A Simple Expiration-Date System for Pharmacy Inventory (That Staff Actually Follow)
Empire Rx Distributors · 5 min read
The real cost of expiry
Every expired bottle is inventory you paid for and can neither dispense nor, usually, return. For many independents this quiet write-off runs thousands of dollars a year — margin that discipline, not spending, gets back.
FEFO on the shelf
First-Expired, First-Out: new stock goes behind existing stock, always, and anything short-dated gets a colored sticker facing out. It's a ten-second habit at putaway that does more than any software. Train it once, audit it monthly.
The monthly sweep
Once a month, walk the fast-mover bays and pull anything inside 6 months of expiry to a 'dispense first' area, and anything slow-moving inside the returnable window (typically 12+ months) into the return-for-credit pile. One hour a month, two piles, done.
Buy against velocity, not price
Most expiry starts at the buying desk: a case-deal on something you dispense slowly is a future write-off wearing a discount. Before any large or short-dated buy, check your dispensing history — you want confidence you'll dispense the quantity in no more than half the remaining dating.
Make your supplier show the dating
You can't run FEFO on purchases you make blind. Buy from suppliers who show expiration dating on the listing, before checkout — then the dating decision happens at purchase, where it belongs. Every listing on the Empire Rx store shows its dating up front, our short-dated deals are labeled and discounted accordingly, and our system physically cannot sell expired product — which is exactly the standard we'd tell you to demand from anyone, including us.
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