Malta still has Actual Chemists

Generic 'chemist'

I don't know if you recall, but in Britain and Ireland there used to exist a place known as a 'chemist's', (occasionally referred to as a 'pharmacy').  You may not remember, as it was a while ago.  (Or you may not be from Britain or Ireland, of course).  This chemist's was an establishment you visited when you felt poorly, in order to alleviate whichever symptoms you were suffering from.  But then a company called Boot's came along and turned a 'chemist's' into a 'Shop Vaguely Related to Feeling Good'.  In this new type of Shop you can buy all sorts of things that make your teeth go whiter and your skin browner and your hair more whatever-you-want-your-hair-to-be-more-of.  The new Shop does also sell medical products, but prefers not to advertise the fact, and so supermarkets and mini-marts have started enthusiastically selling all those symptom alleviating products beside their shampoos and shaving gels.



Now here in Malta, the revolution has not (yet) taken place, and here 'Boots' are merely cousins to 'Shoes'.  Chemist's here are staffed by professional looking people in white coats, and if you have a headache you must speak to these professionals in order to receive the correct ministrations and medications.

Boots, in Malta

'Good!', I hear you cry. 'Malta unsullied by multinational corporate commodification of medical products.  No pushing 'age-defying' ranges of products which have unspecific success rates".

'....g-o-o-od...', I say in reply.  'Except try buying a Lemsip in St Julian's.'  The pharmacy is closed now - as is often the case in Malta, it seems to me - and supermarkets aren't licensed to sell such hazardous material.  Certainly no chance of there being any aspirins on sale.

I've got a headache.