This is why the Salonpas were behind the counter:

Pharmacies do not have unlimited shelf space out front.
The out front choice of products is determined by a floor plan that is made up at corporate. Some of the decisions are made with vendors to carry their product (in return for a reduced cost) and some decisions are made based on "turns". That is how often a product leaves the shelf (computer data collected from upc scans). Things like Icy Hot patches are heavily TV advertised, but Salonpas are not.

So each pharmacy can carry extra products behind the counter.
This is based on people asking for it to be special ordered thru the pharmacy wholesaler (rather than coming from Target's warehouse). There can be many valuable things in the store this way. For example the Costco I go to has generic SlowMag back there for $4.89. Just about every pharmacy carries things this way, because someone before you asked for the Salonpas.
RiteAid and Walgreen's have them on the shelf out front.
And Costco sells a huge box of 120 for about $7.00. This is where I get mine, because I use them alot.

You can experiment on where to put them...try them on your lower neck, upper back for the arm.

Here is how I found mine:
We had a box of samples at one store I was temping at, and at the time I had a huge swelling on my left Achille's tendon. My son had months before hit the back of my foot with a shopping cart at the grocery store. This swelling was about the size of an egg and very painful to wear shoes with. I went to a podiatrist and she only said "Motrin". Well I had already done that, and it was useless.
So I took about 10 samples home with me and put one on the tendon daily for a week. And the nasty thing went down, the pain stopped, and I was sold on them!

I use them on my feet almost every day, instead of taking pills of dangerous NSAIDs every day for the broken sesamoid bones I have in the balls of my feet. Over the years I've used them just about everywhere, except for the face.

There is a new Salonpas... that is more expensive..that has 10% of the active ingredient, methyl salicylate in them. I haven't tried those yet. (they were just FDA approved and are on that website too--the first FDA OTC pain patch!)
Salonpas do not have TV commercials so people don't know about them, unless they have visited Asia. There they are very popular and have been around for over 20 yrs!

For comparison, Icy Hot has only menthol...and is a poor choice.
Same with BenGay patches. Only the Salonpas original formula have active methyl salicylate in them.

That's great that you see some improvement. I'd keep with them every day for a week or two at least, then you may only need them as needed. There is no warning to remove them every 12 hrs like the Lidoderms, so you can use them around the clock if necessary.

Very occasionally I have found some redness when I take them off.
Different skin sites can be more sensitive. Just keep off them for a
day or so and it will go away. This reaction doesn't seem to be allergic, as I have been able to put the patches back on there and have no effect. Make sure the site you choose is clean and dry and don't trap lotions or soap residue there.