Why do people buy anything besides drugs at a CVS?
The strategy for these drug stores was to make themselves the closest option in a lot of neighborhoods. It didn’t work, but they thought it would.
I didn’t know they sold cocaine.
They do. It’s the secret aisle, behind the store. Ask for Kenny.
Kenny’s the man. Also, he doesn’t like to be tagged just a cocaine dealer, or even just a drug dealer. Kenny’s got range.
When I worked at night it was the only place open 24 hours. Now the one by me doesn’t even have that going for it.
CVS and their deliberate, hostile business practices chased me away years ago when I was unable to stop them from auto-refilling prescriptions I did not need. California finally took action against CVS in 2020 after many years of their carefully engineered abuses.
Good to see the company’s crappy behavior continues unabated and there’s no reason to give them another try.
Not just refilling prescriptions automatically, but automatically contacting your doctor to request more refills on your behalf once your normal refills refills ran out. I got a phone call from my doctor’s office once, asking me why I was trying to go around them to get more of something that I was only supposed to be on for a short time. Freaking CVS made me look like I was drug seeking.
What I’m always stunned by, who is fucking stupid enough to shop there?! I go to the pharmacy, get my shit, leave. Even when I had a fat income, I still wouldn’t pay those prices.
Locally, the Winn Dixie is shutting down because the new Publix out competed them. For those not in the know, both are very nice groceries, with Publix a little nicer and way costlier. FFS, we have an Aldi (along with 5 other cheaper groceries) and it’s never as busy as the expensive stores.
Hit a couple of big box stores waiting on my wife. Never go in those places anymore, especially since inflation went nuts the last couple of years. People pay for that crap?! At Pets Mart a chunk of driftwood is between $20 and $50! Y’all, we’re in Florida, paying for driftwood and sand. The mind boggles.
tl:dr; American consumers are idiots and I’m not going to hear the whining about high retail prices.
we have an Aldi (along with 5 other cheaper groceries) and it’s never as busy as the expensive stores.
That might also be related to the fact that Aldi tries to be very efficient with its operation so they might handle more customers but those customers aren’t stuck in the store as long.
The Germans know how to run an efficient grocery, I hope Aldi, trader joes and lidl destroy “thin margin” US parasites.
JFC fuck Kroger, fuck Safeway fuck expensive shit
Food is the common man necessity and it should be priced as such. We surely as fuck subsidize it, but the parasitic class still charges “market”
Oh, don’t get me wrong. Aldi’s owners still very much got rich off it (they are among the richest people in Germany) so they are not great in that respect either.
I ain’t here to bootlick the owners but their operations are respectable in the area of price gouging leeching.
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Like the shoplifters won’t make bogus accounts? Wtf are we even doing here?
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If any store starts requiring a fucking app to make a purchase, that store has permanently lost my business.
You have not earned the privilege of being installed on my phone. Get the fuck out of here.
Just putting the products in a locked case is enough to get me to shop elsewhere.
Its 2024and you go to Mcdonalds drivethrough. First thing you hear:
Whats your order code
No good morning. Its straight to whats the order code for the app on your phone.
Thankfully you can be equally rude back and place your order.
Next year though? Dont expect the human to stay around for long.
Line mus go up!
We all just learned from Walgreens’ latest report that placing barriers between consumers and the goods they’re trying to purchase reduces sales, and CVS’ response to this problem is to add a login requirement.
Easing the ordering process, and a solid return policy, is how Amazon exploded overnight. Study after study showed that people would walk back if the website offered the slightest hassle. Also funny, something like a 1.3s load time difference would send people to competitors.
Do they not teach this shit in business school?!
Not really. They mostly teach “quarterly profit line go up”.
Making sales makes line go up.
Make profit machine go brrrrr!
It took Valve years to build Steam into the juggernaut it is based on maximizing customer value and minimizing friction. Years! Like multiple of them! Who has time for that! I need my profits this quarter!
As someone who has a BS in Business, yes they taught this in business.
Similarly we had case studies on Wal-mart’s absolute domination of the logistics game which made them a powerhouse in the “before Amazon” times.
I’ve always argued that putting condoms in locked shelves is pro-STD and pro-teen-pregnancy. The fact that you have to walk up to an employee, ask them to open the shelf for you, and have them stand there and watch as you grab a box of condoms has no doubt scared away numerous 16 yr olds when all they were trying to do was be safe.
I have never seen this. Been in many drug stores. Walmart does this. But not any drug stores I’ve seen.
It’s ultimately up to the franchise owner of each location and their subjective interpretation of how crime-ridden the area is
Has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with shaming people having sex
Here’s a perspective you might not have thought of. Younger person is already shamed for even buying condoms (the cashier will see them after all) so they steal the condoms instead of buying them. Store owners are sick of losing money so they naturally lock them up. So yes, it does have something to do with crime.
I’m not here to argue about what you think store owners care about your sex life, I’m just pointing out that there is a valid reason you haven’t considered.
Walgreens CEO, “We lost business due to our locked shelves.”
CVS: “Hold my beer.”
For this to work, you need to download and install the app and sign up for CVS’ loyalty program. In the store, you need to be logged into the app and connected to the store’s Wi-Fi, and have Bluetooth turned on.
Definitely not installing that shit.
Yeah, another reason not to go there. Unfortunately no impact since I already don’t.
Nearby one is 24h so I occasionally go there when everything else is closed, but that’s the only advantage they have. But no way am I downloading their app just to get a bottle of aspirin at 1am
Haha. I’ll never go there again. Too bad there’s so many dumbasses who will just be fine with this.
I can’t wait for someone with a flipper zero to just drive around unlocking cases in every CVS in town.
Wow, three strikes, one after the other. If I have to use my phone in a store, I’ll be looking up directions to a competitor. I’m not jumping through hoops to buy stuff.
Yeah…this is absurd beyond belief. The problem is the average consumer out there will not see how this is an issue.
This might be too complicated for the average consumer at CVS, which tends to skew towards an older demographic.
Please use local drug stores. The chain stores are absolutely ripping you the fuck off.
(me wishing CVS/Rite aid/Walgreens didn’t destroy all the mom and pop drug stores)
Are they?
I think using goodrx.com has given me the best results to save money on drugs.
Local drug stores should totally be displaying “we’re cheaper than CVS!” if they want people to show up.
That is, if they’re actually cheaper…
FYI, goodrx was selling your prescription info and PII to marketers. edit: to be clear, they were caught selling data between 2017 and 2020.
I haven’t given them any of my info.
Do you think walgreens and CVS don’t sell your data? Lol.
I suppose ignorance is bliss, as they say.
edit: in case anyone is curious, the retailer hands your info to goodrx, who sell (sold) it to advertisers.
Pharmacy technician here. When we bill a prescription, the processing information (either from your insurance card, or from GoodRX) is entered into the computer, then the claim (including the drug being billed, day supply, and patient information) are sent to the benefits manager (PBM), and returned to give us a determined copay to charge you. It’s during this transaction, that by using GoodRX, your information has been volunteered to GoodRX as part of the billing process.
We do not determine copays - PBMs and your plan formulary do. You showing us a dollar sign on GoodRX does not guarantee you that price.
As an aside, my particular pharmacy does not accept GoodRX due to knowledge of these practices. It may also be interesting to know that GoodRX charges pharmacies a “finder’s fee” for offering a discounted price e.g. you pay the pharmacy $25 for a $22 drug, and the pharmacy pays GoodRX $5. If you can still find independent pharmacies, support them! They will work with you.
I’ll support whoever gives me the best deal!
It’s just business~
I don’t think local drug stores can afford to be cheaper than a big corporate chain. But the pricing isn’t the point, it’s fostering competition against corporate monopolies.
Remember that the single purpose of corporations is to make more and more money. By their mandate to their shareholders, all measure of humanity is pushed into the background in favour of growth. The ultimate goal in that pursuit is monopoly: Being the sole supplier for their customers would allow them to dictate sales prices while being the biggest or even sole customer for their suppliers would give them leverage to shift prices in their favour. Their capital backing allows them to cushion out fluctuations in revenue and take losses, so they can afford to underprice and drive out competition, then crank up the enshittification to extort more money from their customers.
A (comparatively smaller) local store has less leverage to enshittify and exploit. Investing in their higher prices is an investment against that enshittification.
I don’t think local drug stores can afford to be cheaper than a big corporate chain.
Sure they can! It’s not like their owners are surviving off of beans and rice, lol.
No, but their owners don’t have the bulk buying power to negotiate for better prices with suppliers, the centralised management making the per-store-overhead more efficient, the employment power to push wages, the capital backing to run low prices without risking a bad month leaving a noticeable dent in their liquid assets or even run at a loss for as long as it takes for “lowest price” customers to flock to their stores and drive the local stores out of business.
I used to use a chain one and then I switched to a local one and I pay half as much as I used to.
To be fair, if you’re buying drugs in the US, you’re probably getting ripped off by default
Not if you buy them from me. High quality, low prices!
Do you deliver, or should I just meet you out behind the club next to the green trash bin like usual?
The usual spot. The same amount of Viagra and Ducolax as last time?
It’s so hard to find a local one close by
I go there in person BECAUSE I don’t want to log in to your stupid website.
I guess I am starting to be okay with “leaning in” and taking advantage off my “old guy” (false) technical ineptitude and will just pretend to shuffle up to a store employee and ask them to open those cabinets for me
I went into Walmart yesterday for my annual soap/shampoo/mouthwash bulk purchase as they have the products I like at the best price (in bulk). I got to the section and it was all locked up behind glass…
I turned around and walked right out. No idea where I’m gonna get it from now, but I’m not gonna support that bullshit.
The claims of mass losses due to shoplifting have been proven false multiple times over. These are just racist store policies intended to make you spend more time in their store or to buy online or from mobile apps.
Enshitification keeps on keeping on.
I buy those items from my large grocery store. They have sales too so the goods are fairly priced.
In my old rite aid I saw a bunch of shop lifters stealing goods, but nothing was done about it. Saw it several times. Security lets them leave.
Fuck nope.
lol, no.
