No not especially, the problem is your drug stores are a cross between our pharmacies and supermarkets. pharmacies used to have loads of chemicals apparently, but now just packets of drugs. Supermarkets sell food, so anything else is found at DIY super stores and the range is highly limited, not everyone of them will sell patio or brick cleaner.
Those that do tend to water it right down!
I think our major problem is the weather for one, we dont have many swimming pools in the UK so not many pool shops where the real goodies are. Also we are a part of europe, because of this if it's something you can trip over or cause you to get a hair out of place they make it hard to get. Dont get me wrong I can get HCL in 20ltr containers, but I know where to look and it isnt in the shops
.
Battery acid you can forget, I have never seen it anywhere but then again I have not been everywhere. Few here realize that B&Q sell 98% sulphuric acid as a drain opener! it has a red dye in it, but alot of people here would buy a small bottle of weak soda powder and try and use that, then they call a plumber to come unblock the pipe.
Some common chemicals are now illegal to own without a license (Nitric acid over 12%) and they wont give you a license without a very very good reason, this is one reason my mum now owns a LTD company
. I can order via that, Hydrogen peroxide over 6% is a no no but if you know where you can get it. The real problems come if your caught with this stuff without good reason and a license. Next year it gets worse as possession of certain chemicals becomes illegal, at the moment its just the purchase!
So I think its part culture and part lack of demand by the common public. Makes home chemistry a nightmare! One reason I will do anything to help mum keep our house, where we live I can do things that most cant do even though what I do isnt of ill intent or bad in anyway. I like to experiment and explore science, the government only has two box's on the form for people like me. Terrorist or Drug cook!! Wouldnt occur to a single politician here that people would actually like to explore science outside of an institution. I love the stories of how my dad grew up, kids my age were expected to make things go bang and burn the shed down. It would never have crossed anyone's mind that he was making drugs or bombs, as he once said to me, Science is not a spectator sport you learn by making discoveries or mistakes and sometimes its hard to tell which came first lol