difference between drugstore and pharmacy

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keannu

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What do you think is the difference between drugstore and pharmacy?
I think "drugstore" sells other stuff except "drugs" with or without a pharmacist, while "pharmacy" is with a pharmacist making prescibed medicine.
 

5jj

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keannu, by this time you should know that we are just going to send you to a dictionary and tell you to come back with any problems you encounter.
 

keannu

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I think if everyone could find any word's meaning by dictionary, this site wouldn't exist along with the members and teachers. I googled the difference and got the meaning, but I wasn't sure of it, that's why I asked it.
 

5jj

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Here are Macmillan's definitions.

pharmacy - definition. American English definition of pharmacy by Macmillan Dictionary

drugstore - definition. American English definition of drugstore by Macmillan Dictionary


There are dozens of other dictionaries here that give similar definitions. You really do not need to waste your time and ours asking for confirmation that many dictionaries are correct.

We are happy to help if members have problems in understanding definitions, find dictionary definitions that appear to contradict each other, or are not sure, despite examples in dictionaries, about how they should use words. We are not here to replace dictionaries or confirm their definitions.
 

emsr2d2

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"Googling the difference" is not the same as spending time researching a good variety of trusted dictionaries.
 

keannu

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Sometimes, dictionaries don't give us practical knowlege or exact answer to my questions, and there are a bunch of dictionaries, which makes it hard for me to choose the best one. I make enough - or sometimes not - research before posting a thread here.
By referring to the following definitions, I may know the rough difference, but skimming through teachers' this or that opinion makes me fully informed or realize about the answer for any question I posted. I'll try to restrain more not to post unnecessary questions- I have done my best so far, I guess - but I'd like to confess that the explanations of teachers even for easy questions are even more helpful than static, lifeless character definitions of dictionaries.

*Looking at these, I lose the focus of understanding. I think the focus is on drugstore's having extra products, but I wonder if drusgtore has a pharmacist or not. Sometimes dictionaries don't give comparison or analysis to my curiosities, and that's why I depend on teachers here.
pharmacy a store where medicines are prepared and sold
drugstore a store that sells medicines, beauty products, and other goods. The usual British word is chemist.




 
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emsr2d2

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I'm not sure what's confusing, though, about those definitions (if you took those definitions from a dictionary). The first one clearly states that medicines are both prepared and sold in a pharmacy. The second makes no mention of preparation, but that it sells medicines and other things.

There is one thing wrong with the second definition. A "chemist's [shop] in the UK has a pharmacist on-site, both to advise customers on over-the-counter medicines and to prepare prescription medication. We don't have two different types of shop doing the same thing. We don't have shops called "drugstores" or "pharmacies" in the High Street. We just have chemists. They are either standalone shops or they are a department of a larger shop.
Hospitals have pharmacies.
 

keannu

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I'm so impressed at your vivid explanation, which helps me a lot to bear definitions of "drugstore" and "pharmacy" in UK in my mind longer than mere dictionary ones.
 

BobK

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...

There is one thing wrong with the second definition. A "chemist's [shop] in the UK has a pharmacist on-site, both to advise customers on over-the-counter medicines and to prepare prescription medication. We don't have two different types of shop doing the same thing. We don't have shops called "drugstores" or "pharmacies" in the High Street. We just have chemists. They are either standalone shops or they are a department of a larger shop.
Hospitals have pharmacies.
:-? Really? What would you call Supadrug? I wouldn't think of going there to get a prescription made up. I don't know if they even dispense as pharmacists. Although it's in the UK and sells over-the-counter medicines, I wouldn't call it a chemist. In fact the name seems to suggest that this is a new-sounding/American-like thing, rather like a drugstore. (Rather like the cafés that try to make out that they're new-sounding/American-like [and therefore in some sense 'sexy'] by calling themselves 'diners' - when I was a lad a diner was someone eating dinner ;-))

b
 

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:-? Really? What would you call Supadrug? I wouldn't think of going there to get a prescription made up. I don't know if they even dispense as pharmacists. Although it's in the UK and sells over-the-counter medicines, I wouldn't call it a chemist. In fact the name seems to suggest that this is a new-sounding/American-like thing, rather like a drugstore. (Rather like the cafés that try to make out that they're new-sounding/American-like [and therefore in some sense 'sexy'] by calling themselves 'diners' - when I was a lad a diner was someone eating dinner ;-))

b
I would be stretched to find a real difference between a drugstore and a pharmacy. The local drugstore I go to calls itself a pharmacy. Regarding diners, this name is not new or particularly sexy. Diners, in the US, probably were most popular in early years of the 20th Century. Some of the first diners were old train cars. After being sold by the train companies these cars were trucked to a lot and set up as a restaurant. Some companies saw this trend and began making buildings which resembled train cars. These also were trucked to an empty lot and set up as a restaurant. Few of these are still in operation but I know of a few on the east coast and of at least one in Los Angeles.
 

emsr2d2

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Superdrug (spelling) is not a chemists/pharmacy/drugstore as far as I'm concerned. It sells a few non-prescription meds (paracetamol) etc but the vast majority of its sales are cosmetics and toiletries. They even now sell batteries and stamps. They've become a general store. All the supermarkets sell non-prescription medication too.

Boots (or as it used to be called, Boots the Chemist) is like Superdrug plus a section where the pharmacist works.
 

5jj

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Superdrug (spelling) is not a chemists/pharmacy/drugstore as far as I'm concerned.
I have been known to refer to it as both a chemist's and a drugstore. The one I use in England has a phramacy but, like most English people, I don't refer to the whole shop as a pharmacy. This is perhaps because there are very few places outside hospitals that are exclusively pharmacies in England.
 
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Rover_KE

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Just for information, according to Wikipedia, Superdrug has pharmacies in 220 of its 900 stores in the UK.
 

emsr2d2

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Fair enough. I could only base my post on the two in my home town, neither of which have pharmacy counters.

The ones with pharmacy counters, I would call "chemists" in that case. Maybe it's a regional thing, but here in the south-east, we don't refer to any high street premises as a "drugstore" or a "pharmacy". We only use the word "chemists" - locally to me that covers Boots, Lloyds, Westons and Kansoms. The last three sell only a very small range of products in addition to prescription and over-the-counter medication. There are two branches of Boots here. One is a huge shop these days and the pharmacy counter is a very small part of it.
 

Rover_KE

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It's the same here in the north-west.
 

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Superdrug (spelling) is not a chemists/pharmacy/drugstore as far as I'm concerned. It sells a few non-prescription meds (paracetamol) etc but the vast majority of its sales are cosmetics and toiletries. They even now sell batteries and stamps. They've become a general store. All the supermarkets sell non-prescription medication too.

Boots (or as it used to be called, Boots the Chemist) is like Superdrug plus a section where the pharmacist works.
I don't use, or spell, Superdrug; and I don't think I'd call it anything. ;-)

b
 

SoothingDave

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In the US, any "drug store" would have a pharmacist in the store during typical hours. Supermarkets also typically have a "pharmacy" where you can get your prescriptions filled.

You can buy various other items in most "drug stores," from OTC medicines to makeup to candy and food; and even milk and frozen foods in some of the newer and bigger stores.
 

Rover_KE

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I don't use...Superdrug.

b

You should check it out, Bob; they have some great bargains and sell lots of stuff cheaper than Boots.

Rover
 
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