One of the little things I’ve noticed since moving to NYC is that most, though not necessarily all, drugstores that have a pharmacy will include language along the lines of “department within” after the word “pharmacy” on their signs, generally in much smaller print. So what you wind up with is something like “Duane Reade / Pharmacy dept. within”.
Is this just a New Yorkism, like standing on line rather than in line, or is there actually some bit of law that requires this? (A quick Google search doesn’t turn anything up, at least on the first page.)
I’ve wondered this for a very long time. It’s not just NY, it is in NJ too. I see it both on stores which are known for being pharmacies (like CVS and Walgreens), and on supermarkets as well (like ShopRite and Pathmark). Now that I think of it, it might be absent where the name itself tells you about it, such as “Neighborhood Drugs” or “ABC Pharmacy”.
I find it very annoying to see signs like the OP cited. Are they warning me that the store contains a pharmacy? Are they warning me that the big store sells medicine in only a small part of it?
My honest guess is that there were laws many decades ago which required a pharmacy to be clearly labeled as such, so that someone who needed medicine could easily find a place to buy it. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this is not a bad idea even nowadays. After all, all the locals know that Duane Reade (to use the OP’s example) is a drugstore, but how many visitors know that? Shouldn’t we help them in an emergency?
I think that the OP is asking about the “dept. within” specifically, and why they can’t just say “Duane Reade / Pharmacy”.
Perhaps is has something to do with professional regulation? It could be the case that a pharmacy must, by law, be separated from other business that the establishment provides, and there may be a requirement that the consumer be notified that the pharmacy is a separate entity from the rest of the store.
Here in Virginia, it seems that most, if not all, stores that also have pharmacies put the pharmacies at a counter at a specific location in the store that is separate from the checkout counters, but in reality the point of sale equipment at the pharmacy counter is integrated with the point of sale equipment at the “normal” checkout counters. I’ve combined a prescription with merchandise from the general store shelves and bought it all in one transaction, and they didn’t bat an eye.
Here in Virginia, I haven’t really taken a good look, but I think that “Pharmacy” stands on its own here. I believe I’ve also seen “Drugs” as a label.
I’ve never actually seen the “dept within” in any store in New York State. “Pharmacy” is always prominent, but CVS, Hannaford, Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid, and Price Chopper (to name those within a mile of my house) don’t have anything else. It may just be a Duane Reade affectation.
DR was just the example I happened to pick–I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it on others as well. Will have to take a look at the CVS across the street at work tomorrow.
From what I can tell, waterj2’s cite merely shows that such stores are ALLOWED to have a sign indicating that there is a pharmacy within, but not that they are REQUIRED to have any such sign.
As I read it, the wording is such that you can have a sign on the exterior indicating that there is a pharmacy inside the store; however, because the use of the word “pharmacy,” etc. is restricted to that part of the store where the pharmacy is actually located, the exterior sign should be qualified by the “dept. within” language to clearly indicate that while there is a pharmacy therein, the entire store isn’t a pharmacy. That said, it’s open to interpretation and this interpretation might amount to an abundance of caution. (And I admit that if I hadn’t seen hundreds of signs so qualified, this might not have been my first read.) Of course, you could keep the pharmacy a secret and not have any sign outside referring to it at all, but that’s hardly going to be good for business. Finally, if it’s not heavily enforced, or if the penalties are very mild, a business might well decide to take a chance and save a few bucks on signage.
BTW–the CVS across the street from my office does have the “dept. within” qualifier.
My WAG would be that back when pharmacies were first allowed to expand into stores selling other goods as well, there were fears that consumers would be confused and would think that the ordinary schlubs stocking the greeting cards and makeup were trained pharmacists. Thus, the pharmacy area had to be separated and marked so that people would know who to talk to with their drug-related questions.
My guess(and it’s only a guess) is that these signs are to somehow signify that the pharmacy and the store have separate management (possibly due to some requirement to have a pharmacist on duty when the store is open if there is no separation). I know I only see these signs on places like Duane Reade, CVS, etc. I never see such signs on neighborhood drugstores where the pharmacist manages the whole store.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I interpret it. The way the law is written seems to imply that it should be specified that it’s a department within the store, but doesn’t say so explicitly. Perhaps the nitty gritty details of enforcement vary depending on location. If the laws are enforced by city or county officials, they might interpret it differently. LawMonkey has examples of the language being used in NYC, RealityChuck has examples of it not being used upstate (IIRC, he lives in Schenectady). I have no idea who might ensure proper compliance with pharmacy sign laws, but there’s probably not a NY State Board of Pharmacy Signage that checks every pharmacy in the state. It’s likely left up to local agencies to enforce, and some read the statute differently than others. Or, at least that’s my guess.
I think I found the answer. According to information on the NYS Education dept website, a pharmacy can be registered as a full store or a department of a larger store , a pharmacist must be present if the pharmacy (whether full store or department) is open and if the pharmacy is operated as a separate department there must be no access to the pharmacy when a pharmacist is not present. This would explain why the independent pharmacies don’t have such signs, and it would also explain why some locations of chain drugstores don’t - I was surprised by the number of 24 hour pharmacy locations near me and they can register the whole store as a pharmacy.
