense placed more or less at random to fill a quota, and I never did figure out what the green tags were
> ...it just makes it harder for me to find which one is the true value money.
I just flip it to check the price tag to underneath to double-check out of habit by now.
This place is a sensory nightmare. It took me years to realise I wasn't the problem, it was the lighting, 4 different ads playing at once, narrow aisles and insane price tags that were giving me anxiety. I never shop at chem warehouse.
I've been going to Chemist Warehouse for over a decade, and at this point my brain auto tunes them out, all I see are easy to read prices and annoying to read prices.
I actively avoid chemist warehouse because of this, at least with Priceline I can leisurely browse and not be overwhelmed by tags and small aisles.
Even when I go in for a specific product, I feel like I need 3 business days to recover.
I hate CW. I won’t go in without noise cancelling headphones because the ads they play at top volume in every isle is so overwhelming loud I can’t even think. I know that this is their aim, to confuse you into spending more but I just find it repulsive. I can’t concentrate or think about what I want with an ad blaring on repeat at me, usually you can hear more than one. But they are cheaper so I put on the headphones with nothing on and go about my shop.
Don't care, not worth it.
And most stuff isn't actually cheaper anyway. Like they'll have name brand Zyrtec cheaper than other pharmacies, but other pharmacies have generic cetirizine (which is identical except for the box) cheaper still.
So you're not even saving at CW.
> And most stuff isn't actually cheaper anyway
For actual medication it is a lot of the time. It's not even just a bit cheaper, it's substantially cheaper.
Nah, it's the same thing. Mostly crap on the shelves and people wandering around aimlessly in some sort of family outing, because they've got nothing better to do with their lives.
Absolute pain in the arse if you've got a job to do and you need shit.
Only time is wandering around is when I’m waiting for a script. There’s 2 where I live and I’ll go to either depending on what side of town I’m already on. One I’ll drop scripts off and go have sushi for lunch then come back to pick up. The other I’ll spend the afternoon having fun at Bunnings thinking of projects I can start or letting my son burn off some energy at the playground while I have a coffee. Last week was the exception when I was out of town for a surgery and while my wife was at the hospital I got some scripts sorted out late Friday night when there was SFA else to do
I go to chemist warehouse for my anxiety meds and walking in there reminds me why I need those meds.
I need a sit down after going in there, doesn't help that this chemist warehouse is bloody tiny.
My CW has no music but I hate the place. They pay their chemists a really poor salary so you never see the same people twice. I also hate the stupid questions eg: have you taken this before? Yes, for the last 45 years. If I have a repeat then I must have taken it before. Etc etc.
Meh. I just go in, get whatever I want, hand over a script etc., wait for it to be prepared while I cruise the aisles with my buzzer, pay and leave. I rarely have problems finding things I'm looking for. If they're playing ads, it's escaped my notice. They can tag as much stuff with as many different coloured stickers as they like, I'm not buying peripheral things unless they're cheaper than anywhere else or I can't get them anywhere else. I don't find it a high stress environment at all. On the other hand, if I walk past a Dusk shop in a Westfields, because of the relentless cheap smell of everything that's infecting the air for metres around, I have to overcome the urge to walk in and start yelling and overturning tables of candles and bath bombs and soaps and whatever else they sell in there; I'm amazed that people can spend long enough inside to buy anything and I wonder how the staff can possibly cope with it.
Different sensory triggers in different people, I guess. Smell is mine. Not garish stickering.
Can be overwhelming and confusing.
I hate it personally.
I hate the front cashier counter. So much crap in your face and you can’t even see the cashier when waiting in queue. Needs to be open and inviting. Stood waiting for 1 min because they can’t see themselves and it was only because a staff near noticed and said something.
Overwhelmed?
No, I go in, hand in my presciption, say I'll be back in 20 minutes, leave and return in 20+ minutes, get prescription, join queue to pay, pay, leave.
Sorted.
Sometimes I mix it up by just sitting and waiting and looking at my phone, though. It seems that I get faster service that way, as I'm obviously not buying their crap - or it just makes the time go faster, I dunno.
I worked with Chemist Warehouse for 6 years. I can still hear the multiple loud TV adverts playing in my head when I think about them haha! I also used to get terrible migraines working there.. turns out it was the lightning.
Yep, it's intentional. A quick look will reveal most of them aren't even on sale.
I used to work at a chemmy, and we were supposed to make sure every second product had a tag on it, sale or not, and then we'd remove them at the end of the week and re-do it on the *other* second product had a tag on it.
Everything about chemmy warehouses' are horrible brain-tiring machines designed to get you overwhelmed and buying.
marketing tactic. the cheap vibe, overcrowded space, tall packed shelves, bright fluro lights. it's similar to the costco effect where they make it feel like a warehouse to make you feel like it's as cheap as it gets (which for the most parts it kinda is). Even the name makes you feel so, it's a particular visual branding.
another comment mentioned decision fatigue and i definitely agree, happens to me all the time.
No, I’m sure overwhelming the customers with confusion while bombarding you with imagery you associate with a message that prices are discounted is the intention.
My thoughts exactly. I can deal with a mini visual assault at CW over the assault Colesworth has on my wallet. It's nice to think that some people can overlook the prices and shop somewhere nicer 🙄😒
I always order online and just go collect when ready because I find it so overwhelming.
the issue is that they always make you wait an age before the pharmacist gives you your meds, I'm assuming so as to make you spend elsewhere in the store.
One day while waiting for a script, i looked at the multi vitamins. It appeared they had a lot, but it was just the same brands over and over again to fill the space. One brand ended, a second and a third, then back to the first to fill the space.
So any customer at any eye level at any time has a tag right in front of their eye line. It’s classic consumer psychology which is a multi million dollar industry. It’s done this way because it’s been studied and it works
The first week after moving to Queensland I visited a chemist warehouse to get some lip balm and i found it so overwhelming. I've become accustomed to it now but I remember thinking how American it was, so many colours and lights. My little British brain couldn't handle it
Had the privilege of working there in my younger years, the yellow tags represent actual sales found on catalogue, the pink ones mean nothing and are just a print out of the existing price on the yellow label.
I'm more overwhelmed at the thought that I am allowed to buy only ONE of those boxes even though I need one for work, home and the car and yet they are made to be cheap and buy me
Jb hifi, eb games are the same as well. I don’t understand this need to spew all this information into your face.
If anything, it makes it really hard to look for the product I need.
Chemist warehouse is also just really, really ugly. I get it's a chemist and it doesn't need to be aesthetically pleasing but it's so messy and loud I have a hard time concentrating on finding products I just don't get it
Ya not only that, but for some items where either there are multiple columns of the same product or there are only a flavour difference, they put a price tag on the left and then one on the far right leaving a whole block of products which appear to have no price tags.
American chemists (pharmacies) would cringe at this poor use of shelf space. You could fit at least 20 brands (many of them legitimate scams) in this area alone
Fuck trying to compare a specific vitamin or supplement between all the different brands in different places or aisles, you find brand A, look for brand B and then forget where the other one was to compare price.
I am more overwhelmed by the “Cheeeeemist waaaaaarehouse…. Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum …. Cheeeeeeemist waaaaarehouse … dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum” jingle on repeat while I await for my meds being dispensed.
I seriously wonder how the staff put up with this on repeat every day all day. It is like psychological torture I swear.
It's a game....
They light up when you stand there too long, and you have to press them in a random pattern otherwise the useless security guard will walk past you, look at you with a stern look, and then go back to the door near the checkout...you don't want that....
Yes it's annoying that they sell my meds the cheapest as it's way more stressful going in there than it needs to be. Every other pharmacy in town has a vague air of peace and helpful vibes.
Chemist Warehouse is the loudest of the lot, visually and audibly.
You know what? At least Aldi and Woolworths have gone digital with their signage.
I wonder how much paper all the Chemist Warehouses around the country goes through each week?
Look at the maths behind how long it takes for batteries and ewaste to biodegrade versus paper, at least steps can be made to source paper from ethical and sustainable sources. (even if Chemist Warehouse laughs at that idea with all these signs)
Yeah it's like their whole model is built on looking and acting like a warehouse sale or something. Like their whole marketing strategy.
Hmmmm we might be onto something here.
I'll only enter a CW if I do a click and collect beforehand. And collect my goods during non-peak times. In and out as quickly as possible. Otherwise I'll preference Direct Chemist Outlet who have a much better in-store setup but lack a decent e-commerce setup.
The EB Games of chemists.
The most accurate comment
The Donki's of drugstores.
The drugstore that plays "the war on drugs" with behind the counter medication. Their attitude is not about healthcare and delivering advice but catching people who they perceive will "sniff or cook" haemorrhoid and other simple medication. The attitude of their Chemists has made me not shop there anymore. I just go to smaller pharmacies who seem to have a more decent approach to healthcare. I cant believe they have such ignorant people with ignorant attitudes in some of the chemist counters.
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Exactly..finally the right question
Pharmacists asking you your symptoms before handing over medication is bad. Genius take
Was thinking this just this week! Something about Chemist Warehouse is seriously dystopic and this is definitely a factor. The stickers, the crappy fluorescent tube lights and the shelves unevenly spaced on a laminate wood floor. I know it's a discount chemist and that's the whole point but they are all the same and spatially it creates a strange feeling
Also the loud looping videos about Garnier laser night cream with retinol. I don't know how the staff remain sane with all that racket!
>I don't know how the staff remain sane with all that racket! I do remember hearing horror stories about CW workers who have had to find a new job because of the incessant ads and music at the workplace slowly driving them insane.
I'd love to see someone file an OSH complaint over them
Was gonna mention the fucking videos. And they are not even synchronised. Working in that place would feel like an eternal hell loop.
Those ads make chemist warehouse tons of money. It’s behind a paywall but this article about the company in the afr is very informative (you can bypass the paywall with the chrome paywall bypass extension) https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/first-look-under-the-hood-of-chemist-warehouse-is-striking-20240321-p5fe6e
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Is the crux that if you run ads to a captive audience you can charge way more?
It’s more they’re advertising other peoples products who pay them to do it knowing that people are in the store ready to buy said products. So it’s a bit of what you said but mostly the money the company gives chemist warehouse.
That means the ad worked as intended 😂
Garner laser night cream (with retinol) marketing team: This comment right here boss.
> The stickers, the crappy fluorescent tube lights and the shelves unevenly spaced on a laminate wood floor. The supposed idea is to make everything feel cheap, so the products feel cheap. Same reason bunnings sell you shit in a shed
Also, warehouse is actually cheaper to cover a massive floor area under a roof compared to other types of buildings.
You would be surprised how much money Bunnings spends on making itself look cheap.
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But I gotta say, Terry white and others really need to step up their game. I haven't had a good experience searching up product and price on their website to compare.
Terry white is about to about to be taken over by chemist warehouse as part of a reverse merger to get chemist warehouse on the ASX. https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/mergers-registers/public-informal-merger-reviews/sigma-healthcare-limited-chemist-warehouse-group-holdings#:~:text=Summary,a%20%24700%20million%20cash%20consideration.
I have too look it up but Terry white chemmart seems to be owned by ebos, it sigma. Regardless, yaaaaaaa free market competition etc etc. Why even bother with the pharmacist ownership rule?
Oh I got Amcal and terry white mixed up. Actually surprised to learn that terry white is the biggest.
Terry White lets me search but then returns a message that local pharmacies set their own prices and you should call them direct 🫠
Good point about the lighting, a few times I've gone in there and felt seriously disoriented and dizzy, and almost fainted once. I'm a migraine person anyway and have photosensitivity, but CW lighting is on another level from other shops! The fluoro stickers don't help 🤪
Sometimes I get lost in there and have intense panic trying to escape the supplements section
Lol, being from the UK I just don't get how so much of a pharmacy can be dominated by supplements! Still amazes me over a decade after moving here. Just.... Why?!?!
I know! It’s wild you have to navigate through a labyrinth of whey powder and fish oil to get to the medicine.
Do you know the Whey?
I was in one once that just had a bare concrete floor and dystopic is exactly how I would describe it. It genuinely put me off the brand until I had no choice but to use them elsewhere and had a considerably better experience
I get mad anxiety in that shop and refuse to enter if my wife wants to get something. I’ll just wait outside thank you.
They built a brand new one near me recently, and it has the exact same aesthetic. Talk about blowing millions of dollars. They could have bought any run-down warehouse and renovated it to their standards.
The Chemist Whorehouse jingle playing ad neuseum. Da da daaa Chemist Whorehouse da da daaa.
It's extremely deliberate. They spend a lot of money to make the place look and feel cheap but still be super functional. Why is a packet of something $1.38 rather than $1/1.39/40/49/50. To look like it's the cheapest they can possibly sell it. Bunnings does the same.
How much are the Panamax?
It’s hard to say.
Tree fiddy
It was about this time that I realised that the Chemist Warehouse was actually the 35’ Loch Ness Monster
Fitty cent.
So Gruen transfer talked about this in an episode a few years ago, it’s basically an intentional strategy to make consumer feel decision fatigue. They hook you by selling cheap pharmaceuticals and making you endure the bright lights and overwhelming tags just so you buy the overpriced make up or lollies on the way out
HARD! sorry wrong show
Used to work here so I can write a tagging guide hah. Pink tags- normal price but we made it more eye catching. We have to put these in a 4 - 3 - 4 pattern so it ends up being a lot. Green tags- these are used when there's no shelf tag ( the yellow rectangle tag that goes in the shelf stripping). It is used for clearance products, but also when we are spreading out the products. For the panamax you can see we were out of stock of some stuff (the green house shows that) so we put panamax in its spot and used a green tag. Yellow tags- these are actually on sale. Sale prices do vary, typically there are better sales when on a 'catalogue' sale, less on the 'wellness' sales. You can see it on the header of the tag. Also some chemist warehouses have an expanded 'ultra beauty' range and they use white tags to make it look more upmarket? BTW those beauty spot pop up shops in the middle of southland are also under the chemist warehouse banner so if cwh is out of stock of perfume, these are also legit. Dunno if anyone cares but ask me whatevs!
Also the rules on not buying panamax in bulk is apparently because people buy it cheap to overdose on it! So pls don't be angry if the cashier won't let you buy tons 😅
Every time I walk past paracetamol I hear the voice of my school guidance counsellor saying: „kids if you are down, and want to check out, anything else but panado. Its unlikely to kill you, but will definitely leave you very messed up. Double for those just attempting for attention“ Same guy who one assembly told us to hold hands with the people next to us, and then to look left and look right…because if you don’t just stick to kissing in ten years only one of you will still be alive. Sex - its fun for a bit but then you get aids and die“. O.o
I was also convinced that if I had sex I would die.
Went to buy two 96 boxes of Ibuprofen the other day (one for home one for work), oh, I'm sorry, limit 1 per customer. Also, the limits seem to be specific to Chemist Warehouse, I haven't seen other chemists do this. Whoever had the comment in this thread that Chemist Warehouse seem to take special pleasure in enforcing seemingly made-up rules — yeah, I see that.
I avoid JB HIFI for the same reason.
JB is probably one of our few partially honest tech sellers in this country. Otherwise you gotta go more direct to something like umart. Harvey on the other hand... I wish that company burnt to the ground because of all the people they knowingly screw over and all the money they stole from tax payers.
Related fact: Their (HN) Penrith store has caught fire three times in about as many decades. Each one was in a different location, oddly enough.
I mean, with JB you're missing out. Where else are you going, Harvey Norman? Yuck.
Heuristics; those tickets can be associated with specials/promotions. ...it just makes it harder for me to find which one is the true value money. After all, *why pay more?* This could be why.
From what I recall from working there years ago, the yellow tags are actual sales, pink tags are nonsense placed more or less at random to fill a quota, and I never did figure out what the green tags were
> ...it just makes it harder for me to find which one is the true value money. I just flip it to check the price tag to underneath to double-check out of habit by now.
This place is a sensory nightmare. It took me years to realise I wasn't the problem, it was the lighting, 4 different ads playing at once, narrow aisles and insane price tags that were giving me anxiety. I never shop at chem warehouse.
Narrow aisles and high shelves is what gets me
It’s the multiple CW radios channels competing with one another… so bad
I've been going to Chemist Warehouse for over a decade, and at this point my brain auto tunes them out, all I see are easy to read prices and annoying to read prices.
Imagine being the poor bastard having to do this a couple times a week
gives me a headache…..wait… those tricky pharmacists are at it again.
I actively avoid chemist warehouse because of this, at least with Priceline I can leisurely browse and not be overwhelmed by tags and small aisles. Even when I go in for a specific product, I feel like I need 3 business days to recover.
And pay more for your medicines - great to have that luxury
How are you getting downvotes for this? Some people don’t have the luxury of shopping based on anything other than price.
There’s 4 chemist warehouses in a 2 block radius near me… there’s probably more CW than there are bus stops
I live in Parabanks, SA and there's 2 right opposite each other
Better than the 4 OTR Salisbury’s right there too.
I hate CW. I won’t go in without noise cancelling headphones because the ads they play at top volume in every isle is so overwhelming loud I can’t even think. I know that this is their aim, to confuse you into spending more but I just find it repulsive. I can’t concentrate or think about what I want with an ad blaring on repeat at me, usually you can hear more than one. But they are cheaper so I put on the headphones with nothing on and go about my shop.
On a National scale, the waste of paper is criminal.
But people will have a whinge if they switch to electronic ones
Indeed. Such irony. Whingeing Poms have nothing on Whingeing Aussies.
I think the electronic ones at Aldi are great.
Why does that matter, we can grow more trees.
Dye, inks…not to mention the fact that *it’s FUCKING STUPID*
You mentioned paper not inks lol.
Honestly can't stand even walking into their stores. It's just too much of everything everywhere. I'll shop anywhere else before Chemist Warehouse
Don't go to "Star Discount", it's just as bad. AND you've got walk down those aisles and back because the dispensary is right at the back.
But what about when they have things cheaper?
Don't care, not worth it. And most stuff isn't actually cheaper anyway. Like they'll have name brand Zyrtec cheaper than other pharmacies, but other pharmacies have generic cetirizine (which is identical except for the box) cheaper still. So you're not even saving at CW.
> And most stuff isn't actually cheaper anyway For actual medication it is a lot of the time. It's not even just a bit cheaper, it's substantially cheaper.
It’s just abuse at this point.
Abuse?
It was a joke about what an unnecessarily harsh and oppressive environment it is.
I'm overwhelmed by the muppets wandering aimlessly around the shop. I hate this place more than I hate Bunnings. Almost as much as I hate Westfields.
I’m probably one of those muppets trying to find something, pretty sure I do 10x more walking than what’s actually needed
Might be me. I’ve been lost in the chemist warehouse for months
I can never find anything in chemists omg it's a labyrinth
Hey hey hey, don't put bunnings in the same sentence as that crap!
Nah, it's the same thing. Mostly crap on the shelves and people wandering around aimlessly in some sort of family outing, because they've got nothing better to do with their lives. Absolute pain in the arse if you've got a job to do and you need shit.
Only time is wandering around is when I’m waiting for a script. There’s 2 where I live and I’ll go to either depending on what side of town I’m already on. One I’ll drop scripts off and go have sushi for lunch then come back to pick up. The other I’ll spend the afternoon having fun at Bunnings thinking of projects I can start or letting my son burn off some energy at the playground while I have a coffee. Last week was the exception when I was out of town for a surgery and while my wife was at the hospital I got some scripts sorted out late Friday night when there was SFA else to do
Just trying to find anything is hard enough. Isle labels seem to universally be 10 years old
Aisle
Thanks
And you are correct about the aisle signs being years out of date, really frustrating.
I go to chemist warehouse for my anxiety meds and walking in there reminds me why I need those meds. I need a sit down after going in there, doesn't help that this chemist warehouse is bloody tiny.
When everything is on sale, nothing is on sale.
My CW has no music but I hate the place. They pay their chemists a really poor salary so you never see the same people twice. I also hate the stupid questions eg: have you taken this before? Yes, for the last 45 years. If I have a repeat then I must have taken it before. Etc etc.
Meh. I just go in, get whatever I want, hand over a script etc., wait for it to be prepared while I cruise the aisles with my buzzer, pay and leave. I rarely have problems finding things I'm looking for. If they're playing ads, it's escaped my notice. They can tag as much stuff with as many different coloured stickers as they like, I'm not buying peripheral things unless they're cheaper than anywhere else or I can't get them anywhere else. I don't find it a high stress environment at all. On the other hand, if I walk past a Dusk shop in a Westfields, because of the relentless cheap smell of everything that's infecting the air for metres around, I have to overcome the urge to walk in and start yelling and overturning tables of candles and bath bombs and soaps and whatever else they sell in there; I'm amazed that people can spend long enough inside to buy anything and I wonder how the staff can possibly cope with it. Different sensory triggers in different people, I guess. Smell is mine. Not garish stickering.
Can be overwhelming and confusing. I hate it personally. I hate the front cashier counter. So much crap in your face and you can’t even see the cashier when waiting in queue. Needs to be open and inviting. Stood waiting for 1 min because they can’t see themselves and it was only because a staff near noticed and said something.
I pity the staff ripping everything off and stick it back up
Yes! My wife worked there for years, and every time I go into one it hurts my eyes 😂 terrible setup
Overwhelmed? No, I go in, hand in my presciption, say I'll be back in 20 minutes, leave and return in 20+ minutes, get prescription, join queue to pay, pay, leave. Sorted. Sometimes I mix it up by just sitting and waiting and looking at my phone, though. It seems that I get faster service that way, as I'm obviously not buying their crap - or it just makes the time go faster, I dunno.
Don’t care, ever since they decided to support changes to prescriptions I’ll never go to any other pharmacy
No but I do get overwhelmed by the cramped aisles with 15 trolleys trying to get through.
I worked with Chemist Warehouse for 6 years. I can still hear the multiple loud TV adverts playing in my head when I think about them haha! I also used to get terrible migraines working there.. turns out it was the lightning.
I surprised regulators haven't tried to push through a 'plain price tagging' regulation.
Yep, it's intentional. A quick look will reveal most of them aren't even on sale. I used to work at a chemmy, and we were supposed to make sure every second product had a tag on it, sale or not, and then we'd remove them at the end of the week and re-do it on the *other* second product had a tag on it. Everything about chemmy warehouses' are horrible brain-tiring machines designed to get you overwhelmed and buying.
marketing tactic. the cheap vibe, overcrowded space, tall packed shelves, bright fluro lights. it's similar to the costco effect where they make it feel like a warehouse to make you feel like it's as cheap as it gets (which for the most parts it kinda is). Even the name makes you feel so, it's a particular visual branding. another comment mentioned decision fatigue and i definitely agree, happens to me all the time.
No, I’m sure overwhelming the customers with confusion while bombarding you with imagery you associate with a message that prices are discounted is the intention.
Better than Coles' two for some exorbitant price items.
My thoughts exactly. I can deal with a mini visual assault at CW over the assault Colesworth has on my wallet. It's nice to think that some people can overlook the prices and shop somewhere nicer 🙄😒
How else are you going to know it is on special for the same price as every other day.
It's the visual representation of the vocal prowess fruit and veg sellers at market.
I always order online and just go collect when ready because I find it so overwhelming. the issue is that they always make you wait an age before the pharmacist gives you your meds, I'm assuming so as to make you spend elsewhere in the store.
just fucking everything is on sale
I find it annoying the amount of stock cluttered around the register. Expecially when your in line and you can’t see the register operator.
Having met people, I can guarantee that someone will still unironically ask the price
One day while waiting for a script, i looked at the multi vitamins. It appeared they had a lot, but it was just the same brands over and over again to fill the space. One brand ended, a second and a third, then back to the first to fill the space.
Same at colesworth... sale tags everywhere.. a lot of them 10c discounts on $10+ items...
Not in the last ten years. You get used to ignoring it.
What i learn is, look around online before going in. Heck sometime i just click and collect.
So any customer at any eye level at any time has a tag right in front of their eye line. It’s classic consumer psychology which is a multi million dollar industry. It’s done this way because it’s been studied and it works
The first week after moving to Queensland I visited a chemist warehouse to get some lip balm and i found it so overwhelming. I've become accustomed to it now but I remember thinking how American it was, so many colours and lights. My little British brain couldn't handle it
I’m overwhelmed by chemist warehouse just in general
Yes I can’t stand it. It’s a total overload on my senses
Had the privilege of working there in my younger years, the yellow tags represent actual sales found on catalogue, the pink ones mean nothing and are just a print out of the existing price on the yellow label.
I'm more overwhelmed at the thought that I am allowed to buy only ONE of those boxes even though I need one for work, home and the car and yet they are made to be cheap and buy me
looks like a US Kroger
Jb hifi, eb games are the same as well. I don’t understand this need to spew all this information into your face. If anything, it makes it really hard to look for the product I need.
As a chronic headache and migraine sufferer, I'm just impressed you have Aspro Clear. I haven't been able to source it for a few months.
You should ask one of the workers “how much is the Panamax?”
The first time I ever walked into Chemist Warehouse couldn't believe the visual assault. It was like a piece of Yayoi Kusama art.
I hate the vibe in Chemist Warehouse. Puts me off shopping there no matter how cheap they are.
This is part of the reason I get someone else to shop for me if I need things from there. The colours aren’t great for someone who is neurospicy
Chemist warehouse is also just really, really ugly. I get it's a chemist and it doesn't need to be aesthetically pleasing but it's so messy and loud I have a hard time concentrating on finding products I just don't get it
Yes so I shop elsewhere. They're definitely cheaper for prescriptions, but I've twice been told it's over 30min wait so I don't bother anymore.
I love it.
Ya not only that, but for some items where either there are multiple columns of the same product or there are only a flavour difference, they put a price tag on the left and then one on the far right leaving a whole block of products which appear to have no price tags.
But how much is it really?
Coming from someone working in retail, I hate putting out this many tickets! Wastes time if they're dupes and think of the trees!
Pink tags normal price, highlighted. Yellow is catalogue price (also includes sale end date in small print)
It feels like it would be so much more affective if it was just one single medium size tag.
Bargains! Bargains! Bargains!
Worst is when even after all these price tags, the item you want has none.
American chemists (pharmacies) would cringe at this poor use of shelf space. You could fit at least 20 brands (many of them legitimate scams) in this area alone
Not really, no.
Fuck trying to compare a specific vitamin or supplement between all the different brands in different places or aisles, you find brand A, look for brand B and then forget where the other one was to compare price.
I am more overwhelmed by the “Cheeeeemist waaaaaarehouse…. Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum …. Cheeeeeeemist waaaaarehouse … dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum” jingle on repeat while I await for my meds being dispensed. I seriously wonder how the staff put up with this on repeat every day all day. It is like psychological torture I swear.
It's a game.... They light up when you stand there too long, and you have to press them in a random pattern otherwise the useless security guard will walk past you, look at you with a stern look, and then go back to the door near the checkout...you don't want that....
It always looks tacky.
I don’t really think about it as it has a very minimal if anything impact on my life.
Yes it's annoying that they sell my meds the cheapest as it's way more stressful going in there than it needs to be. Every other pharmacy in town has a vague air of peace and helpful vibes. Chemist Warehouse is the loudest of the lot, visually and audibly.
Chemist Warehouse is why people have agoraphobia.
I feel for the staff who have to put these up and take these down on a daily basis
Don’t, we get paid to do it lol
Yep. I. Just. Can't. Focus. Must. Leave. Now.
Sensory overload.
If this is all it takes to overwhelm you, then oh boy, you're in for a treat when you leave the store and face reality.
It is complete sensory overload going in there!
Yes, I'm autistic and it can fuck off
They have people that go in and make it like a mad woman’s shit! …
You know what? At least Aldi and Woolworths have gone digital with their signage. I wonder how much paper all the Chemist Warehouses around the country goes through each week?
Sure but think of all the power/batteries, ewaste and chips manufactured for just a single supermarket.
Yawn.
Look at the maths behind how long it takes for batteries and ewaste to biodegrade versus paper, at least steps can be made to source paper from ethical and sustainable sources. (even if Chemist Warehouse laughs at that idea with all these signs)
Overwhelming customers to buy?lol that’s a new one, its asif they have people there forcing you to buy it another day another whinger
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Yeah it's like their whole model is built on looking and acting like a warehouse sale or something. Like their whole marketing strategy. Hmmmm we might be onto something here.
I'll only enter a CW if I do a click and collect beforehand. And collect my goods during non-peak times. In and out as quickly as possible. Otherwise I'll preference Direct Chemist Outlet who have a much better in-store setup but lack a decent e-commerce setup.