The headache is pounding and you quickly pop into a pharmacy and buy a pack of tablets. It could be worth waiting an hour. Apotek1, which is the country’s largest pharmacy chain, has two prices for the same item. If you order online and pick up the medicine an hour later, for example, a pack of Ibux costs NOK 49. If you pop in and take it off the shelf yourself, it costs 101.90. It is 108 percent more expensive. Or simply put, twice as expensive. news took a round at Apotek1 and quickly found more than 30 products where the price turned out to be very different in store and online. It is therefore a lot to save by ordering first and picking up in store an hour later. See the entire list at the bottom of the case. Not everyone knows this. We also took a random sample of people on the street. It was clear that this is unknown to most people. Camilla BabtisteIt’s beyond me! I didn’t know the difference was so big, most people don’t think about it. The price has gone up on everything! Nikita Jevnheim JenssenI buy everything online, me. It’s much cheaper There are so many people who don’t know how to shop online. Tove Nilsen I’ve seen it before, but I think it’s become much more expensive in the pharmacy. Now I’m going to shop online, they can only take care. Determines the prices themselves The prices of non-prescription goods are determined completely by the sellers, whether it is in a pharmacy or grocery store. The exception is prescription drugs. Press manager Silje Ensrud in the Apotek1 group says they compete in two different markets. One online and one in physical pharmacies. – Around 30 per cent of our goods have been reduced in price online to meet the competition there, she explains. Press manager in the Apotek1 group Silje Ensrud. Photo: Tommy Borge Arnesen / Tommy Borge Arnesen There are 455 Apotek1 stores across the country. The competitors are Vitusapotek and Boots. They have mostly the same price in store as online. Online, it’s a different competition. Farmasiet.no has no physical stores and only sells online. – Why does Apotek1 have different prices online and in store – unlike Boots and Vitusapotek? – We have lower prices online to meet the competition in the online market. How other actors relate to this is difficult for me to comment on, replies Ensrud. – That there are other prices online is something known from many industries, says Ensrud. She points to both sports shops and electronics. – Do you realize that customers can feel cheated? – I think many people check online, and then we are completely open about the fact that those prices only apply online. Have chosen a different strategy Communications manager Anne Margrethe Aldin Thune answers on behalf of Boots. She says they have chosen a different strategy. – The reason for that is that we want to offer our customers a comprehensive experience, regardless of which channel they meet us in. Vitusapotek has the same strategy as Boots. – We know that many people check the website before visiting our pharmacies. We believe that customers appreciate that the price they see online is the same as what they get in a pharmacy, says communications manager Camilla Tully. Communications manager Camilla Tully. Photo: Press photo Will hold courses for the members Head of the Joint Organization for the Disabled (FFO) in Vestfold and Telemark, Rita Andersen, reacts to the fact that there is such a big difference in prices. She believes the price should be the same no matter how you shop. She is also active in the Psoriasis and Eczema Association, where the members are often heavy consumers of pharmacy products. – It becomes a lot of money when you spend a lot, says Andersen. Rita Andersen checks the prices online versus in pharmacies. Photo: news She believes that many people have not noticed the big price differences, and thinks of the species as two groups. – Older people who are not online and younger people who don’t follow along. Now she wants to inform her members and says that they are also considering holding courses on how to order online.
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“Click and collect” on the mobile phone can halve the price of pharmacy goods – news Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
