The last days of small drugstore

I am an old timer who is fond of talking with people from all walks of life, especially with the have-nots from whom I have learned a lot about the miseries of life.

One day I talked to a female employee of a drugstore in my neighborhood which has existed for at least half a century. I have been a customer there since I was single, and I am now the grandfather of two grandsons and one granddaughter.

The woman, Mrs. Amos (not her real name), said in a sad voice: "Times have changed. Small drugstores have gone bust with new pharmaceutical factories sprouting up like mushrooms after a rainy day.

Drugstores which have an abundant supply of the so-called old medicines have no way of selling them, and not all medicines are sold by factories on consignment basis. Drugstores have to pay C.O.D. (cash on delivery).

Doctors, especially new ones who have shares in pharmaceutical factories, naturally prescribe medicines made by the factory in which they have a share or receive a commission (kickback) from.

Mrs. Amos has a relative who suffers from a chronic disease and must take a range of medicines, year in year out, for the rest of his life.

When he moved to another part of the city, he had to change doctors. When he showed his new doctor a prescription from his previous physician, the new doctor told him emphatically to stop taking those drugs. This is evidence that today's internists have different opinions, or different medicines for the same disease.

She said that there was one tablet which cost Rp 30,000 per tablet, which only implies that high income earners should take expensive medicines.

She added jokingly; "If a low income earner had to take such a tablet daily, his sickness might go away, but his financial troubles would begin."

Only two months after the above-said conversation, the drugstore where she worked was closed, so there was some truth to her complaints.

At the moment, a heap of stones is all that remains of the drugstore... perhaps to make way for one of the skyscrapers which dot the Jakarta skyline.

And as a token of appreciation for the service the drugstore rendered to the public for more than half a century, allow me to cite: transit gloria mundi... thus passes away the glory of this world!

A. DJUANA

Jakarta