I needed to buy new vitamins here in Strasbourg, but neither of the two big grocery stores sold them, not even Monoprix, which is more like a little department store on three floors. So I checked a nearby pharmacy. On the shelves they had ginseng and other herbals, but no vitamins. And I didn’t feel like waiting in line at the counter to ask.
But then I checked another pharmacy, where they were so unbusy someone actually asked if I wanted help. They did sell vitamins, but they were behind the counter in the back of the store!
This is the way alcohol was sold in Sweden until about ten years ago. With liquor on the shelf at any little grocery store here, one wonders why vitamins are so in need of supervision?