Markets with Bertie: Paracetamol or chalk powder?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Much to the annoyance of his missus, Bertie still buys things in physical shops. She has tried to impress the merits of online shopping on him but Bertie still prefers to go out, cloth bag in hand.

It is probably the earthy fund manager in him who wants to interact with merchants and fellow shoppers that makes him do this. That he can pass these expeditions off as channel-checks is a bonus. Last week, Bertie found himself at the local chemist shop with a list of drugs.

Nothing serious; the usual mix of pain-relievers, multi-vitamins and antacids that make up the medicine cabinet in any home. Proponents of online shopping underestimate the joy of handing over a handwritten piece of paper to the man behind the counter and then looking around the shelves to see what’s new. Bertie was thus inspecting a bottle of ‘Ayurvedic Ozempic’ when the pharmacist asked “You want specifically this?".

Bertie did not understand the question—isn’t that the point of making a list? “I can give you a different brand for the same medicine. Is that ok?’ the chemist clarified. Bertie thought about it for a moment and shrugged.

These were everyday medicines; as long as they did the job, Bertie wasn’t fussed about the logo on the strip. At check-out, the chemist proudly announced that he had saved Bertie almost 10% of his total bill by substituting the drugs and as if to say, we can compete with the online guys, offered another 10% discount. The following day Bertie was narrating these channel-check insights to a pharma analyst who explained the concept of trade generics; drugs that are marketed to distributors instead of doctors, that apart from being cheaper, fetch the chemist a much bigger trade margin.