Where I live (Germany), it’s fairly common to buy the generics. Not everyone does it, but enough people. They’re available and oftentimes it’s the exact same ingredients inside, just a different packaging and brand name on it. And a third of the price or so. I think it’s more that people buy what they’re used to. And if you just ask for Aspirin (which is a brand name here), the pharmacist is going to hand you that, and not the generic. So it’s a bit more effort to add half a sentence to deliberately ask for the cheap one.