Boots the Chemist

Yep this place is pretty good and more or less as you would expect a branch of Boots to be.

However when I was there I watched a row between the Chemist / Pharmacist and two italian customers who were trying to buy four boxes of painkillers.

He wouldn’t serve them (correctly) for safety reasons and was very calm and professional. They were pretty rude and agressive to him about it. In the end they bought two packets each, but caused a really big unnecessary scene.

The only thing is they don’t sell soft foam earplugs – which I tend to buy a lot to help me sleep in the many hotels I spend my time in.

Boots in the North Terminal; What a disappointment. I bought an Oral B toothbrush duty/tax free (I guess it was, I had to show my boarding card to purchase it). Guess what? It was £2 cheaper in John Lewis in Kingston on my return.

I felt that Boots had been cynical and taken advantage of me. Still, I am the customer and I have a choice. I choose to never use shops at Gatwick Airport again. They cannot be trusted.

As they always used to say, it pays to shop around! I should have done some homework first (or just relied on John Lewis anyway)

This branch is located in the departure lounge of Gatwick airport, on the far left corner as you pass through security. Thankfully, they are one of the few retailers that maintain their normal pricing in airports. Indeed, you can even pick up a meal deal for £3! Also very useful if you need to pick up any last minute essentials, such as toiletries, adapters or sunscreen.

A very small branch of the High Street chemist, selling a basic range of medicines, toiletries and food items. It’s incredibly useful for last minute purchases (like sun lotion), particularly as you can’t take liquids through security above 100ml quantities, and the prices are lower than on the land-side. They have lots of 2-for-1and 3-for-2 deals, although they don’t always have the same offers as you find on the land-side.

The only thing I really dislike is the fact that it is so very small, and always packed – it could easily be twice the size and still be very busy – so you end up being pushed and elbowed by other customers laden with their hand baggage, and the queue for the tills at rear snakes around the rest of the shop, getting in the way. I guess they don’t care, though – the takings per square foot must be astronomical.