Title says it. When I get a prescription filled, the pharmacy always puts it in a bottle that is too big. I know it isn’t because that is the only bottle they have; they have smaller bottles. Even big pills, the bottle is never half fill.
For my blood pressure medication, I’m not kidding, they could put three or four years worth in one of the 90-day bottles I get.
My guess is that it’s either automated and they use a standard size bottle for everything, or if they are manually filled it would take too long to find the best size bottle. Speed = Efficiency = Lower cost for everyone.
So far as I can tell, at my pharmacy they pick the bottle that fits the label best. Medications with a lot of text come in larger bottles, regardless of pill size, and the more of the little warning labels, the larger the bottle, too. I suspect the size of the text is mandated to be at least a certain size for readability.
They seem to have only two sizes at my CVS. I don’t think it’s the label, I just checked a few and the labels are the same size on both types of bottles.
The label sets a minimum, though. You want the print to be as large as possible as well. Some pharmacies are making the font larger for better readability. And bottles often come with a variety of warning/reminder stickers.
The other side of the issue is that the containers have to be large enough to handle easily, have easily openable lids, not get lost, and look like a pill container rather than candy or something that might entice kids or confuse the elderly.
The downside of sizing container to their contents is way higher than the price of having empty space in the bottle.
Or they buy just one size bottle in bulk and everything they fill is put in that same size.
I’m guessing not.
Some of my meds come in needlessly enormous bottles and some in small ones. This is annoying when I travel and have to carry several large bottles in my carryon. I asked about this at the pharmacy and was told that they fill some of the scripts in house and some are filled at a central facility and the central facility uses the large bottles. I asked why. They didn’t know. I asked if I could request small bottles and they said that was not possible.
At my pharmacy we have 5 size of bottles, 13 dram, 16 dram, 30 dram, 40 dram, 60 dram. The 13 dram and 16 dram are the same circumference, but the 16 is taller; same with the 30s, 40s, and 60s.
When I count out and label a bottle, I pick the smallest something will fit in, with the exception of some really long directions (normally some form of taper), then I would use a taller bottle (16 instead of 13; 40 instead of 30, etc). However, that is for when I manually count and label. In some of the busier stores, they have automatic counting machines, script pro and the like; or in mail order (or Walgreens that use POWER). From what I can tell with these, they do sometimes come out in larger bottles then needed. One store I’ve worked at with a script pro, there are 13 dram, 30 dram, and 60 dram bottles loaded, so it will go higher if it doesn’t fit in the smaller bottles.
Try asking them for an empty small bottle with a label on it. They should be able to print another label out while you stand there, and just label a 13 dram vial and give it to you.
I went through this with my pharmacy (Walgreens). I switched from one Walgreens to another 2.5 miles away, and the container for one of my meds doubled in size for the same number of pills. I did ask them about it, and I got the same answer–it’s automated and they have no control over it. <shrug>
Could it be they have several machines, each with its own bottle size, and each medication can only be counted on a certain machine? Which medicines go on which machines could depend on compatibility, tablet size and normal dosage, or popularity. Maybe the medications you get in oversized bottles are usually prescribed in large quantities, and your prescription is for unusually few.
Interesting from a foreigners point of view (UK) - we get hardly anything in decanted bottles any more, every prescription I’ve had in the last 15 years has come in a blister pack/cardboard box. So the pharmacist doesn’t count any pills individually.
Smart. I’ve had pharmacists steal my meds. Peckerheads.
I get two prescriptions filled at Walgreens. One bottle is always so full it seems almost packed in*, while the other is less than half full (the pills are a bit smaller and they put it in a bigger bottle). So, it’s obviously not a ‘one bottle for all’ that’s the source if the oddity.
My money’s on a lazy developer** who didn’t want to add extra logic to use dosage as a factor in bottle selection size (e.g. ‘malopharm 30 mg always go in size 2 bottles, regardless of the quantity’).
** most likely a middle manager decided it’s not economically advantageous to do the extra calculations
my guess is they have 3 or 4 sizes, basically large, extra large, 3XL, and humongous, and there is no incentive for the employees to use the best size for the given Rx. So they just grab whatever is closest to them. The empty bottles are in big bins usually.
At small, independent pharmacies i’ve seen them do a better job. I’ve also seen them use the manufacturer’s bottle rather than throwing it out and putting the Rx in a store “orange” bottle. If you get a Rx for 100 Medopills and the manufacturer ships them out in bottles of 100, then they’ll just put a Rx label on the manufacturer’s Medopill bottle rather than wasting an empty orange store bottle. Walgreens and CVS will almost never do this. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some federal regulation against it, just to keep things expensive and inefficient (something something black market something something children…)
I am amazed that in the USA, pharmacists are still dispensing pill like this. As San Vito says above, in the UK no pharmacist has done this since they took out all those beautiful wooden shelves with stuff like Syrup Ipecac and Laudanum on them.
http://fotochuk.com/wp-content/uploads/original/2013_09/The-Old-Pharmacy.jpg
Maybe the automated systems go something like “can fit in ten/twenty/whatever [commonly-prescribed drugs] per bottle]” and it would not be worth their while to take into account that some drugs are much smaller. Painkillers tend to be enormous - to make overdoses more difficult - and painkillers are among the most commonly-prescribed drugs, if not the most commonly prescribed drug, taken as a group.
I’d be pissed beyond redemption if I had to deal with blister packs for every pill I take. I hate those fucking things. Happiest day of my life was when I found 60-count Claritin bottles at the store. They last me a year, but I don’t have to deal with the blister packs.
My BP medication comes in a nice small bottle, just big enough for 30 pills.
And then the pharmacy puts the small bottle inside a bigger one with the label on it :smack:
Sort of off-topic: I wish you could take in the empties and hand them over to the pharmacists for refills. They could print out and slap a new label on them because plastic in landfills. 
Although I peel the labels off and toss the empty into recycling, still. Seems so wasteful to me.