In the US, “drugstores” are also historically neighborhood stores: they contain both a pharmacy and a convenience section. It’s not common anymore, but many drugstores also had lunch counters.

I’m not exactly sure why that was the case, but convenience is a plausible reason: you need to be there to pick up your medicine, so why not get your photos developed at the same time?

I'm not 100% sure on how they got this way, but from what I hear from my one time interviewing with Capsule, most US pharmacies run a not-for-profit convenience-store operation in the front 80% of the store so that they can attract people to build it into their routine, and then make money off the highly profitable prescription-medicine counter in the back.

So the corner drugstore will have prescription drugs, and over-the-counter drugs, and bottled water, snacks, school supplies, greeting cards, basic climate-specific items (winter gloves, sunglasses and flip flops), shaving, cosmetics and makeup.

And to maximize these economies of scope, they'll also have services: an ATM, Western Union money transfers, film developing, digital-camera printing, passport photo printing, photocopying, package drop-off, maybe even a key duplicator machine... you name it.

Drugstores in the US are a general store for the most part. They carry many things, but they are usually priced higher than a regular supermarket for convenience.

You can buy food, drinks, condoms, makeup, medicine, photos, and other things. It's a good business because most people need something to do while they wait on the pharmacist so they can purchase anything they need while waiting.