A woman in New Jersey suffering from an asthma attack had to call a paramedic when her local CVS wouldn’t sell her a $21 inhaler for $20.
The woman and her boyfriend were walking home in Garwood, NJ, when her asthma kicked into high gear. Hoping to quickly remedy the situation, they popped into a nearby CVS to buy an inhaler.
Recalls the boyfriend to MyFoxNY:
I had exactly a twenty-dollar bill. It came to twenty-one and change… I offered him my cell phone, my wallet. I said i live right around the corner. I come in here all the time….
I said ‘Can you just give her the pump. She’s on the floor wheezing… I didn’t know if an ambulance would get there on time. He said there was nothing he could do for me.
Thinking quickly, the boyfriend contacted a friend who is also a paramedic. “He did have an inhaler. She used two pumps, waited a little while,” the boyfriend says. “She started to come through a little quicker than if she didn’t have it.”
CVS, now under federal scrutiny for being lax about pseudoephedrine sales, tells Fox: “The well-being of our customers is our highest priority and we are looking into this matter.”
Woman Couldn’t Buy Inhaler During Asthma Attack [MyFoxNY.com]
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I used to work for CVS in years gone by, for a while as a regular register monkey and for a couple of years as a supervisor.
Anything that cashier does is going to show up in the system in such a way that s/he gets in trouble, there’s no way around that. Mystery coupons, mystery discounts, $1 missing from the drawer — those are all going to reflect badly in the computer system on the person at the register.
That said:
If a regular customer that I recognized did indeed come in to my store in distress, I’d sell it for $20 and explain to the store manager what had happened. If someone I didn’t (or did) recognize came into the store in extreme distress, I’d flat-out call 911. But a lot of people ask for a lot of favors over the course of any ordinary 6-hour shift, so there’d have to be a pretty extraordinary thing going on for one to be worth granting.
I myself am asthmatic and have lent my inhaler to asthmatic friends when one of us was stuck in a bad situation. But I don’t think I’d ever hand it to a stranger, while working, because I’d be too afraid of getting fired or sued or both. 911 would be my call.
I’m going to pose a question not taking either side per se, but what if “just letting the drawer be off” was the difference between the cashier keeping his job and being fired? What if he had a starving family at home and couldn’t afford losing his job?
Most of us would sit here and say “be a f&@#$ human” but that’s not always the choice that EVERYONE makes – it doesn’t make them less of a human, it doesn’t mean they’re not “thinking for themselves” – it just means they have their own sh*t going on that bends their thought processes a bit differently than the majority.
Were I in the cashier’s position, hell ya I would’ve let the drawer be frickin’ $21 off and just given the damn inhaler to them. But I also don’t know the policies at the store, the consequences the guy was facing by letting that happen, etc.
We all go with our gut, and this guy’s gut obviously wasn’t in tune with what the rest of the moral majority has to say. It is a sad state of affairs, but it is what it is, and we should be thankful this woman is alive, inhaler or not.
might have used a debit card. What if he’d had no money?
They should have been human and handed the inhaler to her. There is a much bigger picture though. I recently watched a movie called SICKO. One of the people used an inhaler that cost her $120 each but was able to buy a similar product for five cents in Cuba. The point is, the pharmas and insurance companies in the USA have us in a chokehold over healthcare. We need a system where people get the care and meds they need, no questions asked. The corporate attitude to let someone die right in front of them for being buck short stinks.
Obama had the power to change that but sold us out. Imagine what life would be like if we had a medical system as good as one of the 50 western countries with better systems. Don’t rebut this by pointing out some rare instance where someone got poor care because I just as well point out things like people getting the wrong leg amputated here. Don’t fall for the soundbites, think. Single-payer is the way to get back some of that $7K/year per person we spend now.
Americans pay for the medicines everyone else gets subsidized. Once the pharmacy companies are forced out of business by socialized health care, we won’t have to worry about high prescription drug costs anymore.
If I had been a manager at the store I would have done everything in my power to find some way to get the inhaler to this woman while she was in the store, however that is not the store’s obligation. I work at LensCrafters and I have had situations where someone needs glasses ASAP (broken glasses and high RX) and is 10 dollars short and I have found ways to make it work, but not every corporation or location has that amount of power or gives its emplouees that amount of individual control. Maybe it was an insurance sale and they don’t have the power to discount further, maybe a lot of things and this situation was not handled the best it could be, however we don’t have enough information to judge.
I also can’t believe people are saying that a store clerk should reach into his own pocket and give money to a stranger. Sure that would have been amazing and noble but its not an obligation. Call a manager, explain the situation, use common sense yes and all of these things seem not to have happened, but reaching into your own pocket is not an obligation any employee has. I personally have worked places where I could be fired for purchasing something while on the clock.
Sounds a little fishy to me.
1. They live right around the corner and had time to wait for a paramedic friend to arrive, but the boyfriend couldn’t just run home and get the inhaler?
2. In the wallet full of stuff he showed, there isn’t one credit or debit card?
3. They were worried about the cost of ambulance? I’ve never heard of anyone being billed – or atleast having to pay the bill – for an ambulance. I’m sure it happens but I know you usually don’t have to pay. Where I live (also in NJ) you don’t get billed – although they appreciate a donation, though they don’t solicit it from you.
Perhaps they wanted some camera time, or are hoping for a settlement of some kind?
Regardless, the CVS employee should have just given them the inhaler and let the manager figure it out from there.
I could understand the boyfriend wanting to stay with her and call for help rather than leave her in the care of the CVS workers who don’t give a shit if she dies.
Some people don’t carry credit or debit cards. Some people do not even have them.
Ambulance bills are pretty steep. You’re lucky if it is a free service where you are our if you have insurance that will cover the bill.
In Texas currently, ambulance transport costs $415.00 dollars plus $7.50 per mile, with an average distance traveled of about 5 miles for a total of $452.50 dollars…
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100929192248AAqeemV
From a common decency perspective – the workers should have paid it out of pocket or a shopper should have offered to pay the extra.
A company can’t make a policy for every situation, and you can’t count on someone else to exercise good judgment when you don’t. Both parties should have escalated to someone with the authority to approve one approach or another.
That said, I have to call shenanigans on the time factor. She had an attack, and then what? Found the only CVS without long lines and slow service? Which just happened to have her RX on record, and managed to find the record with no problem? But then the CVS pharmacist who managed these Herculean feats did not have the judgment or even authority to do no harm?
When you have an emergency situation where a few minutes matter, give the person what they need now, and worry about payment later. Yes, it’s a business, but this was an emergency. It’s not like she was trying to underpay for lipstick and Cheetos.
I’m pretty sure if it was my girlfriend I would have just ripped open the inhaler, let her use it and worry about the consequences later. You know what they say, sometimes it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
Why not just open the box and get the medication you need… and sort out the bill later? The cashier is a low-paid flunky. So they wouldn’t sell it to you at a discount or any amount of pleading… put the ball in their court. Let them call the cops and accuse you of stealing OR take your medication and settle the bill afterward.
(Seriously, you didn’t have a credit or debit card?)
All these people saying they should have just opened the box don’t seem to realize that these drugs in the pharmacy are not on the shelf, they are in the back and very well guarded. You HAVE to have someone get it for you, you can’t just stroll back there and start fishing around.
Maybe because most of us don’t have this medical issue and there’s nothing in the explanation above that enlightens us to that? He doesn’t mention if he’s at the pharmacy counter or the regular checkout. There are some non-Rx inhalers, so I assume most of the commenters aren’t familiar with the difference.
Non-Rx inhalers? For asthma? Really?
Things like this?:
http://www.primatene.com/products/index.asp
If you don’t have asthma (or know someone close who suffers), then how are you supposed to know?
CVS sucks. Their rule is that they are supposed to open another register if they are 3 customers deep in a line. They never do. They always have workers standing around ignoring you.
Umm, failure in humanity? To me this isn’t as much of an issue as to whether CVS should have sold it for $20 but if SOMEONE, ANYONE, whether it be the cashier or the customer behind them, could have spotted them a buck. I think people these days have gotten so jaded and self-absorbed that they won’t even help out a stranger in need.
I had a similar situation just a couple days ago except nobody was dying. The guy in front of me at Safeway kept having his debit card rejected so he pulled out a $20 bill to cover the $21 charge. He quickly removed some garlic out of his already bagged groceries to make up the difference. Realizing the situation, I offered to give him a dollar but he politely refused.
I suppose there’s always a risk of being scammed when you help someone out, but it’s a dollar and from the sounds of it, the lady was visibly suffering.
I worked for AT&T for years and I used to feel bad when people came in and had broken phones, but eventually you get used to it. The problem is that most people treat them like shit and feel entitled to a new one. It gets to the point where someone crying about not having enough money for a new phone, telling you they need it to call the babysitter, mom’s in the ER, whatever and it gets harder and harder to feel sympathetic each time. The reason? Because it happens several times a day, every single day. Sob story after sob story, pissed customer after pissed customer. While you make every attempt to use reasonable judgement as to who really needs/deserves a break, you have to be pretty rigid sometimes or get taken advantage of.
In this case I’m guessing people with poor insurance and low income probably cry to the pharmacy all of the time because they can’t afford their medication. Sometimes it could be life threatening if they do not get it, but I’m guessing it happens on the regular. I’m guessing one too many people tried to negotiate the price at the register and the cashier had enough, or was told not to discount, or simply really couldn’t discount and was young/immature enough to fear for his job.
Personally I would have sold it for $20 and took the heat, or threw in the extra dough if I had it on me. Either way I’m not about to let someone die. Nobody is going to fire you for that, unless you’re already a f’up.
Definitely the stupid cashier’s problem. Not an obligation for CVS. I think if I were in that situation I would have given a dollar of my own pocket.
Couldn’t she have just shoplifed it?
This is pretty much the reason why 99% when I leave the house I always carry at least: my driver’s license, credit card, and health insurance card.
It’s CVS, what do you expect, at Target that inhaler probably would have cost $4.
CVS and Rite Aid are the most overpriced ripp-offs around.
Four bucks for an inhaler? I don’t think so.
They would not have lost money. They would have failed to make as much as they NORMALLY would, but …
… to me, this is like refusing a glass of water to someone who is obviously dehydrated, and then they collapse on the sidewalk in front of your store: “hello, Liability suit”.
The employees and management of CVS do have a small Duty of Care. Making a special deal to chop $1 off the price for her, is NOT sufficient hardship to excuse them.
IDIOT EMPLOYEES! You give the inhaler away in an emergency like this.
Now, it is on the news, it is all over the web and alot of people are going to drive by CVS thinking of this story…. costing the company bad PR and thousands in sales over a $21 inhaler. Foolish.
CVS is a terrible pharmacy and the one in my town hired incompetent fools. No really they let some woman call in narcotics,pretending to be a doctor,and filled them for her. This same woman has passed out in my floor using the phone because she was so high. Yet they refused to fill my mothers medication in a timely manner,lost multiple prescriptions(Including my fiances seizure meds which caused a seizure from him not having them) and did a terrible job of transferring them to Rite Aid. Fuck CVS
She was lying on the floor wheezing. They should have just given her the inhaler. Later, after the press conference about how wonderful CVS is to save a womans life, if they didn’t get enough publicity, they could always ask that he pay.
It isnt up to the CVs as a corporation to give stuff for less than the price, but the individuals could have worked it out, somebody in the store had to have the one dollar needed. Doing the right thing at a personal level is what was wrong here not CVS at the corporate level.
In an emergency there is one thing to do, call 911. Anyone who believes they are witnessing an emergency can call 911. They are the professionals who respond to emergencies, not pharmacy staff. If she was on the floor wheezing, how did she manage to “leave the store empty handed” and discuss what to do next in the parking lot?
Really, what the poll is asking is: is healthcare a right, or a privilege?
If it’s a right, than a woman in an emergency shouldn’t be denied it. If it’s a privilege, then a store can set whatever price they want, and turn away anyone they want, regardless of need.
(I personally think it’s morally a right.)
Define “healthcare.”
My mom worked PT as a pharmacy tech as her post-retirement job. She told me that on several occasions they (techs or pharmacists) helped customers pay for meds by reaching into their own wallets. Some customers were in some really sad situations- young single mothers with terminal cancers- and even some who had copays couldn’t even afford those but who’d be mean enough to send someone home without a needed medication? My mom’s group wouldn’t.
I’m a pharmacist (thus, the clever name), and kind of an asshole. Still, if the person had a script on file, I’d let them have the inhaler.
In an emergency there is one thing to do, call 911. Anyone who believes they are witnessing an emergency can call 911. They are the professionals who respond to emergencies, not pharmacy staff. If she was on the floor wheezing, how did she manage to “leave the store empty handed” and discuss what to do next in the parking lot?
As a business, the price is the price.
As a human being, give her the damned inhaler!
Oh geez I don’t even know where to start with this.
Disclaimer – 1. I am a pharmacist. 2. I hate CVS.
Someone is most likely telling bullshit in this story. It is fishy and everything doesn’t add up.
In the video, the girl says she had been having asthma attacks for the past 4-5 days… and she goes out without her freakin ProAir Inhaler? WTF? Is she inherently retarded?
Second of all, the boyfriend said his girlfriend was on the ground having an asthma attack. If she was on the floor having an attack, just about every pharmacist I know would have been at her side with an inhaler and an epi pen with an ambulance on the way.
For the pharmacist to refuse an proair inhaler or even primatene mist to someone, most likely it would have meant that the pharmacist didn’t think it was an emergency/urgency at the time. She may have been standing there at the counter asking for it and looking like she was breathing just fine.
I will say, I get customers walking in off the street, wanting me to loan them an inhaler without paying, yet they are breathing just fine in front of me with no trouble. Thus, I refuse. Especially when they don’t have a script for it in their med profile. (Yes we get people asking us for drugs with no script)
If these two kids had enough time to call a friend paramedic to drop off an inhaler to them, then it may not have been an emergency. We don’t know for sure, we are just taking people at their word, but something in this story doesn’t add correctly to me.
Now if it really was an emergency, the cashier should have asked the pharmacist about it. Most pharmacists, seeing that it ACTUALLY WAS URGENT (not an emergency), would have footed the 1 dollar. Urgent meaning she was turning slightly blue from hypoxia and making wheezing sounds. In the case of an emergency, eg patient on the floor and can’t breathe, any pharmacist would have done what I previously stated with an inhaler and epi pen and 911.
Now as far as the guy claiming to come back and pick up the rest of the tab later, sorry to say that has no weight in a pharmacy. Our work culture is pretty extreme. We get people trying to con us for narcotics and drugs all day long. We have heard every excuse and lie under the sun and moon. Telling us you will come back later and pay for something does not cut it. People try to scam us every day so we inherently don’t trust anyone. We don’t even trust some of our truly honest patients because they just don’t know what they are taking medication wise and then they get angry at us when we fill the wrong medications.
The media asking the pharmacy about a patients inhaler was amusing. I guess they didn’t realize that the patients health information is confidential and that the pharmacy couldn’t talk about it.
Now as a former CVS employee, as long as the register is not 5 dollars over or under, you won’t get written up. (Yes, CVS disciplines people if the register has too much money in it. CVS makes more money, and then punishes its employees for it. Fucking retarded, I know.)
So I can’t really say what I would have done. I wasn’t there at the time and everything doesn’t add up correctly. It comes down to, if they patient is turning blue in front of me and I can see troubled breathing, I’ll do what I can. If you tell me you are having asthma problems but I can’t see any problems, tough shit (depending on the situation). If the problem is over 1 dollar, I’ll give you a small discount so you can pay for it one time, just don’t make it a constant thing. We remember stuff like that.
Other comments people have posted….
As far as the statement about there being no generic albuterol inhalers, you are incorrect. Proair and ventolin are the generic inhalers, they are just branded generics. They have a trade name but are generic meds. If another drug company wanted to, they could come out with an albuterol inhaler.
To buy Sudafed, one needs a US federal/state issued ID. Sorry, your attempt at humor is inaccurate.
It is not really up to the manager of the store to make decisions regarding prescription medications or medications held behind the counter. That is up to the pharmacist and the pharmacist only, as the entire pharmacy runs on that pharmacists license and name. The pharmacist has all final decisions regarding drugs in a pharmacy.
@Hoss, you obviously have no clue what a pharmacist does all day. Your comment is mildly insulting. Scratch that. Your comment is blatantly ignorant. You want a small taste of what we retail pharmacists do? Read this:
http://stlpharmchic.xanga.com/554791573/why-your-prescription-takes-so-long-to-fill/
That doesn’t even include life threatening drug interactions or the fact that your dumb ass resident MD called in some septra for your wife while she is pregnant or your GP writing a script for your kid for 6 grams of tylenol in a 24 hour period.. Thats just about 15 minutes of my day. I get paid 120k a year to babysit morons like you and this idiot girl who (questionably) almost died of an asthma attack and to get medications to people and their children without killing them.
Perhaps when you can make decisions regarding the possible life and death of a child, you will understand what a pharmacist does.
What some people may not know is that it is illegal to discount medications in the state of NJ so he would not have been able to subtract the $1 and change. Should the kid behind the counter ponied up the difference? Absolutely.
But I still think something in the milk ain’t clean with this story.
I can’t believe the guy at the counter wouldn’t spot her a buck and a half, any decent human being would. Crap, I’ve given people extra change when they didn’t have enough for a vending machine, I’d sure give a couple of ones to someone having an asthma attack.
Needing an inhaler really bad is an awful thing to have to go through. Nothing but a few puffs of it will bring relief. Either that or a nebulizer (sp?), but many people don’t have those handy.
No, they should not have sold it to her for $20.
CVS should have given her the puff for free, took the $20, and told her and her boyfriend that they could pay the remaining $1.xx next time they came in.
Bastards.
this is dumb. you should not HAVE to sell the inhaler. you may if you wish, but someone could come in and lie about it. it’s not cvs’ fault she didn’t have the money. it just sucks that it was a few bucks.
don’t be stupid, consumerists.
If I were the clerk I would have given her the inhaler and paid the dollar out of my own pocket.
As an asthmatic, I carry my albuterol (rescue inhaler…generic equivalent to her ProAir) everywhere I go. There’s no excuse for not having her inhaler but, since she didn’t have it, why are they going into a CVS? If her attack was that bad, she should have called the ambulance immediately; if not, she could have just had a cup of hot coffee because it contains theophylline, a drug formerly used to treat asthma.
But it just smells like an opportunity for a payday at CVS’ expense (not that they don’t deserve it).
wow, $1.00 could’ve prevented her death if it was that close
does CVS care about their customers or the profit they can make from them ?
couldn’t they have entered some code for a damaged product for like, 5 % off ?
shoot, i would’ve used my staff discount card to get the discount, buy the item for her and have her pay me back.
i don’t want a lawsuit or the gulity conscience or the karma…..for $1
the CVS manager should have just given it to her for free as it was an emergency. It wasn’t even a controlled substance and she probably had a valid prescription on file with them.
a lot of people don’t have any sort of common sense or decency though… not exactly surprised this happened.
It’s a lesson to anyone who is very dependent on prescription medication for survival. Have a backup plan if possible.
I wouldn’t even waste a manger’s time for this! That’s ridiculous. If you’ve got $2 in your pocket you could save a life. Honestly?! Giving someone a hard time over less than $2!?!?!
I work at a CVS in MN, and yes, I would have just given the inhaler to the guy. Yes, cashiers do get written up if they are +/- 4 dollars, but whatever. I do though, agree, if this woman was having reoccurring attacks, that maybe she should have planned for it… Also, I have been working at CVS as a shift for 6 years.. I have seen many things. I have lost my faith in humanity. Being a good person, I would have helped out, but honestly, CVS pays their cashiers minimum wage and have to deal with people you wouldn’t ever want to deal with. Sometimes you just go ‘oh well..’ and move on. Survival of the fittest (or smartest).
I actually worked at CVS when I was in high school. I find it ridiculous that she couldn’t get the inhaler due to being a dolalr short. I would sometimes cover in the pharmacy when a technician was out or it got extremely busy. I have no idea what the official policy was but I actually had this happen to me. A guy came in and was $5 short on a roughly $40 prescription. He promised to come back with the money and seemed pretty desperate so I just gave him the $5 myself. I figured most likely he would come back but even if he didn’t I’d only lose 5 bucks out of the whole thing.
The guy ended up being so happy he emailed the district manager who was happy enough about the whole situation. Maybe I should have brought over management and had them give the 5 bucks but with a line of customers 6 long and me being the only (not even real) tech I figured it was the right thing to do and it helped everyone else obtain their prescriptions a little faster. When people go to a pharmacy they are often sick or otherwise frustrated. It is so easy help make someone just a little happier by just practicing common human decencies and it’s completely appalling that this CVS wouldn’t even loan someone a dollar. Hell, when I worked there at least you wouldn’t get in trouble unless your register was more than $4 off.
The inhaler shown in the video is a prescription-only inhaler. The only way she could have got one in the first place was to already have a prescription, either a hard copy on her or one on file with CVS. Any other way of getting a prescription would have taken too long. Since most people don’t just walk around with unfilled prescriptions in their pocket (especially someone who didn’t have the foresight to bring her inhaler with her WHEN SHE ADMITS SHE’S BEEN HAVING THESE DAILY ATTACKS FOR FOUR OR FIVE DAYS), she may be a customer of CVS already. The only other option is if New Jersey pharmacy law allows dispensing of emergency medication without a prescription if one cannot be obtained under the circumstances.
Ultimately, I would hold the pharmacist responsible. In most chains they have managerial authority to offer discounts when appropriate, and a good pharmacist will make sure that no one has to go without a life-saving medication unnecessarily. But there are an awful lot of pharmacists out there who are hard-headed about following the rules to the letter and bending them for no one.
And the reporter seemed surprised that the pharmacist wouldn’t comment about the incident. Pretty much every large retail company in the US has policies barring store employees from talking to reporters about anything that happens related to the store or the company. If he’d admitted anything to the reporter, he’d have lost his job.
And NJ subjects prescriptions to sales tax??? WTF is up with that?
Should CVS given her the product for a dollar off? Nope. Should they have just given her the I dont fault the guy for not giving them the dollar off, thats not his call. I do fault him for not saying “here is 2 bucks, live damn you…LIVEEEEEEE”
These comments illustrate all too well what living in an affluent society does to civilization. Honestly, blaming someone for forgetting to carry an object with them? Watching them suffer surrounded by the medicine that could end their suffering and saying they should not be given the medicine? I realize there are scams, but I think anyone with any sense at all could tell this wasn’t one of them. There’ s no way this woman was faking an attack to save a buck fifty on her inhaler cost.
This reminds me of the stories in the New York Times about a Japanese man who starved to death because his welfare was cut off (because the government workers in charge were given quotas to meet in terms of how many people they cut from the welfare rolls and their promotions and bonuses depended on meeting those quotas). People who came to collect the utilities money at his house saw him crawling to the door as he was dying and walked away. His neighbors didn’t do anything to help. He was surrounded by people who could have given him food or money, but they l let him die because they felt that he was irresponsible for not somehow finding work.
The more we have, the pettier we become. We let people die over pennies, and we find ways to justify doing so.
OK people, all together now.
What’s it all about? PROFIT.
Do they care about their customers? NO.
Who are they looking out for? THEMSELVES.
I guess I’m surprised no one in the store offered her a dollar. Looks like her boyfriend had no cash what so ever? All the same a poor decision by the CVS clerk.
“It’s been happening everyday for 4 or 5 days” Why did she not have it with her. Not like this just came out of no where. Its a store not a emergency clinic. She should take some personal responsibility. If I had a condition that was acting up everyday for the last 4 or 5 that could be fatal I would keep my medication with me.
On the flip side, people let THEMSELVES die over pennies, expecting everyone around them to do everything for them.
This woman is 100% at fault for not having her inhaler. Yes, she just forgot. People forget. And you might forget that there’s a live wire in a wall, and electrocute yourself. You’re still dead. She made a mistake, and there were consequences. That’s life, in the real world.
I don’t believe she was “on the ground”, I believe that was hyperbole, because as previously noted if she WAS, 911 would be called whether they wanted to or not because the store would have to for liability reasons.
I don’t believe her attack was life threatening. The fact that instead of calling 911 they called a friend seems to show that…”we didn’t think they’d get there in time” is a stupid argument. They have lights and sirens and are undoubedtly fairly close (cities have more than one station, y’know). More likely, and I’m speculating here, is that she didn’t want to have to pay for 911 services. So she didn’t want to pay the full price, and didn’t want to pay for 911…she just seems like she downright doesn’t want to have to pay.
All this lady had was a 20, no cards whatsoever? I find that suspect.
Should they have taken the collateral and/or given a discount? Maybe. But also maybe she’s pulled this stunt before to get cheaper meds. Or maybe she was the 8th person today to pull this stunt and the pharmacist was tired of it. We don’t know.
What we do know, is that she wanted something for less than its price. We can sit here all day and say “well they shoulda”, but I think that’s wildly unfair without knowing more. To say the cashier should pony up the money is unfair… I’m not a cashier, but there have been times when I don’t HAVE even a dollar, and we don’t know that that’s not the case here.
I find it hard to believe that a person in genuine distress, ASKING FOR HELP, was ignored by everyone, including all the staff and all the customers, over a matter of slightly more than a dollar. I find it easy to believe that a woman, NOT in genuine distress but trying to cause a scene and act like it, was ignored by everyone. Applying a little Occam’s Razor, I come down on CVS’ side unless more info comes out. They took a harder line than I would have, but they aren’t obliged to give stuff out for free/discounted.
People have a responsibility for their own lives, and that’s often forgotten, I think.
(If your example from japan is the one I’m familiar with, from late 08/early 09 Osaka, that guy hadn’t paid rent in 3 months (which is why they found his body, actually). So he’d been given 3 free months rent, essentially. That’s something, though it isn’t food. In that case, it appears his feelings of shame led him to not leave his house to seek help, and while maybe some people saw his distress he never reached out. Maybe you were thinking of something else.)