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The  New  Drugstore. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  1913. 
It  is  with  regret  that  we  review  the  fading  picture  of  the  old 
shop.  We  long  again  to  tread  its  sanded  floors,  see  its  dingy  walls 
and  its  funereal  furnishings.  We  recall  the  stale  drug-like  air, 
the  rows  of  bottles,  bearing  mysterious  names,  holding  mystic 
compounds.  The  old  shop  was  the  centre  for  gossip  and  loafing; 
"  Doc,"  the  owner,  was  esteemed  for  his  wisdom  and  his  urbanity 
— but  all  have  gone  their  way.  In  their  place  has  come  a  new  class 
of  men  to  fill  the  needs  of  a  new  humanity.  These  are  the  Newer 
Druggists,  who  are  at  the  helm  of  the  New  Drugstore. 
Characteristics  of  the  New  Store 
The  modern  drugstore  is  not  a  new  idea — it  is  merely  an  evo- 
lution of  the  shop  of  other  days.  It  may  be  hard  at  times  to 
recognize  the  old  within  the  new — the  time  honored  red  globes  and 
the  long  rows  of  golden  labels  have  been  displaced,  but  here  and 
there  we  recognize  many  of  the  old  traditions  and  the  best  of  the 
accepted  principles  still  remain. 
The  most  notable  change  between  the  old  and  the  new  is  the 
character  of  the  wares  and  the  business  methods.  Commercial 
pharmacy,  with  its  hustling  business  systems,  has  quite  a  different 
aspect  from  the  old  corner  drugstore.  The  stress  of  modern  life, 
keen  business  competition,  have  made  a  striking  transformation. 
We  may  note  a  few  of  them. 
The  one  price  system:  In  a  store  where  I  served  for  a  time 
a  book  was  kept  wherein  was  entered  against  the  name  of  the  cus- 
tomer the  price  to  be  charged  for  articles  that  were  most  frequently 
purchased,  and  each  customer  had  a  different  price.  When  a  new 
customer  entered  he  was  looked  over,  the  goods  were  looked  at,  the 
clerks  looked  wise  and  guessed  at  a  price ;  special  arrangements, 
secret  prices,  bargaining,  haggling,  subterfuges  and  extortion  were 
the  common  practice. 
The  introduction  of  the  one-price  idea,  and  the  education  of 
the  public  up  to  it,  has  been  a  great  moral  influence  in  the  world's 
commerce.  For  its  promulgation  and  maintenance  we  are  indebted 
to  the  department  store  of  the  Wanamaker  type. 
The  prevalence  and  dogged  retention  of  former  customs  as  to 
prices  in  the  drug  trade,  has  undoubtedly  fostered  the  deep-seated 
prejudice  as  to  drugstore  profits,  and  no  doubt  had  much  to  do 
with  the  advent  of  the  cut-rate  store. 
In  the  modern  drugstore  business  is  conducted  upon  a  purely 
