When I first entered the pharmacy in Brignoles, France, I expected something familiar: shelves of medicine, quiet customer service, and a practical healthcare environment. As a Finnish citizen, I was used to seeing pharmacies mainly as places where people go when they need advice, prescriptions, or basic health products. But this French pharmacy quickly showed me that a pharmacy can also be a carefully designed retail space: one where healthcare, beauty, seasonal products, promotions, and visual marketing all meet.

During my internship as a pharmacy assistant, my main tasks included sorting products, assembling shelves, following planograms, checking stock information, and supporting visual merchandising.

One of the biggest differences I noticed was how commercial the French pharmacy felt. In Finland, pharmacies often feel quite calm, functional, and medically focused. Products are organized, of course, but the atmosphere is usually more restrained. In France, the pharmacy still needed to feel clean, professional, and trustworthy, but it also had a strong retail identity. Dermo-cosmetics, skincare brands, sun care products, face masks, seasonal wellness items, and promotional campaigns were displayed almost like in a beauty store. The challenge was to make the pharmacy attractive without making it feel chaotic or too “salesy.”

Another important difference is the role of the pharmacist. In France, a pharmacist is not always only the person behind the counter handing you medicine. In some specific situations, they can be the first person you go to when you feel unwell. For example, if a customer has symptoms of a simple urinary infection or certain flu-like throat symptoms, the pharmacist may do a quick test in the pharmacy. Only after the result confirms the right type of infection can they provide antibiotics, so this is still very limited and medically controlled. Pharmacists can also help customers take the next step by arranging or guiding them toward a doctor’s appointment, and some pharmacies even offer access to online doctor consultations. This made the French pharmacy feel much more like a first point of healthcare access, not only a place where customers collect prescriptions.

This became very clear when I worked with shelf displays. I learned that visual merchandising in a pharmacy is not only decoration. It helps customers understand where to look, what products belong together, which items are seasonal, and which offers are worth noticing. For example, sun care products from brands such as CeraVe and Vichy needed more visible shelf space as the season changed. Promotions for serums, day and night creams, eye treatments, and gift-with-purchase offers were also created to make customers stop and look. In Finland, I had mostly thought of pharmacy shelves as practical storage. In France, I saw them as silent salespeople.

Another difference was the importance of signs, colours, and brand materials. French pharmacies use a lot of visual cues: large brand cardboards, header boards, discount signs, price labels, magnetic category signs, and bright promotional tags such as “-20%,” “-3€,” or “prix en baisse.” Clear price communication was essential because customers needed to understand the offer immediately. At the same time, everything had to remain visually balanced. A display could attract attention, but it still had to match the professional image of a pharmacy.

I also learned that behind every nice-looking shelf, there is a lot of practical work. Before building a display, I had to check product codes, follow shelf maps, make sure the correct products were in the correct place, and remove expired products. Sometimes shelves had to be dismantled and redone if the result was too complicated or did not match the model. I used Zebra scanning devices for stock management and customer price checks, and I took photos to document before-and-after situations or to get approval for new shelf models. This was very different from simply “putting products on a shelf.” It required accuracy, patience, and a good eye for detail.

The French working culture was also an important part of the experience. The pharmacy felt more hierarchical than what I associate with Finnish working life. Instructions came clearly from management, and the boss supervised the final result closely. At first, this could feel strict, especially when a shelf needed to be redone. But I slowly understood that the purpose was not only control, it was about maintaining a consistent professional standard. In a French pharmacy, visual presentation seemed to matter a lot, and approval was part of the process.

At the same time, there was warmth in the workplace culture. Coffee breaks, small routines, and even baguettes helped me feel more included in the team. One moment that stayed with me was when someone said that I was “becoming French.” It was a small comment, but it made me realize that adapting to a workplace is not only about doing tasks correctly. It is also about learning the rhythm, humour, habits, and social codes of the team.

The experience changed how I see pharmacies. Before the internship, I mainly thought of them as healthcare spaces. Now I understand that a pharmacy is also a customer experience. A clean shelf, a clear price label, a well-placed seasonal product, or a balanced display can make shopping easier and more pleasant. Good merchandising supports sales, but it also supports trust. In a pharmacy, that trust is especially important.

For me, the most interesting difference between Finnish and French pharmacies was this balance between healthcare and retail. Finland feels more minimal, practical, and service-oriented. France felt more visual, promotional, and brand-driven. Neither approach is better; they simply reflect different pharmacy cultures. As a Finnish intern in France, I learned that even small details, such as fronting products, checking labels, arranging colours, photographing a shelf for approval, can shape how customers experience the whole pharmacy.

By the end of the internship, I had gained more than technical skills. I became more confident using scanning tools, reading planograms, organizing products, checking stock, and understanding visual merchandising logic. But I also learned something more personal: professional growth often happens when you step into an unfamiliar environment and allow yourself to be a beginner. In my case, that environment was a French pharmacy, full of skincare displays, promotional signs, strict shelf models, coffee breaks, baguettes, and many small lessons about how culture can be seen even in the way products are placed on a shelf.