What we stock when the south-easter is up

When the south-easter runs for a week, the same requests come in waves. Dry eyes. Blocked noses. Cracked lips. Kids with sore throats from mouth-breathing at night. Skin that will not settle.

A national buying list does not know that. We do, because we are standing here in it too, so we hold those things before you ask rather than ordering them after.

Saline — nasal spray, rinse, eye drops. It is the least glamorous category in the shop and the one we run out of first in wind season.

Barrier and repair creams, plain and fragrance-free, in sizes people will actually use twice a day.

Hayfever products as a class: the newer non-drowsy oral antihistamines, steroid nasal sprays where they are available without a script, and eye drops for itch. Which one suits you depends on what else you take — that is a counter conversation, not a shelf decision.

Electrolytes for people who train in wind and heat and drink nothing until they get home.

Sun protection in sizes that live in a car, a beach bag and a school bag.

We do not publish a shop-this-for-that list, and we do not name scheduled medicines as though they were shopping. Scheduled medicines are supplied against a valid script through a registered pharmacy, and the choice sits with the prescriber and the pharmacist, not a web page.

If something on our shelf is not worth your money for what you are describing, we will say so. That is the whole point of a small pharmacy.

If you use something regularly and we do not stock it, tell us. Ordering it in for one household is the kind of thing a chain cannot be bothered with and we can.

Symptoms that keep coming back every season, a nose that is blocked on one side only, wheeze, or anything you have been treating for more than two weeks without progress — book a consult or see your doctor rather than buying the next box.