GlaxoSmithKline's efforts to orchestrate a smooth nationwide launch of diet pill alli on June 15th fell apart today when the nation's largest retail pharmacy chain, Walgreen's, began selling it a day early and a variety of other stores followed suit.

Dieters anxious to buy alli, the first over-the-counter diet pill approved by the FDA, swarmed Walgreen's stores around the country and from all reports cleaned out the product just about as fast as it was put out on store shelves.

With Walgreen's jumping the gun, scattered reports then began emerging from around the country of people eager to obtain the non-prescription diet pill finding alli at some Walmart, Sam's Club and Costco stores -- but not at others.

The buying frenzy for a pill that only promises to help dieters lose an extra five pounds for every 10 they shed through diet and exercise left some purchasers perplexed by their own actions.

One person who went to her local pharmacy before work and found that it hadn't yet arrived said she returned on her lunch hour to make the purchase. "I felt like an addict trying to track down the alli," she said.

Glaxo earlier in the week said it was shipping 400,000 starter kits of alli to pharmacies, grocery stores and retailers around the United States in preparation for the June 15th launch, and said it expected the rollout to be "one of the largest O-T-C launches that has been made."