OBJECTIVES: Serving 172,709 dispensing points, the pharmaceutical wholesale-industry is a vital branch. One of the major business-objectives is total-customer-satisfaction. Thus, a questionnaire aimed to draw a comprehensive picture of the level of satisfaction (including delivery-times and country-specific-issues) of pharmacists with pharmaceutical-full-line and short-line wholesalers, Direct-sales from manufacturers, Direct-to-Pharmacies (DTP) and Reduced-Wholesale-Arrangements (RWA) in Europe, focusing on Germany, UK., France, Spain and the Netherlands. METHODS: The necessary data was obtained from an online-questionnaire (March 2011-October 2011) which was directed to pharmacies (n=473). RESULTS: The majority of the observed countries (99% in Spain to 72% in the UK) of the respondent pharmacists were satisfied with the distribution through pharmaceutical-full-line-wholesalers. With regard to the delivery-time offered by pharmaceutical-full-line wholesalers the satisfaction ranged from 97% in Spain to 76% in the UK. With regard to the distribution through short-line-wholesalers 62.50% of the German pharmacists were satisfied. With their delivery-time 56.30% of the pharmacists were satisfied, whereas 50.00% (distribution) and 38.90% (delivery-time) of the Dutch-participants showed satisfaction. Less than half of the respondents (58% in Spain to 12% in the UK) in four out of the five countries observed showed satisfaction with the distribution through Direct-sales from manufactures. 80% of the pharmacists in the UK were unsatisfied with this kind of distribution-system. Concerning the delivery-time pharmacists in the majority of the observed countries answered with neutral. Pharmacists in the UK (76%) were unsatisfied with Direct-sales from manufacturer. Pharmacists in the UK were unsatisfied with Direct-to-Pharmacy and the Reduced-Wholesale-Arrangements (DTP: 89.70% distribution vs. 75.90% delivery-time; RWA: 90.80% distribution vs. 58.50% delivery-time). Country-specific-issues mentioned were lack-of-availability of medicinal-products, stock-problems (UK), out-of-stocks problems (NL), shortages, supply-problems (ES) and decrease in discount-rates (DE).  CONCLUSIONS: The satisfaction of pharmacists varies greatly between different distribution-models. Responding pharmacists in the countries observed receiving their medicinal-products through pharmaceutical full-line-wholesalers showed overall-satisfaction with this kind of distribution-system.