Over the years I’ve written a lot about shopping for drugs, using price comparison and other techniques like pill splitting, asking for a generic or all the above. The best deal in health care (almost the only deal in health care) is over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Almost all OTC drugs were once available only by prescription.
If you go to the chain pharmacy that small bottle of Advil, that bottle of Mucinex or the bottle of Prilosec can be relatively pricy. Up the road from me a 50-count bottle of Advil at CVS is $7.99, while a 20-tablet bottle of Mucinex is $19.49 and 14 dose Prilosec is $13.99. Of course, you can beat those prices by selecting the generic or house brand. Buying generics in larger quantities is even a better deal per dose.
I’ve often found great deals for OTC drugs on Amazon and eBay. Something I always wondered about was how small vendors on Amazon source branded OTC drugs like Rite Aid, Members Mark, CVS and Kirkland? According to the Texas Law Review, it often begins with a 5-finger discount for quick cash to pay for drugs CVS does not sell.
The big-screen heist tends to be exciting. After weeks of planning, a handsome antihero breaks into a bank…
But today’s stickups wouldn’t make it to post-production. As the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets have reported, the contemporary “heist” goes more like this: a middle-aged drug addict pulls into a CVS parking lot. He enters the store, puts hundreds of over-the-counter allergy medications into a trash bag, and walks out the front door without a problem. He then sells the products at an extreme markdown to a local “fence.” In turn, the fence sells the products to a larger scale criminal syndicate, which then sells the goods to unsuspecting customers on Amazon Marketplace.
An opinion piece in The New York Times explains the cost goes beyond billions in pilfered products whose cost we all have to make up for in higher prices. It also costs Americans in convenience and the privacy of our health information.
Few shopping experiences are more intimate than a visit to the pharmacy. The contents of your basket may disclose waxy ears, hemorrhoids, insomnia, constipation, a messy rash or the compulsion to try all permutations of Reese’s product line. The pharmacy is a place where people like to slip in and out unnoticed, hoping the cashier doesn’t linger over each item at checkout.
But privacy is harder to preserve now that drugstores, to thwart shoplifters, increasingly lock their stock behind cabinet doors, with buttons to push in order to get an employee’s attention. A pimply boy has to hail an employee to free his benzoyl peroxide and a 14-year-old girl needs to be watched as she selects a tampon that suits her cycle. Even for adults, it’s hard not to be self-conscious about having a store employee trail you through the drugstore like a personal shopper as you ponder which dental floss to buy.
It’s hard not to notice a shift everywhere. Returning to New York City recently by train after an out-of-town trip, I emerged from Penn Station to pick up a few things in a nearby drugstore. When I walked in, the store was nearly empty, the shelves were mostly locked; no one responded when I pressed a button.
Indeed, a redesigned Walgreens test location in Chicago has more (if not most) items behind a counter.
Most of the other products are now behind the counter. For the “non-essential” items that are no longer displayed out in the open, Walgreens employees are there to “do the shopping” and fulfill customers needs behind-the-scenes, the company explained. Customers can order from the store’s “full selection” using new digital kiosks.
Luckily where I live things haven’t gotten quite as bad. I don’t have to push buttons at CVS or Walgreens, or ask for most items. Most OTC items I buy are generally on a shelf unless they’re required by federal law to be tucked away behind the pharmacy counter. I have to wonder if retail pharmacies putting more items out of consumers’ reach behind counters won’t prod more people to just order online, which could result in more shoplifting to satisfy online demand. It sounds like a vicious cycle.
I live in a suburb of Hartford. At drugstores here, the prescription drugs and a few OTC cold medicines that teenagers fancy are behind the pharmacy counter. Everything else is on the shelf and open to the touch.
My son lives is Baltimore. There, even soap and shaving cream are behind plexiglass barriers. You gotta push a button for assistance.
I wonder whose is the future?
The privacy problem had not occurred to me when buying soap or shaving cream. But that’s not really your point is it? And even with self check-out, it’s a great point.
I’m not sure I would trust any drug purchased from Amazon or EBay. This could be an opening for retailers that ship like Walmart. You just need to decide whether to share your private preferences with a store clerk or an online database.