Boots/Picky Readers

[Billy]

Adam Littman of Cornell held my hand through the calculations to determine that I’d simply accepted the Boots Pharmacy claim that they dispensed a prescription “every nine seconds of the working week,” and was simply wrong to do so. Actually, if the 85 million prescriptions per year figure that Boots claims, is accurate, and in a “working year ” there are 7.5 million seconds – taking a working day as 8 hours, and a working week as 5 days, with no holidays allowed for, that gives us 11 prescriptions every second, which is even more – a hundred times more – than Boots claimed! That leads me to suspect that someone goofed by moving decimals two spaces more than called for….!

Sorry about this - but these calculations are based on an 8 hour, 5 day working week. Boots are open 6 days a week, they all open at 9 or sometimes 9.30 and close at 6 (apart from the ones that don't) Some but not all of them open on a Sunday, although not usually for the full hours. At least one of the Oxford street Branches stays open for late shopping on a Thursday. Some of them open on holidays while others don't bother.

I hope this clears the matter up.