Competitively-priced and much closer in concept to your typical self-service American drugstore (what a novel idea!), City Pharma is deservedly popular – perhaps even too popular – with Parisians, tourists, and expats alike.
Be prepared to exercise your elbows in order to get to the right shelf and then to wait in a long check-out line. To the managers' credit, given the constraints of the limited space and the ridiculous crowds, everything is organized very efficiently. There are many employees working on the floor ready to help you find stuff (most speak at least basic English) and multiple cash registers are always working at full tilt, upstairs and downstairs, so even though the lines look scary, they move fast.
