I’ve seen these all over Europe. Some have simple images of the cross flashing, some have windows screensaver esque animations, and some have 3d renders of various things rotating in all sorts of ways. Why is that? Wouldn’t a simple green cross be enough to get the point across, or do they need to be overly verbose? Here’s the full video instead of a gif
Because they are cool, that’s why.
Must be a continental thing. Here in noggieland we have a simple illuminated green cross.
Wait! That’s a new one for me, what’s noggieland?
There are some that flash super bright, and super fast, in winter, when driving home in the dark, it feels like I’m on the verge of an epileptic fit, must be a nightmare for those who have to live with that shining in through their windows.
It’s not enough that they’re cross. They want you to be cross too!
I’m pretty sure that’s just kind of a tradition, I don’t remember exactly tho
I don’t think we have those in the US at all.
Anyways it’s probably like that because it’s eye-catching. Eg it’s an ad
Depends where you’re at in the US. In oregon this symbol is used for cannabis dispensaries, meaning it is extremely common.
Might just be a UK tbh, never seen this before
It’s a mainland Europe thing.
I can confirm that they are in the Czech Republic and Italy
Loads in Morocco as well, they have loads of pharmacies due to all the French influence.
I mean, the lit-up signs are for visibility. In some countries pharmacies are assigned strict working hours by the government, so it’s useful to see at a glance if a pharmacy is currently open without having to walk right up to the door (and night shifts may require ringing a bell in some of them, so that’s also helpful to convey that they are in fact open).
The fancy animations are just because when signs went from neon-lit to LEDs it turned out not all pharmacists have good design sensibilities. At least as far as I can tell.
This. The big green cross had the purpose of helping people locate open pharmacies, so they already were a sort of advertisement, in a tangential way… when technology allowed for flasher ones, most businesses went for it, because why not.
Maybe some of Europe’s surfeit of demo coders had to make their money somehow, and one of them persuaded a pharmacy that paying them to make them a sign with graphics that spin in eyecatching ways would be a good idea, and the rest was history?
They don’t even need to persuade individual pharmacies. In my country, there is a trade organization of pharmacies that self-regulates the industry and decides, among other things, on the short list of companies whose crosses are allowed to be installed. There are only 6 so getting on that list will give anyone a huge number of orders.
That could be what happened, but at a factory. I’ve noticed that a lot of them have similar graphics, so it might be a preset added in by the manufacturer.
Ha ha. Demo scene coders in the wild.
2kb apoteke demo comp 2024!
Hahahaha imagine if someone got doom running on one of those signs
I’m about 101% sure it’s possible, ±1.1%
Ok, so this might be an americanism, but the green cross says “cannabis dispensary” to me. At least around me, the medical marijuana industry is somewhat separated from the medical industry, and dispensaries are entirely different establishments from pharmacies. Pharmacies (and other medical establishments) will tend to use the red cross if they’re using a generalized symbol.
But that’s just my context, so I don’t have much of an answer beyond “this is what it means 'round these parts”
So is this not for a cannabis dispensary?
That’s definitely part of my blind spot here. I don’t know of anywhere that uses a green cross for something other than a dispensary, but I also don’t know a lot of things , sooo¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The green cross is the universal symbol for pharmacies in Southern Europe. Admittedly I haven’t checked if any of them do have cannabis, but I’d recommend not asking pharmacists whether they got it. As others mentioned, the red cross wouldn’t be used as that would be a Geneva conventions violation.
Indeed, the green cross is the symbol for pharmacies here in Spain and in most places I’ve been (including a bit of northern europe).
None of them sell cannabis. If legal to sell, it needs to be sold in separate stores, which usually don’t have flashing signs. Those stores can’t use the green cross as a symbol.
This fucked me up big time my first trip which was way before it was so common in the States
It is universal in France. Sometimes you can stand in the street and see four or five flashing away in your view. I kinda like them, don’t have them in my country.
The red cross symbol is actually not a generalized symbol and use of it is heavily controlled by the American Red Cross non-profit. There is a history of lawsuits against video games for using the red cross on medkits without permission. If a pharmacy in the US uses it, they no doubt had to seek approval.
Ahh, that’s genuinely interesting, thanks!
There’s a “removed Geneva convention violation” patch note in an early update of Stardew Valley for exactly this reason.
To add to this, the US already has a universal symbol for pharmacies. It’s a capital R with the slanted leg extended past the bottom of the R and crossed to make a X.
$ < medicine
And the barber shop!
℞
Because they’re easy to recognize and consistent? It’s honestly more weird that other areas of the world haven’t followed suit.
I saw a lot of those in Tenerife and it felt really weird. That is completely absent where I live.
I’ve seen them in southern Europe on vacation, but never in the Nordics. Allways thought it was a Iberian/Latin thing (FR, ES, IT, PT). Guess they are more common than I thought.
Can confirm that Norway does not have those signs
They’re slowing creeping in here in Denmark.
There is one around the corner from where I live. It doesn’t display anything but time and temperature (yet), but every time I walk past I secretly hope they’ve fired up the rave machine.
Can confirm that in Portugal, pretty much every single pharmacy has one of these, with varying degrees of wacky 2D/3D animations and info display.
You’re missing out, those are the tamer ones these days. https://youtu.be/x6Alv2Z347c?si=c_a2IkCBLB4AL4zo
A compilation in reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/musichaiku/comments/153qvqo/pharmacies_in_europe_and_their_rave_signs/
LMAO the part where it just starts displaying a bunch of pills flying at the screen
There’s a guy who bought 3 of this and set them as the lights for a rave at a venue, was pretty funny
Hahaha I’ve seen some of those animations in their natural habitats
Also now that I think of it, has anyone played bad apple on one of those?
Haven’t seen it done, but it’s just a matter of time
In my country, flashing lights for stores are outright banned, because it might trigger epilepsy seizures. Seeing a pharmacy out of all places using it feels very weird.
That’s what I thought too. But lo and behold