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0Erinome: Hello dear friends, and welcome back to our show! I'm Erinome.
Enceladus: And I'm Enceladus. Today we are going to talk about a topic that many of you may have noticed: why is medicine so much more expensive in a physical drugstore than online?
Erinome: Yeah, you know that? It's a really common question. I saw a post from a famous blogger recently. He was complaining about this.
Enceladus: Oh, really? What did he say?
Erinome: He said he bought some medicine at a local drugstore for 298 yuan. But when he checked online, the same medicine was only 154 yuan on Taobao!
Enceladus: Wow, that's almost double the price! That's a huge difference.
Erinome: It is! And it's not just one person. Some people in Shanghai found that for the same drugstore, the price for the same medicine was much cheaper on its online app.
Enceladus: Wait, you mean the same company? A physical store and its own online store have different prices?
Erinome: Exactly. For example, a box of Sanlitong with 20 pills was 27.5 yuan in the store. But if you ordered it online from that same store, it was only 13.8 yuan.
Enceladus: That's crazy! So, what did the drugstore staff say when people asked about this?
Erinome: Haha, this is the most interesting part. The staff didn't hide it. They just said, "Yes, it's cheaper if you buy online, and more expensive if you buy here in person."
Enceladus: So they just admitted it? No excuses?
Erinome: They even said you could order it online and then come to the store to pick it up. It would still be cheaper than buying it directly at the counter.
Enceladus: That sounds so strange. So, why is this happening? There must be a reason.
Erinome: Well, the drugstores say they have many costs. You know, things like rent for the store, water and electricity bills, and salaries for the professional pharmacists.
Enceladus: Um, that makes sense. Those costs can be high. The article said these costs are about 20% to 30% of the drug's price.
Erinome: Right. And there's another thing. Many small drugstores don't have strong power to negotiate prices with the medicine companies because they don't buy in large amounts.
Enceladus: I see. So their purchase price is already higher than what big online platforms pay. But that still doesn't explain why online is *so* cheap.
Erinome: You're right. A big reason for the low online prices is the e-commerce platforms. They are fighting a "subsidy war."
Enceladus: A subsidy war? What does that mean?
Erinome: It means platforms give customers all kinds of coupons and discounts. They want to give you the feeling that "my platform is the cheapest place to buy things."
Enceladus: Ah, so the platform is paying part of the cost to attract users.
Erinome: Yes. And sometimes the medicine companies also give subsidies to sell more products online. That's why they dare to sell so cheap.
Enceladus: So it's the platforms and companies paying. What about the drugstores themselves?
Erinome: They also have a strategy. They sell some very common medicines at a very low price, sometimes even losing money on them.
Enceladus: Losing money? Why would they do that?
Erinome: They call these "yinliu pinzhong," which means "traffic-attracting products." They use these cheap drugs to get people to visit their online store.
Enceladus: Oh, I get it. They hope that once you are in their online shop, you will buy other things that do make a profit.
Erinome: Exactly. But some customers don't believe these reasons. They have a different idea.
Enceladus: What do they think?
Erinome: They think the offline drugstores have high prices because people can use their "Yibao," or medical insurance, there. They believe the prices are set high on purpose for this reason.
Enceladus: That's an interesting theory. But is it true?
Erinome: Well, here's the problem with that theory. In some cities, like Shanghai, you can now use your Yibao to buy medicine online on platforms like Meituan and Ele.me.
Enceladus: You can do that now? Wow.
Erinome: Yes, it started as a test project in November 2023. And even with Yibao available online, the online prices are still lower.
Enceladus: So the Yibao theory doesn't fully explain the price difference. This online Yibao payment is a new thing, right?
Erinome: It is. It's part of a big national plan called "medical informatization" that started way back in 2009. The government wants to create a unified system.
Enceladus: A unified system for what?
Erinome: The goal is that you can see a doctor in a hospital, get a prescription, and then buy your medicine online using your medical insurance. It's becoming a reality.
Enceladus: That sounds very convenient. But let's go back to the drugstores. If selling online means losing money sometimes, why do they even do it?
Erinome: That's a great question. The articles say it's like a "jilei" for them.
Enceladus: Jilei? What's that?
