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Pharmaceutical Society Of Great Britain Essay

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Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots [1953] 1 QB 401 Court of Appeal

Boots introduced the then new self service system into their shops whereby customers would pick up goods from the shelf put them in their basket and then take them to the cash till to pay. The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain brought an action to determine the legality of the system with regard to the sale of pharmaceutical products which were required by law to be sold in the presence of a pharmacist. The court thus needed to determine where the contract came into existence.

Held:

Goods on the shelf constitute an invitation to treat not an offer. A customer takes the goods to the till and makes an offer to purchase. The shop assistant then chooses …show more content…

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The Society appealed.
Held on appeal
Lord Justice Somervell

His Lordship described the layout of the Boots store as follows:

'The customer when he comes in is invited to take a receptacle and goes round and can choose the articles which he wants. He then goes to one of two desks at the end of the room, and there, admittedly, there is a registered pharmacist, ... '

It was argued by the plaintiffs that 'the purchase is complete if and when a customer going round the shelves takes an article and puts it in the receptacle which he or she is carrying, and therefore if that is right when the customer comes to the pay desk, having completed the tour of the premises, the registered pharmacist, if so minded, has no power to [decline the sale].

Lord Justice Somervell noted that the answer to the question of when the sale was completed depended on how the layout of the store ought to be regarded. It could either be regarded as:

'an offer which is completed and both sides bound when the article is put into the receptacle'; or 'a more organised way of doing what is done already in many types of shops', in which case the customer makes the offer to purchase at the checkout which may, or may not, be accepted.

His Lordship used the analogy of a bookshop, providing the following example:

'[A bookseller enables] customers to have free access to what is in the shop to look at the different articles and then,

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