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]
More From Consumerist
-
Is CVS Pressuring Pharmacists To Refill Prescriptions Automatically?
-
Lactaid Egg Nog, Where Are You?
-
CVS Pharmacy Tech Makes Up Laws, Demands Photo ID For Prescription Dropoff
-
Why Did CVS Customer Keep Returning Used Enemas To The Store?
-
Study Says Restricting Junk Food Sold In Schools Could Help Slow Child Obesity Rates
When I worked at Walmart is used to help people out all the time, knocking off some change because they were short or something.
As for the management, when I worked for Walmart store management was not even allowed behind the counter of the pharmacy unless the pharmacists invited them, and they had no say what so ever in what decisions he made, it’s federal law and you could be fined or even do jail time. so unless the store manager of the CVS is a licensed pharmacist I doubt he could have done anything, aside from being a human and giving them a dollar.
1,965 people are heartless bastards. Do these what I assume libertarian leaning jerks really think people should die over $1. How are you going to learn anything when you freaking die? But no, that’s the world these people want us to live in. Makes me sick. Have a heart and care for your fellow person.
You, as many on here, are assuming she would actually die. As I stated in my comment, the story as presented doesn’t lend itself to credibility. Yes, if she was in genuine, about-to-die distress, someone should have helped her…but I find the chain of events as described indicate to me that it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that she was in genuine distress. And if she wasn’t in genuine distress, then she was just a lazy cheap person who was trying to cause a scene, for whom we should have no sympathy.
I’m tired of all the people on here saying “human being fail” or, “die over pennies”, when we don’t know that that’s the case, we have only the word of the people who have a beef with CVS, whose story is very implausible.
My father and I are both serious asthmatics. My own asthma has calmed down a great deal the last five-six years, to the point where I go months between needing my inhaler. My fathers heart problems prevent him from using more traditional rescue medications.
Still, we both carry our own inhaler with us (Or nearby as dad’s prone to leaving his in the car) at all times. That’s just common sense.
The cashier should have given them the inhaler for two puffs, taken the inhaler back, and called the/a manager to work out the rest.
Pay as you go is the rule of the land- of course i would have snatched it and told CVS to F@&K off. Then sued them for whatever I felt would make me some quick cash.
There are plenty of con-artists out there. If they were living just around the corner, why didn’t the boyfriend take the girl home, where there is an inhaler? And for real in an age of Debit and Credit Cards neither one of the two had one? Most of us have one or two Debit Cards and up to 5 Credit Cards. The employee is not a doctor, otherwise he would not be working at CVS. If you have a medical condition be ready it before you leave the house. Tell those folks to stop living paycheck to paycheck.
Offered the employee his “empty wallet”, as he didn’t have the extra dollar, and the cellphone was probably not worth much either, how old was the cellphone? Should have offered the employee some gold, silver, diamonds, or something that actually had value.
Super-scummy of CVS (or the cashier, or both — I suspect the blame lies with both corporate policy and the individual, though).
Hell, I’ve even had fast-food joints like Subway and Wendy’s tell me to just pay next time I came in, on occasions when I’ve forgotten my wallet. If they can front me a burger, then certainly CVS should be able to do the same for someone’s medication in an emergency situation.
If I worked at CVS I think I would have just covered the $1.50, but there’s a lot of problems with this story:
1) she said she’s been having an attack daily, but went walking without an inhaler?
2) They don’t have more than $20 between the two of them? No credit cards, nothing?
3) They only have $20, but thought eating at McDonald’s was a good idea?
4) She’s dying, but don’t call an ambulance because it’s expensive?
Don’t get me wrong I think CVS could have done something but obviously this couple is mostly to blame. What if there wasn’t a CVS there and he didn’t have a paramedic friend? Would she had died?
Today I am an unfeeling accountant money changer.
This good hearted discount represents a 5% discount from our gross sales and changes the margins from an acceptable 70% to an unacceptable 60%.
As a pharmacist I have had this happen…I pulled the difference out of my pocket. Its just the right thing to do.
Cashiers aren’t empowered to change prices, and management has to justify any price changes. Who knows what kind of a-holes might be in charge. I’m not trying to be unsympathetic, but someone could have gotten in trouble.
That being said, I would have given a dollar out of my own pocket in such a situation, and it amazes me no one did. Either that, or I’d let my drawer be short. There usually aren’t dire consequences for a cashier coming up short by such a small amount. I’m not going to let someone possibly die over a freaking dollar.
Just out of curiosity, if the OP’s girlfriend had died in the store because she was denied the inhaler and help couldn’t have gotten to her in time, would CVS be liable in her death?
Possibly by law they would have been. Especially since they would have to call 911, and if they waited too long to do so, they might be liable because of that.
But also keep in mind: anybody can sue anybody for anything in this country. Whether there’s an ACTUAL tort or not, do you think 12 people on a jury are going to say “Oh, well, technically CVS the big bad corporation isn’t liable”? No, it’s stories like these that end up with bazillion dollar judgments.
Oh, I also forgot to mention that the pharmacist might have had a duty to act (maybe one the pharmacists who have replied might be able to answer that), and if so they would be liable for sure.
Between the two of them they only had one twenty dollar bill and no debit or credit cards in the wallets they offered as security?
This is beyond fail. Most companies give their employees certain leeway when it comes to “special” circumstances. When I used to work in retail banking, I was very flexible when it came to reversing overdraft fees. CVS should fire the retard who refused to budge on a item in a life threatening matter, over a buck.
Whomever voted no, you need to go get a dose of reality…
Those of us who voted no I think HAVE a dose of reality…we see that this story doesn’t add up, and she’s likely full of it.
I think it’s those who voted yes who are the ones who need a dose of reality, the reality where people will totally lie to get what they want, and try to cause a scene because they don’t want to pay full price like everyone else.
Also, and this is stupid and petty of me, but you misused “whomever”. In that context you’re taking the place of the subject, rather than the object, which means it’s “whoever”. /end pedantic correction.
Geez, what kind of managers must work that store if the employees are so afraid to show a little compassion?
Who are the 9% of people who said no in the poll? A woman is laying on the floor wheezing in what for all appearances could be a fatal attack you you side with CVS and some kind of libertarian/corporatist/capitalist principle? Also I’m an atheist but I hope not a single one of you call yourself a christian. If you do I think you really really need to reread the New Testament and think about it. Would you also deny care at the emergency room of a hospital if a person can’t pay upfront?
That or we don’t believe the one-sided story because it doesn’t add up, and therefore we say that CVS was right. I do not believe the story that she was “on the ground”. I find it FAR more likely that she’s full of crap, wanted to get something cheaper than its cost and caused a scene when she didn’t get it. Therefore, I am okay with her not getting her way.
Just go to CVS and post this link in their feedback section.
They require at least an overall rating – I chose ‘Poor’
My feedback was that I hope I never get an asthma attack in any of their stores.
I do wonder if there were mitigating circumstances though. Perhaps the woman was trying to get Plan B, which the pharmacist could not give her due to his mission from the Republican god and when she had the asthma attack he considered it an act of the Republican god to strike her dead.
Or perhaps she looked like a parasite trying to sponge the last $1 plus change and it was his duty to go Galt at that moment, since he’s a producer, of course.
Neither of them had a debit or credit card that they could use to pay the twenty one dollars and change?
We’re not getting all the information – something’s not right with this story.
I’m more surprised by the fact that the guy didn’t just pull out an atm/credit card and taken care of that. This would be a non-issue.
That’s ridiculous. What cashier wouldn’t have just tossed his or her own dollar in? Unless they were being jerks to make a point. Hey what if it was a fat kid, and he was in desperate need of Funions? Then holding out would be unethical.
the human inside me would like to say “yes” if she was definitely showing signs of distress and was having difficulty breathing. However, the employee inside me says “no” because I will be fired for “stealing” a dollar and change, plus my register will be out of balance. Then again, we live in America where everyone is sue-happy. If I did sell the inhaler at a discount, and did not get fired, and the customer had a bad reaction to the medication or their condition got worse, they would sue me for negligence for allowing them to buy a product that I could not vouch to be effective in this situation.
Unless was a certified Paramedic or First Responder, I would rather call 9-1-1 than take the risk of being sued for making the wrong choice when someone was having a medical emergency.
In summary, as much as I would like to vote “yes”, the prudent response is “no”.
This is just another symptom of the loss of humanity in our society. The simple devaluing of other people. As mentioned if I was the cashier I would have taken the money given the inhaler and sorted out the sale after the woman as breathing again. If I had to cover it I would have, any decent manager would have done the same. It makes me think of all the youtubes and such showing people in obvious distress and people just walk by as if there is nothing wrong.
Its sad that we have raised generations of robots who simply do as they are told and dont think for themselves, even if it puts another human being at risk.
I work at CVS, the cashier can do this, and most of the people I work with probably would and the manager would never know/care. CVS’ policy is doing whatever it takes to make the customer happy. I don’t know if it’s a district thing, but I have heard it called the $10 rule. If the customer wants something and it costs the store less than $10, just do it without asking for approval from the manager.
if they give this deadbeat a $21 product for $20 then where will it stop?
Customer: “I only had $1 but I wanted to buy everything in the store and they said NO!”
Publicly Traded companies are in business to make a profit! That is the only reason they operate and that is the only metric they use to measure their success. This comes at the expense of ethics, morals and laws. If the company believes it will be fined less than they can profit (taking into bad PR for any law/moral/ethical indiscretion, then they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to make that profit!!!!
Clearly CVS has no money or humanity to spare in spite 100 billion in revenues per year.
So we should take up a collection. The goal: One dollar per store (about $7,000). And then offer it to CVS nice and publicly so the next 7000 people suffering in their stores for lack of a dollar can get the help they need. We can call it the Be a F*cking Human Being Fund.
And to those of you saying the person should have had their inhaler with them or shouldn’t have been out or should have behaved diffferently in some other way: There is a person on the floor suffering right in front of you right now. What do you do? Do you quiz them to see if they deserve your help? Skip the questions and simply assume they don’t deserve your help? Or do you just help them?
To those who suggest that it’s not the store’s problem and an ambulance should have been called to take the person to the ER: Paramedics, an ambulance ride and an ER vist COST MORE THAN A DOLLAR. Whether they pay, insurance pays, the goverment pays or the hospital eats the costs it still counts towards our ridiculously high health care costs. It’s potentially hundreds for those things. Compared to a dollar.
“Yeah, but it’s my dollar.”
I knew you’d say that.
My thing is if this woman was indeed having a full blown attack on the floor of CVS customers, employees etc would have been calling 911. Poor people use the ER all the time (right or wrong) and if this was the emergency the customers are making it out to be that is where they should be! Then when the pharmacist is like no (which also makes me question the emergency) suddenly she goes from being on the floor fighting for life to walking out the door wondering what to do. Then instead of heading home to the inhaler (by their own admission nearby) they choose to wait for a mysterious friend with an inhaler to arrive on the scene. There is more to this story than what we know, has to be.
Um… you don’t have a visa/mastercard? I fail to see how the store setting a certain price for an item entitles you to a discount.
Now, on the other hand. There is the human decency factor. They could have just let you have the medicine and written it off…
The clerk may have been able to use the managers employee discount to fix the problem.