Where should you open a pharmacy? A practical location checklist

A good pharmacy location is a repeatable customer journey

The best location is not automatically the busiest road or the shop closest to a hospital. It is a place where the people you intend to serve can find you, reach you comfortably and have a reason to return. A high-traffic site can fail if customers cannot stop, the entrance is difficult or established competitors already meet the area’s needs.

Choose your intended customer group before comparing shops. A residential pharmacy may depend on repeat neighborhood visits; a clinic-area store may experience activity concentrated around consulting hours. These patterns affect staffing, product mix, opening times and how much rent the business can support.

Compare the main location types

Map actual entrances and walking routes. Being physically near a hospital boundary is less useful if the accessible exit is on another road. For a new housing area, separate occupied homes from plots that may take years to fill.

Observe the site more than once

Visit on several ordinary weekdays and a weekend, at morning, afternoon and evening periods relevant to your planned hours. Record the observation date, weather, clinic activity, access restrictions and number of nearby businesses open. A launch event, market day or temporary road closure can distort a single visit.

Use the same observation windows for every site. Count activity you can see without claiming it equals future sales. Ask residents what is inconvenient about current options and whether your proposed hours would help. Keep interviews anonymous and do not collect diagnoses or prescriptions for location research.

Study competition by service, not only by shop count

List nearby outlets, their opening hours, access, visible service offerings and any repeated availability complaints customers voluntarily describe. Five nearby shops can signal strong demand, heavy competition or both. Zero shops can signal an opportunity or an area that cannot yet support one.

Write the gap you can credibly fill without unprofessional inducements or unverified medical claims. Do not plan on payments for prescription referrals. Your reason to exist should survive a competitor matching your opening discount: more dependable availability, clearer service or genuinely easier access.

Inspect the premises before admiring the frontage

• Can the proposed premises satisfy the requirements confirmed by your local licensing authority?
• Is the landlord able to grant the intended use, signage and alterations in writing?
• Are power, ventilation, light control, water-related risks and suitable storage manageable?
• Can deliveries be received and checked without blocking the customer counter?
• Is the entrance usable by the people you intend to serve?
• Are security, flood exposure, heat, dust and emergency access acceptable?

Treat a failure on a critical point as a reason to pause, not a weakness that a good footfall score can cancel out. Obtain relevant professional or authority review where needed. A beautiful shop that cannot support lawful, suitable operation is not a viable shortlist winner.

Test how much extra sales a higher rent needs

Suppose site A costs PKR 50,000 a month and site B costs PKR 80,000. The rent difference is PKR 30,000. At an assumed 15% contribution margin after variable costs, site B needs roughly PKR 200,000 more monthly sales just to cover that difference: 30,000 ÷ 0.15. These are illustrative inputs, not local market rates.

Ask whether your observations justify that additional contribution, and include other costs that change with the site. Higher rent may come with longer required hours, additional staffing, maintenance charges or a larger deposit. Sales volume alone is not the right comparison if the product mix or discounts also change.

Use a scorecard, then explain the score

After pass/fail checks, rate each suitable site from 1 to 5 for customer fit, access, unmet need, supplier convenience and affordability. You can weight the factors, but keep the same weights across the shortlist. Write the evidence beside each rating instead of letting an attractive frontage earn a vague five out of five.

Download the pharmacy location comparison worksheet

A scorecard is a thinking aid, not a prediction model. Test the apparent winner against its biggest uncertainty. If your case depends on a clinic opening soon, verify that assumption before agreeing a long lease.

Before you sign the lease

1. Confirm the proposed use and premises route with the relevant authority.
2. Review deposit, escalation, repairs, signage, alterations and exit terms.
3. Recheck access at your busiest intended hours.
4. Use actual rent and fit-out quotations in the low-sales forecast.
5. Ask a qualified adviser to review obligations you do not understand.
6. Keep copies of agreed terms rather than relying on the agent’s verbal promise.

The location decision is ready when you can explain who will use the shop, why they will choose it and how the fixed cost will be supported. If you cannot explain those three things, more observations are worth more than a quick deposit.