Are the health food store bee pollen meds just a gimmick for treating allergies?

Yes: The pollens that cause allergies are very small, and carried by the wind. Flowers need bees to cross-pollinate, because the pollen is too big and heavy to be carried by the wind. Since they're not airborne, people can't inhale them and react to them. Thus, the pollens found in bee pollen are not the pollens that cause your allergic symptoms.

Be careful: Bee's pollen, in a granular form, taken orally, has been associated with acute anaphylactic reactions in at least three people. I was the lead author of this paper in the journal of allergy and clinical immunology in 1979. Non sedating antihistamines are much safer.