OBJECTIVES: To examine how patients, by use of a discrete choice experiment, decide between visiting their general practitioner or community pharmacist for the management of minor ailments. METHODS: Focus groups were convened to identify key attributes of interest and to explore feasible variation in these attributes (levels). A postal DCE questionnaire was administered to adult populations across Wales, UK. The attributes (levels) chosen were: Location of consultation (GP surgery /pharmacy); When seen (immediately /not immediately); Travel time (15 minutes /30 minutes); Length of consultation (5 minutes /10 minutes); Expenses (£2 / £4). Each questionnaire included 17 pairwise choices and 109 respondents generated 2006 usable answers. A two-level logistic regression was performed to analyse the data. RESULTS: Significant beta coefficients were evident for all attributes other than location of consultation. The largest increase in utility was with being seen immediately as opposed to not immediately (Beta = 2.176; SE 0.174; p<0.001). A 10 minute consultation was preferred to a 5 minute consultation with GPs, however respondents preferred a quick consultation if they visited their community pharmacies. Being able to save £2 and going to their GPs gave an increase in utility, regardless of whether they were seen by their GPs or pharmacists. CONCLUSION: Everything else being equal, respondents preferred to see their GPs as their first port of call, and to be seen quickly with little travel time. There is potential to improve the efficiency of policies aiming to increase the use of community pharmacies in the management of minor ailments. This may be accomplished by reinforcing the benefits of the immediate and local availability of community pharmacies that can offer brief consultations, often at less or the same cost as consulting a general practitioner to receive a prescription medicine.