There’s a number of large, although very dated Osco drug stores (chemists, for those across the pond) in the general vicinity of where I live. All of them look like they were built in the 1950s and 1960s, and the interiors probably aren’t too different than what you would find at a large 5&10 store from the era.
The first time I visited a Kansas City area Osco, I was transported back to Buffalo, New York, circa 1972. At that time, bedore the words “Rite Aid” or “Walgreens” became a part of the national lexicon, most drug stores were independently owned, or part of a small local chain. They all had a certain smell, too, which I could never quite describe. Not unpleasant, but “drugstorey.”
New mega-chain drugstores, like Walgreens, CVS, Eckerd, and the like don’t have any sort of smell. When I walked into an Osco for the first time, though, it smelled EXACTLY like a 1970s era drugstore.
I’m trying to figure out … first off, just what is that smell? Secondly, why was is it common with drugstores from the era?
Some people on these boards might read your OP and think you’re nuts.
But not me. I know what you talk of.
The Rexall in Plymouth, Wisconsin had “that smell”. As did a little drug store in the down town area where I grew up in.
I don’t know what it was though.
What I find fascinating is how one can remember a particular smell, even if he hasn’t smelled that smell for years and years, and how smells can instantly bring back memories.
It may be that older stores were simply much smaller and the pharmaceutical smells involved in preparing and compounding drugs was more noticable. Of course it could also have simply been Doc. Twilley’s aftershave.
Al the old Rexall stores I’ve been in have The Drugstore Smell™
I don’t think it would have anything to do witht he size of the store. The Osco stores here, all of which have The Drugstore Smell™, are fairly large.
What’s carbolic soap? If the smell is indeed that, why would an old Osco or Rexall reek of the smell, while a new Walgreens is scent-free? I did a quick search for “carbolic soap,” but all the links were in the UK, which tells me it’s some type of product that isn’t available in great quantities on this side of the pond.
I know that smell! I remember it. But I can’t identify it. That makes me very curious. If somebody does know the origin of the smell, and puts a name to it, and the name is right, I have either to know that smell by that name or I have to trust that the person with the correct name is trustworthy.
Otherwise, how could I validate the claim that the smell had a name and that it’s the name of the one that matches the smell I recall?
We need some scratch-and-sniff websites, right? Anybody know of one?
For that matter, is there even a reliable and non-confusing (i.e., universally accepted) naming convention for smells?
We recently read the incredible novel Perfume and it’s amazing how a writer can specify various smells. The entire book is an experiment in the use of words to convey smells.
But does anybody know if people who work with smells have a dictionary or glossary for smells? I do know there’s a standard for colors. But smells?
Just curious. And no, I can’t help with the drugstore smell, beyond saying I know what you’re talking about.
Yep, I remember that smell too. My guess it’s something the pharmacist creates when he’s doing his thing. What do pharmacist do besides count pills and make little bottles of liquid out of big bottles of liquid?
If that’s the case, though, why don’t you experience The Smell at a Walgreens, CVS or Eckerd drugstore? Why only Osco stores in Kansas City, older independent drugstores, and old Rexall outlets?
I can vouch for the power of a loved smell! My wife bought an old china cabinet at a yard sale- I opebned the door and took a sniff…and wasinstantly transported back to my grandfather’s house!
The odor is hard to discribe…but it seems to be a mix of mustyness, old wood, varnish and somethin else–which i can’t really pin down.
I sometimesfind myself going to the cabinet and taking a few sniffs-it literally transports me back to my childhood!
The only idea I have been able to come up with is this. As I recall many of these drug stores would also carry some clothing items such as shirts and so forth and possibly rolls of raw cloth as well. I also think that air conditioning was not common at the time. So I have speculated that the smell is a combination of some mustiness from the clothing items perhaps mixed with the smell of moth balls from the storage cabinets.
I would love to get the staright dope on this question.
I don’t have any reason for guessing that. I don’t even know if it was regularly used by pharmacists. But as I was reading this, the word “camphor” kept popping into my head.
Isn’t it like “rubbing alcohol?” I think ,long before all wearing rubber gloves, pharmacists often washed their hands, with either alcohol, or Betadine,or another strong detergent.
IT doesn’t smell like alcohol to me, but that might be part of the mix. Even so, why would pharmacists at a Rexall or Kansas City Osco still be washing their hands, while they don’t at newer pharmacies?
There was a Rexall drug store across the street from my grandmother’s dress shop in the early 60’s that had that smell. But there was something sweet about it…almost fruity…I used to call it the “gumball” smell. Mmmmm…magical! I don’t remember whether they had a soda fountain, but that might have had something to do with it. All those syrups. A side question, do they still make fountain Cokes anywhere?
If anyone wants to test the smell of camphor to see if it is in fact the smell under discussion, grab a tube of Band-Aid anti-itch gel (formerly Rhuligel) available at your local Rite-Aid. The active ingredient is camphor and it has a very distinctive, unmistakeable scent.
Scroll down to the nation’s 3 most endangered smells.
“The Drugstore Smell, a combination of outgassing medications, liniments, unguents, and gauze. This smell is heading toward extinction with the bloating of drugstores into big boxes, in which the quaint smells dating back to mortar and pistil are overwhelmed by the non-smells of aisles of trinkets.”
Hmmm I always thought a real drugstore would have a soda fountain and I thought the various ingredients for “cherry Cokes” and milkshakes produced the drugstore smell. I also thought the tobacco products they sold also contributed to it.
Of course if you say Osco stores have that smell now, I am guessing they do not have a soda counter and their tobacco products (in this day and age) would be very limited.
I fouind the Buffalo Preservation Works link before I made the OP. I thought about it for a bit, but wondered:
Wouldn’t the smell of “outgassing medications, liniments, unguents, and gauze” still be present at all drug stores? It’s not as if drugstores don’t have medication anymore, or that they carry far less gauze than they used to have.
I remember 1970s-era independent drug stores on the scale of a modern Walgreens or Eckerd Drugs having The Smell. Two long-gone chains in the Buffalo area, Leader Drug and Brooks Drugs, also had outlets with the trademark Old Drugstore Smell.
Remember, all the Oscos in Kansas City that I’ve been to, all of which were built in the 1950s and 1960s, have the Old Drugstore Smell. Like Walgreens and Eckerd, they have “aisles of trinkets.” Also, I doubt that pharmacy work at Osco would involve “mortar and pistil” work any more than at Walgreens.
