China - Technology in Pharmacies for Building Trust
With pirated DVDs, fake luxury brand goods, and many fraudulent business practices, counterfeit drugs pose another daily challenge in people's lives. Sellers often talk openly about the level of sophistication of pirated goods. For example, a grade A fake Louis Vuitton bag used to cost half the price of a real one when I lived in Shanghai. Some piraters of luxury goods would even praise their skills by telling stories about placing a fake bag into a real store for a day to see whether the sales staff or customers would discover it. Fake medication is of a different matter. Here the sellers always claim that these are real – of course, which customer in her right mind would purchase bad meds for herself or someone she cares about? This leaves customers confused and with the only option: to stay away from small pharmacies as people don't know whether they will get the real drugs or something mixed up in someone's underground lab but professionally packaged. Common stories I’ve heard tell of people taking what they thought was an Aspirin but instead of helping with their headaches they got tunnel vision for half a day. So, large chains and established pharmacy brands such as Tong Ren Tang in Beijing become the trusted retailers.
The pharmacy chain Jian Zhi Jia, meaning Excellent Health in Chinese, has tried to create trust by installing high-tech touch screen-enabled information kiosks in their stores. In theory, you can scan the barcode of OTC medication packages and be reassured that the drug manufacturer is in the pharmacies database and so a trustworthy source. The terminal also offers information in terms of directions of usage, side effects and contraindications. Only some drugs have that barcode, yet, leaving me rather confused. I also wonder to what extent a system like this actually makes me feel less reassured, as the barcode could be slapped on any drugs, with some fake story of a reliable pharmaceutical company somewhere.
From the pharmacist I learn that this is already the third version installed, but people don't like using it. Not even for conditions that might have a stigma associated, e.g. mental and sexual health. (GI health is something people talk openly about in China). People rather talk with a pharmacist or doctor, the personal connection matters much more in terms of building trust, she tells me. Most Chinese pharmacies have a small clinic attached where a doctor for Chinese and Western medicine is available to do check-ups and write prescriptions – another great business strategy. Despite not being used, she claims that the information kiosk does play an important role in the building of trust: it shows to customers that the pharmacy is wealthy enough to afford this piece of technology giving the chain stores an air of trustworthiness. Is this really the case? Unfortunately, I didn’t get to sneak an interview in with a real customer. It was a cold day in Kunming where everyone rather stays at home.
