Michael writes:

I live in Oxford, MS, and my girlfriend and I researched the availability of Plan B in this state. We knew there might some puritanical problems with purchasing it here in Mississippi – we have all kinds of arcane alcohol laws and only one abortion clinic in the state, after all – and from what we could tell, a pharmacist can refuse to sell Plan B to a woman on religious/moral grounds. But otherwise pharmacies do carry it, and it should be available to a woman as long as she can prove she is over age 18. As this is a university town and a top-ranked party school, we supposed it wouldn't be as hard to get Plan B as in other really small, ultra-conservative rural towns. And we also figured that a corporate pharmacy such as Walgreens would be less troublesome to deal with than a mom-and-pop one.

Well, the other day we decided to be extra-safe and to get the Plan B pill from Walgreens here in town. My girlfriend went and requested Plan B, equipped with the knowledge that it's a non-prescription drug available with ID. She said the pharmacy worker started asking for proof of insurance in order to get the pill. My girlfriend refused and asked to speak to someone in charge. The pharmacist then came, and my girlfriend told him she simply wanted Plan B and that her ID should be good enough. The pharmacist then went about getting the pill, but they also seem to have a policy, a lá abortion clinics, of forcing a waiting period of an hour and giving adoption literature to the person requesting the contraceptive. Now, Plan B is just an additional spermicide, not an abortion pill, but that's another can of worms. In the end, my girlfriend demanded the Plan B immediately, and she got it, but not without a fair amount of interference on Walgreens' part. They also insisted on writing down her driver's license number.

I'm wondering how much trouble other people may have had with Walgreens (or any other pharmacy) over acquiring Plan B. There are several other Red States that make allowances for the pharmacists' "moral concerns" to get in the way of getting Plan B. What are our rights in getting this pill right away? Walgreens' website didn't indicate that they could possibly get all high-and-mighty with her when she went to make the purchase. Could they also get uppity when you buy other kinds of contraception?

(Photo: Monotasker)

Wikipedia says The Halloween Tree is a novel by Ray Bradbury, but somehow I don't think this is what he had in mind. Maybe the Halloween decorations are mating with the Christmas trees?

(Thanks, Darrell!)

Chandra Greer, owner of a luxury paper store in Old Town, decided to jump on the Christmas creep bandwagon for the first time this year. She held a holiday sale last weekend, offering markdowns of 25 percent to 90 percent on cards, stationery and wrapping paper.

"Not only have we never had a holiday sale, we never had a sale before," said Greer, whose store goes by her last name. "Given what's going on in the economy, we felt a sale would be well-received."

The promotion generated 75 percent more in dollar volume than an average day, even with the steep discounts, said Greer, who had planned to take the day off but went to the store to help clerks handle the crowd.

In these days of heady excess, we could all benefit by waiting until after Thanksgiving to kick off our holiday binge-shopping.

'Christmas creep' hits earlier this season [The Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: βonne)

Nearly all of Houston has no power and most has no water. Even though my upstairs ceiling caved in, my manager at Walgreens said "you're scheduled to work and are expected to be here."

That's the message that he had left. When i called the store back to let them know there's no way in hell that I'm showing up, I luckily spoke to my friend Ms. Curtis, an assistant manager. I told her the situation and she then told me her situation. On Saturday, Mr Hudson, the store manager, called her to tell her that she needed to be there at the store on Sunday. She told him that she couldn't get out of her driveway due to a massive tree that was now in her driveway.

Mr. Hudson's response was, "You don't have a neighbor with a chainsaw ?" Ms. Curtis is a little person. She's a dwarf. 3' something tall, and he suggests to her to borrow a chainsaw to move a tree from her driveway so that she can come to work during a natural disaster.

I see no point in our store being open because we were out of all the supplies that could be useful to anyone on Thursday night.

So if you need 3 for 1 pantyhose packs, electric nose-hair trimmers, bouncy balls, or singing Hallmark Christmas houses, come on down to Walgreens in Houston, TX. Their automatically-opening doors stand ready, awaiting your patronage.

(Photo: cycle60)

Most agree that AFTER Thanksgiving should be the start of the CHRISTMAS season, but this idea has been lost on retail for a long, long time.

I spotted this wrapping paper at Walgreens, and although its on the unreachable top shelf and probably just overflow from the stock room, I definitely think it qualifies.

Christmas Creep at Walgreens [FutureGringo]

• Amazon: Lego sale. 50% off 8 Different Items
• Walgreens: 6 Sharpies for $2 (in-store only)
• eforcity: iPod/iPhone charging cable for $7.99 (down from $43.99)
• DealExtreme: iPod/iPhone charging cable for $3.46
• Woot: It's a woot-off!

• Best Buy: Dynex DX-LCD32 32-inch LCD HDTV $490
• Tiger Direct: Unlocked Motorola RAZR V3 GSM Cell Phone $100
• Buy.com: Kodak Z1285 12 Megapixel Digital Camera $90 Shipped

Luke says:

I've been using White Rain shampoo for years. It's in every Walgreens in the nation, and it is the cheapest shampoo ever. It's a dollar a bottle. It's always been a dollar a bottle. Ask anyone. It's also always been in a 590 mL bottle. But now they changed it to a 532 mL bottle. They still insist it's "33% MORE" than something.

Well, it certainly isn't 33% more than it used to be.

CBS explains the scheme,

To save taxpayer dollars, Medicaid limits how much it pays for popular forms of drugs. But it doesn't bother to set price-ceilings on rarely-used versions.

Take generic Zantac, or ranitidine, for example. The antacid is a huge seller in tablet form. Medicaid limits payment to 34 cents apiece.

The same drug as capsules has no price-ceiling because it was so rarely-prescribed. Medicaid pays $1.25 each. Walgreens figured it could pocket millions by switching patients from tablets to capsules.

The article also says,

By gaming the system, Walgreens managed to change over almost all Medicaid customers from cheap generic Zantac tablets to pricy capsules.

In Florida alone, it cost taxpayers an extra $1.2 million the first year.

And the pill-switching went on for several years nationwide, including other prescriptions: generic Prozac (fluoxetine) for depression, and generic Eldepryl (selegiline) for Parkinson's.

Walgreens denies wrongdoing and declined to be interviewed. But they recently agreed to pay back the government more than $35 million.

And they're not the only ones. CVS and Omnicare quietly settled similar cases coughing up $86 million more. The whole pill-flipping episode proves just how imperfect some drugstore chains can be.

Whether Walgreens' pharmacists are secretly mocking you, or just being so incompetent that they prescribe a drug that causes a miscarriage, it seems they can do nothing right. Hopefully, this little multi-million dollar fiasco they've created will be a catalyst for change at the woeful pharmacy, but we won't hold our breath.

Walgreens Accused Of Scamming Taxpayers [CBS]
(Photo: Okasan1)

Shame, Shame, Shame: Incident at Walgreens [FOX] (Thanks to Robert!)

We travel full time, so to get our prescription meds we have used Walgreens, because they transfer prescriptions to any of their stores. In Dec of last year I had a prescription filled (for high blood pressure) at a Walgreens store in Dallas...I noticed that the pills looked different, but thought they must have changed to a generic. When I finished that 90 day supply, I got a refill at a Walgreens in Florida. Now the pills were back to what I'd taken for years...an oval green pill. I had 2 left in the old bottle, white round pills...not what that bottle label said they were suppose to be. Acckk! So now I had taken 3 months of the wrong mystery medicine.

I checked the PDR, no matches...I went to the local Walgreens and they couldn't identify it. Nor could the Poison Control Center. The local Walgreens gave me a phone number for Walgreens Corporate office, which led to another phone number and another, climbing the corporate ladder, finally speaking to the CEOs office (but not the CEO). I couldn't get anybody to understand that this was serious...that the pills needed to be identified, that it was important to know what I had taken, who else might have gotten the wrong med, how had this happened and more importantly what was being done to assure this wasn't still happening.

I tried to explain that if this had been a case of product tampering it would have presented like this...a pill not matching the description on the label. That in a case of product tampering people could have died waiting for their corporation to respond.

It ended up taking Walgreens six weeks to get the pill identified. It was a generic allergy pill that was a Wall Mart brand. There was no explanation of how it got in a Walgreens bottle. No explanation about any of this. And no assurances that they have improved any part of their system.

I wanted Walgreens to tell me what had happened... and what they were doing in the future to deal with this sort of mistake. People faced with this situation should immediately be given access to a person or department who will take this seriously. They should not have to wait SIX WEEKS to have a medication identified. And it should not have taken so much persistent effort on my part. Walgreens should have recognized this as an immediate problem, and responded quickly... with concern for my safety and others. They did not and have not done that.

Last week my mom told me about the unfortunate experience she had at Walgreen's. She had recently switched to a new antidepressant and when she came down with a cold was concerned about taking OTC cold medicine with it.

She went to the pharmacy counter and asked the pharmacist (at least she assumed it was the pharmacist, they were wearing the lab coat) if it was safe to take cold medicine with the Effexor. The pharmacist replied that they didn't know. Not exactly a helpful answer, but I am sure there was a valid reason they couldn't answer the question. What happened next was disturbing. My mom then asked if it would be ok to skip her Effexor for a day, so she could take the cold medicine without worrying. The pharmacist responded that "If you don't take that Effexor no one will want to be within 25 ft of you."

Now my mom isn't ashamed of her depression, can laugh about it and is comfortable talking about. But this made her extremely embarrassed and uncomfortable about using the pharmacy. My mom is not dangerously depressed, but this pharmacist should have known better than to say this to a depressed person. You never know how unstable a person is. My mom chose not to complain, but I thought this was an example of how one employee can really alienate a customer.

Thanks,

Beth

(Photo:meghannmarco)

"Fast forward about two hours later and she wakes up to a room filled with black, acrid smoke and the heating pad charring the sheets and melting into the bed. She had said before this that even on low it was still way too hot, but somehow last night even after being turned off and cooling down it still managed to do the following damage to her mattress and sheets"

"We've informed the Walgreen's we bought it from and the assistant manager said they would pull the heating pad from their shelves. We'll be contacting Sunbeam directly about this either tomorrow or Thursday. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this before or have any advice on possibly recouping some damages from a possible defect? It appears as though all operating instructions were followed and the warranty wasn't violated."

Keep excellent documentation of this issue. You want want to show it to a lawyer. Maybe even this one:

Product liability attorney George McLaughlin has been involved in close to 100 cases against Sunbeam in 11 years.

"I have with me today four different heating pads, all of which are clearly burned," he said as he showed us the pads.

McLaughlin said most of the cases have involved electric blankets or electric mattress covers, but recently he has been getting more heating pad claims.

He said he is now planning to file a lawsuit against Sunbeam on behalf of five clients who said they were burned as a result of defective heating pads that malfunctioned.

Heating pads fall under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration because they're considered medical devices.

The FDA said it has received more than 40 complaints - reports of adverse incidents - about Sunbeam heating pads since 2001.

Any other suggestions?

An Adventure with a Walgreen's Heating Pad [LiveJournal](Thanks, Jeff!)
Potential Heating Pad Danger [ABC6]

Customers affected include members of prescription benefit plans managed by CVS Caremark for ArcelorMittal, Johnson Controls, Inc., Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. and Wisconsin Education Association Trust, the company said.

Walgreen added that the change mostly affects customers living in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

"This is not where we wanted negotiations to lead," said Trent Taylor, president of Walgreens Health Services, the company's managed care division. "We're sorry that our pharmacy patients and CVS Caremark's clients are caught in the middle, and we'll do all we can to ensure a smooth transition for our patients to another pharmacy."

We can't imagine that we won't see more of this, now that CVS owns Caremark.

Walgreen drops CVS prescription plans [CNNMoney]
(Photo:cmorran123)

Chanda Givens was given a presription for Materna, a prenatal vitamin, but her local Walgreens pharmacist gave her Matulane, a drug used to treat advanced Hodgkin's disease. The complaint says that drug " is designed to interfere with the growth of cells by blocking their ability to split and reproduce."

Walgreens had no comment.

Suit: Chemo drug led to miscarriage [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo:Ben Popken)

Save the Spindle
(Photo: Seth Tisue)

The results are based on an online survey of 6,543 U.S. consumers conducted last fall. The top retail pharmacy was Medicine Shoppe, an international franchise business owned by the drug distributor Cardinal Health.

The rankings also surveyed "big box" chains for overall customer satisfaction. Target cleaned up with "866 points and receives the highest ratings in all factors driving customer satisfaction." Walmart and Costco fought it out for most crappy with Costco winning the battle of who could suck the most by one point. —MEGHANN MARCO

Pharmacy Survey Says: Medicine Shoppe No. 1 [WSJ Health Blog]
JD Power National Retail Pharmacy Satisfaction Study
Duane Reade Ranked #7 out of 7 ::cue surprise face:: [I Hate Duane Reade]
(Photo:Maulleigh)

"In short, they said that while Certegy does help them with the battle against consumer fraud, sometimes their practices hurt their good Walgreen's customers," wrote DudeAsInCool. "Thanks for posting my letter so other consumers won't be insulted and inconvenienced in the future... We should be able to use whatever form of payment we want to, when we want to and however we want to."

— BEN POPKEN

PREVIOUSLY: Statistically Speaking, His Check Was Fraudulent
(Photo: Zepfanman.com)

The law on this is Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits religious discrimination in the workplace. It requires employers to make "reasonable accommodations" for an employee's religious beliefs — "reasonable" being anything that doesn't create an "undue hardship" on the employer or on co-workers.

Religion on the job: Legacy of Puritans resonates today [Arizona Daily Star]
(Photo: cmorran123)

Why Generic Doesn't Always Mean Cheap [WSJ via Freakonomics via BoingBoing]

UPDATE: Stephen Dubner writes to prod our eyes towards what's really stunning, that the price difference between Walgreens and the Costco pharmacy can be up to 1000%. His post suggests this is because the standard Walgreens, Eckerd and CVS prescription shoppers (i.e. old people) are entrenched in their ways and not exercising consumer choice.

But another factor is that CVS, Walgreens and Eckerd don't have plasma TVs to make up for the cheap drugs. At prices like $12 and $15, you could consider the pills considered loss leaders. What big ticket item are you going to pick up at Walgreens on a whim, a singing and dancing Santa Claus?

Certegry, their check verification service, said that "statistically speaking," his purchase price, the store location, and the time of purchase meant the check might be fake. This flummoxed reader DudeAsInCool. His description of the ensuing events, and how Certegy eventually cleared him, might make you chortle.

We're not sure why he's using a check in the first place though. Why not just use a debit card?

What's your opinion on people writing checks in the store?

DudeAsInCool writes:

Hi

Here's an interesting company and a pretty sordid business practice against consumers for you guys to devour:

Today I went to Walgreens Drug Store in Los Angeles to pick up a few items. The friendly staff did not have the product I wanted, but the Manager called another store in the area who did, and I made arrangements to drop by the other location for the purchase. So far, so good.

I arrived at the other store a couple hours later, picked up a few items in addition to the one they had set aside for me, and wrote a check for them for under $50. This is where the fun begins....

The cashier tried to run the check through several times and had to call the manager over as the damn thing wouldn't process. Then suddenly, light radiated from the heavens, and out spun the following Orwellian non-committal rejection note:

"The agency listed did not make the decision to decline your check and is unable to provide you with the specific reasons for our decision." Huh?!!!! WTF?

I never had a problem writing checks at Walgreen's before, so I asked the manager what was going on. She said I would have to call the company at the bottom of the non-receipt - Certegy Check Cashing Services - because there was nothing she could do about it.

I asked if I could use the store's phone, and the manager politely provided one for me. I dialed. A voice male robot at Certegy's kingdom politely answered: "You will need your 1) Driver's license and 2) store receipt and 3) phone number to continue...blah blah blah... and then proceeded to ask me a litany of questions: "1) What was the check number? 2) How much was the check for? blah blah blah.. Can we have your first born? Etc. After I supply the information, I get the exact same Orwellian message from a second robot, in this case a shebot - as I did from the cashier print out . "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but we are unable to provide any reasons as to why your check was declined..." Ms. Robot then droned on about how Certegy works hand-hand with merchants and handles up to a million checks every day... in order to stop potential fraud. Huh? Now they are accusing me of potential fraud? WTF?? After waiting another 20 minutes or so under Walgreen's irritating florescent prison lights, I gave up and went home.

About an hour later, I got a real person from Certegy on the phone. She was friendly, sympathetic to my position, and did her best to remedy the situation. She explained statistically that 1) the attempted purchase price, 2) the store I bought it from, and 3) the time I bought it, triggered the system that fraud MIGHT occur!!!! Was it the pin stripe shirt I was wearing? WTF?

She then begin researching for my consumer check writing history. At first, she said Certergy didn't appear to have any information on me, to which I said, "Then why was my check not accepted?" No answer, but then lo and behold, she did a little research, the heavens parted once again, and like Mose's 10 Commandments, my personal consumer history appeared, and the corporate Gods said this was good. She then began to read off a series of checks I had written at Walgreens and other stores (Certegy has other personal information on me!!!) She quickly determined I wasn't the problem as all my checks had cleared - it was just my luck that my purchase fell in to the wrong statistical pattern. (Luck????!!) Corporate Twilight Zone would be more like it.

She said she would up my rating immediately (They had a rating on me!!!) so I wouldn't have a problem again, and she did so on the spot. She concluded that she hoped I would be more understanding about the plight that these huge profitable corporate monopolies and their zillionaire CEOs have to face in their daily battle against consumer fraud...or at least it was something to that effect. (I should have suggested that Citergy talk to the RIAA about consumer relations). I then asked: "Wouldn't it make more sense for companies like Walgreens to review the check writing policies of their own customers as opposed to hedging their bets on whatever statistical studies their cash registers and Certegy dream up at the moment of attempted purchase. She said that wasn't possible and that I didn't understand. She's right - I still don't.

There was a happy ending, though. I will no longer encounter any problems with my check writing at Walgreens because I now have been certified as 'Gold' by Certegy; can you believe Certegy actually has a program where people pay to make sure that Certegy's questionable business tactics against check writers aren't used against them!!!!!! And after three trips to Walgreens in one day, I finally was able to write a check for the product I wanted. Imagine that. I even took them home and begin enjoying them. Isn't life wonderful with Certegy Gold? And now I plan on suing the hell out of these jerks for the time lost, embarrassment, and defamation of character by statistical bullshit, etc. (just kidding)

In closing, I have attached my receipt (minus my banking information), as well as a couple links below from a few other innocent consumers who have encountered this outrageous practice:

http://www.complaints.com/march2003/complaintoftheday.march26.17.htm
http://forums.dealofday.com/showthread.php?t=176396

— BEN POPKEN

The lawsuit alleges that Walgreen assigns black managers, management trainees and pharmacists to low-performing stores and to stores in black communities, and that it denies them promotions based on race.

"Black managers are assigned to stores in black neighborhoods more often than one would expect, and black employees are not being promoted to management and within management as often as similar white employees," EEOC regional attorney Robert Johnson said in St. Louis.

Walgreen is the target of U.S. racial-bias lawsuit [Philadelphia Inquirer]
(Photo: TheConsumerist)

You know, we realize that sometimes you consumers get upset, and we're on you're side. Unless you set the Walgreens on fire. Then we are not on your side. From WFTV:

One moment, the customer was angry. The next, she was going up and down the isles[sic] lighting merchandise on fire.

Angry Woman Accused Of Setting Walgreens On Fire (with video!) [WFTV Florida](Thanks, Ryan!)

Elizabeth Noah, a Palms Beach grammie, began to cry after reading the Drug Utilization Review (DUR) stapled to her bag of anxiety meds.

It said, "WATCH CONTROLS SHE SEEMS SHADY."

Erin Cutler, 30, mother of three, sued after seeing her Walgreens DUR labeled her a "bitch."

"The purpose of the notes field...is to help our patients by entering information related to customer service preferences or insurance," said Caroline Hively, a Walgreens spokesperson. "Personal or uncomplimentary comments about a patient is a totally inappropriate."

To date, Walgreens has not apologized to any of the patients, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

"This is the pharmacy that America trusts, that's their slogan. The trust is gone. It shrunk me down and took away some of the work I've put into [managing] my illness," said Cutler.

Previously: Walgreens Pharmacists Mock You Behind Your Back

"CrAzY!! She's really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names..."

Janey Karp sued Walgreens over the above comments appearing on a patient information sheet attached to her latest bottle of Ambien.

"A person has the right to have whatever medications they're taking to be private," she said. "I'm so private that I never talk about my medications and now they're telling me that I'm psycho, crazy."

Walgreens apologized profusely and is actively investigating. The notes were first entered in September, 2004. Walgreens' new prescrption computer system links all 5,122 stores into a one network. Who knows how many have seen and read the deragatory comments...

Or how many other shoppers have slanderous remarks listed on their patient profile.

Woman Sues Walgreens over Insulting Prescription [Sun-Sentinel]

A man walks up to a cashier. He wants to purchase something embarrassing: porn, say, or hemorrhoid medication. He has a few other items, too, but it's unclear as to whether he really wants to buy them or if they are just a beard for the shameful merchandise. He has a plan: when the cashier picks up the copy of "Car & Driver" to reveal the three-pack of "mango flavored" condoms, he will feign surprise and say "whoa, how did those get there? Well, I don't feel like returning them, so go ahead and charge me — I guess I'll buy them ..." But then, as the teller rings up the items, disaster strikes. For some reason the bar code on the product fails to scan correctly. The teller gets on the intercom system and says, "I'm going to need a price check for the jumbo pack of Tink'L Trapp'R brand adult undergarments ..."

I used to buy gay porn magazines for the slightly-closeted homosexual a cubicle over from me at work. He was a nice guy, but — as a homosexual — felt a lot more self-conscious in exposing himself as one than I, happily hetero, did. It wasn't particularly embarassing and I even became known at the newstand as one of the seedy, stained-trenchcoat-wearing regulars, up until the point where the guy working at the newstand started asking me where I lived and what I liked doing for fun, at which point I told my colleague it might behoove him to start buying the magazines himself. This gay colleague, by the way, also had a great anecdote about a one-on-one encounter with a John Holmes type, whom he turned down with the quip "What am I supposed to do with that? Pet it?"

Which is all ancillary to the tangential question we're attaching to this post. What's the most embarrassing shopping experience you've ever had? Let us know in the comments section.