So it stands to reason that as working hours change, the lines between weekends and weekdays blur and consumers want to be able to buy things when and where it suits them.

The Harper Review into competition appears to have taken this on board with a number of recommendations that would see, among other things, pharmacy regulations being reformed so supermarkets could dispense pharmaceutical products. 

While this might suit shoppers, a very powerful Pharmacy Guild is dead against such a move. While the guild says its stance is all about public healthcare, it would be naïve to assume self-interest didn’t enter its reasoning. 

Under existing rules, pharmacies can only be owned by qualified pharmacists. Doing away with those rules would expose local operators, such as David Heffernan, to competition from the duopolistic supermarket juggernaut composed of Woolworths and Coles. It is only natural pharmacists want to defend their turf.

For deregulation to work, to achieve its core aim of improving competition, something needs to be done to address the stranglehold the two supermarket chains enjoy. If it isn’t loosened, the rule change will only shift power from one group, the Pharmacy Guild, to another, the supermarket duopoly. 

Consumers might stand to benefit from greater convenience but at the end of the day, the prices they pay for the products they’d otherwise buy from the corner chemist will end up being set by the duopoly. 

Competition is a good thing but it has to be genuine and conducted on a reasonably level playing field, otherwise small business is left at the mercy of the retail giants against which it has scant chance of surviving.