Why Do Pharmacies Close Every Day From 1:30 to 2:00 PM?

This touched a nerve with a lot of his followers, many of whom only have a limited amount of time during the day to rush in and pick up their medications. If they find the pharmacy closed up, that certainly throws a wrench into their day – especially if they waited too long to get their refill.

We've all probably been there at some point. We rush into the store on our lunch break, eager to get the goods and get out. The store is open, there are customers milling about, and staffers going about their jobs. But, the pharmacy is stone cold shut down, with a sign saying, "Sorry! Out to lunch."

It can seem pretty ridiculous that every other facet of the store is working, except the life-saving one.

Here are some responses to Mike's tweet (the tweet is gone, but the replies remain).

The customers weighed in:

• "It’s all of them & Walgreens does it too. Somehow the entire Walgreens with cashiers making maybe 25% what pharmacists make doesn’t shut down for 30 mins but I guess pharmacists are super special. So obnoxious to have to keep track of when their “break” is when you run in."

So did the pharmacists:

• Not done here yet because you've struck a nerve here with me. Pharmacists have doctorates first of all. You would never say that about your MD, DDS etc. You have no trouble essentially saying pharmacists shouldn't close for lunch. Wow. Secondly, a pharmacy cannot be open legally without a pharmacist on duty. How can you keep a pharmacy open if a pharmacist "gets their lunch" and they are the only pharmacist working that day? How do I know? I used to work a 14 hour day from 8am to 10pm as the only pharmacist and at that time we didn't have lunch breaks. So I worked a 14 hour day on my feet with no break or lunch as the only pharmacist. It's a real and common thing because of understaffing by companies.

As the pharmacist above notes, that half-hour shutdown exists for a pretty good reason. And I learned all about when we moved a few years back and I found the best pharmacy our family has ever had at the local Safeway.

The pharmacy staff there is the most dedicated team I've had the pleasure to deal with – they are always friendly and willing to do whatever it takes (within their limits) to get their customers their medicines as quickly and carefully as possible. They also do vaccines, so they're really hopping at certain times of the year.

They'll even stay late to make sure everyone is taken care of, but they will never, ever miss their 30 minute lunch. My favorite tech explained that, in addition to needing that break time to eat and use the bathroom, they are required to take it by the powers that be at Safeway. It's non-negotiable, as it well may be at other pharmacies.

And here's the part I suspect a lot of customers don't realize (I certainly didn't): at many retail pharmacies, there's likely only one pharmacist on duty at any given time. That matters because pharmacy technicians have to work under a pharmacist's supervision. The pharmacist is ultimately responsible for verifying prescriptions, checking dosages, looking for dangerous drug interactions, and making sure the right medicine gets to the right patient.

So when a store has one pharmacist working a long shift, "just stagger the lunch breaks" isn't necessarily an option. There isn't another pharmacist on call who can simply take over while the first one runs out for a bite to eat.

Yes, it's frustrating, but we are talking about the person we are counting on not to make a mistake with our medication.

Nobody enjoys coming face to face with the dreaded metal gate. And if you've used your own lunch break to race across town for a prescription, it's especially annoying.

But once you realize the person behind that gate may be the only pharmacist on duty – and the one responsible for making sure your prescription doesn't hurt you – that 30-minute break seems a bit more reasonable.

So, yes, the closed gate is annoying, but I'll take an annoyed customer over an exhausted pharmacist any day.