I know this comparison needs a lot of fleshing out, but once my mind formulated this comparison, the ball started rolling faster and faster, and as has lately been the trend of process for me, if it makes it past a certain point, then I pop it off to my main friends group chat, and if things flesh out a little bit more, it sticks on my brain, or I feel like I haven’t tapped into this topic any further, it becomes a brog post; whenever it is that I actually have the time to write anymore that is.
But I was tasked with going to a specific location, as mythical wife got confirmation that they had what she needed, and that I could pick it up when the pharmacy opened at 9 am the following day. I get to the pharmacy at 9:04 am, and already get attitude from the pharmacist working the counter, first fucking thing in the morning. Turns out that they didn’t have the prescription ready, and when I explained that I had gotten a confirmation that they had it, I got a quick rebuttal about how he wasn’t there last night, unsurprisingly.
I wait for a few minutes for him to contact another store, and thankfully another location (allegedly) has it, but my morning’s schedule is already thrown off, and I’ll have to be late for something else in order to squeeze in a trip to the other location, after a virtual work meeting and kids’ school thing I need to see first, that I’m already going to be concurrently.
It dawns on me when I get to the parking lot of my kids’ school that Walgreens has basically become the GameStop of the drugstore landscape, because much like GameStop was mostly the last man standing between companies like FuncoLand, Babbages, Electronics Boutiques and all the big box retailers that have died or are still in the process of dying, Walgreens is very much one of the only survivors left, at least here in Atlanta, where every Eckerd and Rite-Aid have gone under, with only CVS really left to oppose them.
And in my specific area, there are like two Walgreens for every CVS, and much like going to a GameStop, the takeaway from the experience is almost always negative afterward. Like bringing a box of old console games, and getting offered $15 in store credit, every time you walk into a Walgreens for a prescription, either they don’t have it, they don’t have all of it, haven’t gotten to it, or are determined to service six cars in drive-thru before entertaining the thought of helping a live human being in the store.
Much like GameStop, Walgreens’ prices are inflated and almost feeling exploitative, mostly because they really want you to sign up for their rewards/customer info tracking programming in order to have a chance to get some more digestible costs.
I know I’m not giving a tremendous amount of examples here, but the bottom line is that both of these companies continue to survive and exist, solely because of their general lack of competition, and the fact that they’re the only ones really surviving where their wares can be acquired in hand quicker than an Amazon Prime order. But having to deal with either company makes me feel like I’d prefer a kick in the balls first, and if it could be helped, I would much rather seek an alternative before resorting to them at all. And when you go to either, you just know it won’t be a smooth experience, and walking out of them only will breed resentment and disappointment.
