DOZENS of chemists' shops in our region face closure, we are warned, if resale price maintenance on non-prescription medicines is scrapped.

But, for customers, this threat - which stems from a challenge to the price-fix system by supermarkets chain ASDA - is a two-sided concern.

The first is why should they, in effect, subsidise private businesses by being charged more than necessary for goods?

Resale price maintenance was seen off a generation ago by the Heath government, in the name of price-competition benefiting the customer.

Its retention in the retail pharmacy trade is an anachronism which is based, we understand, on a perceived need for "advice" on non-prescription medicines to be available to customers from chemists.

This notion is somewhat disingenuous as many staff in chemists have no pharmaceutical training and the same products are available, subject to the same pricing floors, elsewhere anyway.

However, if the price-fix is abolished, the upshot for consumers may be the choice of buying their headache pills and cough medicine a lot cheaper from the supermarkets or paying more at the chemists - which, like the corner shop, might disappear if they do not use it.

And that will be no good thing.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.