Wendy’s employee Lorissa Mendez and Wendy’s customer Ashley A. Roberts have been feuding over the father of Mendez’s child. Ashley and her two friends pulled up at the drive through at 1 a.m. Sunday morning while Lorissa was working, and according to Lorissa they started “talking shit” about her. Lorissa responded by throwing a cup of fruit punch in Ashley’s face. The police were called once Ashley tried to climb through the drive-through window to get at Lorissa. Meanwhile someone at the counter was probably wondering why his Frosty order was taking so long to fill. [More]
Pharma Medicine
Johnson & Johnson Not Taking Refunds On Recalled Tylenol Very Seriously
By 5.3.10
When J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare Unit announced a recall of children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl over the weekend, it also provided a toll free number you could call for more info. Ron Lieber at the New York Times called it on Saturday to find out how the refund process would work. What he got was a three minute recording telling him to throw the products in the trash, but nothing else. [More]
Oakland Is Out Of Weed, City Council Declares
By 5.3.10
Only in the Bay Area does it become an official civic emergency when pot stashes dry up. The Easy Bay Express reports the Oakland City council declared a local public health emergency because supplies of medical marijuana have dwindled. [More]
Children's Tylenol, Motrin, Other Medications Recalled
By 5.1.10
Head to your medicine cupboards and start checking out the children’s meds you might have there — the Food and Drug Administration announced today Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare Unit has begun a voluntary recall of various medicines because of manufacturing discrepancies. [More]
What's Up With Rite Aid Scanning My ID To Buy Booze?
By 4.10.10
Consumerist reader Mark lives in the L.A. area and says he often picks up his alcohol from Rite-Aid because they’ve got good prices. But now Mark says Rite-Aid has gone beyond checking IDs and is actually scanning them into their computer. Not cool, in his book. [More]
Walgreens Completes Total Domination Of NYC With Duane Reade Deal
By 4.10.10
Hear that sound? It’s the combined sobs of New Yorkers as the deal to turn all 258 Duane Reade drugstores in the metropolitan area, as well as two distribution centers and Duane Reade headquarters, into Walgreens has now been made official. [More]
Walgreens Takes Pity On You When You Get Mugged For Your Wallet And Prescriptions
By 4.8.10
Tabitha and her husband were part of a horrible chain of events. She was ill, and her husband was mugged on the way home from the pharmacy with her prescriptions. With his credit cards, cash, and his wife’s medicine all gone, her husband went back to the pharmacy…and received true above and beyond service. [More]
CVS Is Charging $.20 For This Free Toothbrush & Tongue "Scrapper"
By 4.7.10
Consumerist reader Dan recently went to his local CVS to score some toothpaste when he noticed that the store was offering two versions of the same 6-oz. tube of extra whitening, maximum strength, sensitive toothpaste. One was just the toothpaste while the other came with a free toothbrush… And then he looked at the price tags. [More]
Watch Out For Drugstore Price Traps
By 4.7.10
I was at a Rite-Aid a couple of weeks back and went to pick up some cheap dish detergent, and the bottles that I remembered being less than $1.50 were all in the $3-4 range. I left and found sanely-priced soap at another store a few blocks away. Our reader Stan just wrote in with a similar example, where he caught his local CVS charging him three times as much as a nearby competitor. [More]
Brooklyn Police Close 6 Stores On The Same Street For Selling Pot
By 4.6.10
Up until today, if you lived near a certain street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and wanted some pot, you just had to go to the nearby variety store. Or the music store. Or the take-out restaurants. MyFox New York says police “made a sweep of the neighborhood” today and shut down six businesses for selling drugs either in the back or right alongside the regular merchandise. They also arrested 8 people, including a few store owners and employees, and are planning more arrests. Video below. [More]
Walgreens Expects To Complete Duane Reade Deal By Mid-April
By 4.1.10
Just as NBC prepares to give itself up to some company from Philadelphia, another New York institution has gotten one step closer to invasion from without with the news that the FTC has given the go-ahead for Walgreens to continue with its purchase of Duane Reade drug stores. [More]
Drug Company Gets Approval To Sell Crestor To Healthy People
By 3.31.10
Don’t have high cholesterol? Think you don’t need Crestor, a cholesterol-lowering statin? You may be in for a rude awakening. Astra Zeneca, the maker of Crestor, has received approval to market the drug to healthy people as a preventative measure. And before you ask, yes Crestor does have side-effects. [More]
Rite-Aid Puts Aspirin On Sale For $3 More Than Regular Price
By 3.31.10
Consumerist reader Uriah was shopping at his local Rite-Aid when he spotted something strange about the big yellow sale tag on this bottle of aspirin. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the huge sale price of $9.99 wasn’t such a good deal… because it’s $3 higher than the $6.99 the aspirin usually goes for. [More]
Sorry, No Jet Lag Drug For You
By 3.30.10
The FDA has declined to approve an application for use of an alertness drug, Nuvigil, to treat jet lag. [More]
Interactive Chart Helps You Vet Health Supplements
By 3.23.10
Are you tired of forgetting whether you should add creatine or cinnamon to your kale smoothie? Do you worry that the milk thistle you’ve rubbed on your genitals isn’t helping? The “Snake Oil?” graphic at informationisbeautiful.net can help you out–it provides a graphical overview of 166 different health supplements and arranges them according to how much evidence there is that they actually work. [More]
Walgreens Now Sells Televisions By The Inch
By 3.21.10
Rob took this picture of a 15″ LCD television for sale at Walgreens in Virginia. It’s nice that they chose to highlight the price, but confusing that they also posted the unit price. If you’re wondering, TVs cost $8 per inch. I like this pricing scheme, and hope to see other retailers adopt it. [More]
Publix Giving Away Free Diabetes Drug
By 3.16.10
Publix wants people with diabetes to become their longterm customers, so they’re giving away 30-day supplies of generic metformin in 500 mg, 800 mg, and 1000 mg dosages, with unlimited refills. Although Publix would love it if you subsequently get all your prescriptions filled there, it’s not a requirement for the free drug. [More]
Walmart Wins: Top 10 Most Valuable Retail Brands
By 3.11.10
Interbrand Design Forum– part of a global brand consulting firm– has ranked the top retail brands and guess what? Walmart is most valuable. [More]
