Comment on Walgreens Thanks Nurse For Rescuing Comatose Diabetic By Sending Her Glucometer Bill A lot of problems in this world can be solved by a little common sense and humanity.

If it wasn't for the Blue Blockers, I'd never shop there again.

Wow, just wow. How do these people get management jobs?

A lot of problems can be solved if everyone exercised a little common sense, and courtesy.

Although we dont know, maybe the manager would have had to go through a lot of red tape come book keeping time,to prove that it wasnt shop lifting but a freebie to help a medical emergency.

I guess we will never know.

There is only one solution for Walgreen's:

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

We spend a lot of time saying things like "Wallgreens did this bad thing" and "Best Buy did that bad thing" but really, this isn't about Walgreens. This is about some complete asshat PERSON trying to make himself feel important.

PEOPLE really suck sometimes. They really really do.

There's a war in my town. Walgreens and CVS are fighting to see who can have the most buildings in the least amount of square mileage. I hope at some point they both reach critical mass and we don't have to deal with either one.

@homerjay: Ture, although it becomes Wallgreen's issue if they don't take corrective action.

@homerjay: Sure, it could just be a person. But it's up to Walgreens to deal with the manager who thinks it's acceptable to act this way.

In addition, would you say it's just the manager's fault if Walgreens has a very strict policy on missing items? What if the employee was forced to pay for these items himself or be fired?

We don't know enough but I do think that Walgreens should be responsible for stepping forward and dealing with how this was handled. Their representative acted this way - now they can deal with it.

She should at least get her meal comped at Wag's.

What? Walgreens doesn't operate a restaurant anymore?

@homerjay: 'tis true.
Kudos to the people for helping.

The manager is an ass. Also, I just hate them because all the employees (half of them much older than the manager) have to call these manager bastards Mr. or Mrs. Asshat.

@homerjay: This is along the same line as when Starbucks charged for water for rescue workers during 9/11. It was someone stupid stance, and the company had to deal with all the blowback.

Incidentally, how would this be resolved if the rescuers didn't have to pay at all? (with regards to inventory and bookkeeping).

Walgreen's is known for being very anal in it's policies. I don't shop at CVS or Walgreens because of stuff like this.

and the humanitarian award goes to...

@Truvill: The items would be considered damaged and processed as such. That sort of thing happens all the time.

Option 1:

Demand payment for items used to save the life of a customer and look like a greedy tool.

Option 2:

Take an $18 dollar hit to your bottom line, give the woman a free low-end glucometer, and act like a real human being.

I'll take the option 1, please, with a side of public shame and humiliation. I'll pass on the option 2, which comes with free advertisements for my store and 4 loyal customers, one who needs expensive diabetic supplies.

Oh, and that news story is the exact reason I hate video news. Over dramatic, overbearing, and it took me 5 minutes to find out how much the store stood to lose from the event.

I also like the nurse's phrase, 'a rapid amount of time.'

But bravo to the people who worked well together in an emergency.

@Phexerian: i typically like walgreens however thinking that they'd rather a customer die than pitch in a bit of juice and cheap supplies to save the person makes me think perhaps i should find a different pharmacy.

Lack of intelligence and fear of "getting in trouble" are a powerful combination. Unfortunately, it's one that's rampant in the workplace, especially retail, and *especially* in management. My first thought was that if this guy had done the right thing, we might still be hearing about this story because his own boss might have penalized him.

sorry phexerian.. that really wasn't aimed at you...

Fox News (albeit a local station) is the voice of reason here? Wow, good job Walgreens.

@homerjay: Walgreens is responsible for how its stores are operated, and I believe that even their attempted carte blanche to lay it all on the managers' shoulders is just a cop out. That's just a corporate ploy to take responsibility for profits but not failures. Either way, the jerk should get canned, but an apology from Walgreens would do wonders for them right now.

Haha! Who did the manager think was going to arrest her? The deputy officer that was there? Ass hat...

no good deed goes unpunished.

No good deed goes un-billed?

Seriously, though, I'm not surprised. Though this may be a lone, rogue store manager - there sure seem to be a lot of them working at Walgreens stores across the country (I can vouch personally for four states)

@fluiddruid: OK, I must say I should take back my comment. I didn't realize the cop threw the glucometer into the ladies bag and she left with it. I can see the managers point b/c now he can't even return the meter w/the packaging for credit. It shouldn't have been given to the lady, it should have stayed in a store. The consumables can be written off much easier w/ just the packaging, unlike the meter. The nurse said she didn't know what happened to it, so for all the manager knew, she DID take it, as it was no longer in the store.

I think the manager did the right thing in letting the two nurses and cop handle the situation, especially if had no medical training. What was he supposed to do better than a cop and two trained nurses?

This could have been handled better after the fact, but I think the news story tends to tell the story in the "victims" favor. OK, flame away.

Walgreens keeps the glucose meters out on the open shelves. They keep expensive things like test strips behind glass.
They should just write this off as damaged merchandise. But no. Too many people are so busy trying to CYA, enforce unwritten rules or rally around someone else's stupidity to actually stop and think.

The #1 rule of diabetes is: High blood sugar kills slowly, low blood sugar kills in minutes.

(OK, high blood sugar can kill you in hours but only in extreme circumstances. Let's not nitpick.)

These people saved that woman's life. Walgreen's had a chance to be public about a good deed and instead have a giant black mark. How incredibly stupid.

I wonder if the manager would have felt the same way if it was his elderly diabetic grandparent that got saved??!!

The !@##@ of the year award goes to him!

: It was of course the diabetic's fault for going into the coma in the first place. Had she monitored her blood sugar, food intake and insulin properly, this whole mess could have been avoided. The diabetic woman should be charged for the supplies, and banned from the store for stressing out the manager.

Oh -- one more thing -- Companies that make Glucometers give them away for FREE. Call any of them up, say you're a diabetic and you "lost your meter," or, hell, you want to "switch brands," and they'll ship you a new one, and the kit to use it - everything but the strips.

Any store that charges you money for a glucometer is likely ripping you off. Most of the companies also offer 100% rebates on all their models if you buy one in the store.

The strips are how they make money. They run about $1 a piece. An insulin-dependant diabetic may test himself from 2-5 times a day.

@mizmoose: So that's why Wilfred is always pushing you to test. And test often.

+ Watch video

@Truvill: It's called breakage.

I don't often email companies on issues that don't affect me, however, on this I had to let Walgreens know they lost a family of customers forever. Their PR gaffe in regards to $25 in product will cost them far more. Their response to the issue was as appalling as the issue itself.

@Truvill:
It could be written as breakage, shrinkage, or one of many other ways to reconcile store books.

@homerjay: I was actually thinking that myself. The title should be, a Manager at Walgreens thanks nurse.....

@homerjay:

watch the video - walgreens is just as much to blame as the idiot manager. what scum.

FYI, calling Bayonne, New Jersey "NY Area" is insulting to New Yorkers. If we could widen the Hudson, we would.

@mizmoose:

I'm a type 1 db and test at least 5-10 times a day - in addition to using a constant glucose monitor which relays my blood sugar to me every five minutes.

I use Walgreens for my supply because they're close and I like the pharmacists there. But going THROUGH the store is another story.

Front Door guy: You have to leave your bag with me:

Me: Nope. I'm going to the pharmacy and I'm not leaving my personal stuff unattended. Come walk with me if you like to make sure I don't steal any shitty hair clips or Planter's cashews.

upon leaving:

Door: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Front Door guy chasing me out: Stop I need to check your stuff or something.

Me: (Already out the door and walking/biking away): No - these are paid for. Go check with the pharmacy.

+ Watch video

I can see where Walgreens is coming from. They simply cannot allow the materially adverse deluge of people faking diabetic shock so they can get free OJ and candy bars and, yes, glucometers.

p.s. cheers to the nurses and police.

To the diabetic: Get a constant glucose monitor already. You can watch your blood sugar meander down and do something before it hits rock bottom.

I don't know how anyone can stand shopping in Walgreen's, unless the Rx prices are radically lower than other pharmacies. (I'm a CVS loyalist.) I've had to go into Walgreen's a few times for something I needed on the fly, and I can't believe the poor selection, cheesy layout, and the CRAP they sell. One day I needed ginger ale for my daughter who had a stomach bug, and they didn't carry it, even though they had every other Coca-Cola product. ***FAIL***

@Troy F.:

No shit I was just thinking about going up to 7-11 and faking it to see if I could score a free slurpee.

Well, then WHO SHOULD incur the cost?

Why shouldn't the rescuers incur the cost. They made the decision to use the products. Why should it be Walgreen's responsibility.

Or perhaps the woman in the coma should be billed. After all, she's the one who benefited. If she had managed her diabetes better, there wouldn't have been a problem in the first place.

In reality, Walgreen's only involvement here happens to be that it was in their store, which doesn't make them responsible for the woman's health issues. Of everyone involved, they should be the last to bear the expense.

@ElizabethD: Everyone once in a while, they have crazy sales on LUCKY CHARMS!

That's why!