Damn you Walmart!!!

Can your inner city clerks afford their meds at Walmart if they work at Walmart?

Well if they are making the Federal minimum wage (5.15) they would have to work approximately .77669 hours to make enough money to buy a month of drugs (Rounded up to an hour even after taxes). In illinois, minimun wage is 6.50 for employers who employ 4 or more employees. They would have to work around .615 hours to earn enough to buy a months supply.

So, yes, I think they would be able to afford it.

If such happened here in Germany, government and health insurance comapnies would be happy. The pharmacy companies, pharmacies and consumers (most people don't like generic drugs, thinking, the original are better - besides, it really doesn't matter since paid by health insurance, they think) not really.

However, with 65,000 prescription drugs in an average pharmacy, 300 would be of a big deal. (115,000 in my local one, since they've got to have on stock drugs for various specialist doctors located nearby as well).

Consumers wouldn't be happy getting their drugs for only $4 a month? I most certainly would be. If not though, they are more then welcome to go pay higher prices for the same drugs somewhere else if they so choose.

I'm having a hard time understanding your english on that last part. Did you mean to ask if 300 drugs for $4 would be a big deal since there are over 65,000 on the market?

We pay here the very same for any drug - no matter how expensive it might be in reality. ( $6 for usually, up to $17 for those which cost in reality e.g. $ 2400 .)
That's for drugs on prescription only.

What I meant was that 300 cheaper drugs aren't a big deal when there are 64,700 still as expensive as before.

Oh, and those 65,000 (or 115,000) are actually in the pharmacy, I wasn't referring to the market.

65,000 - I just looked it up - is not the average but the minimum in a German pharmacy.

How many of those 65,000 drugs are used by the majority of people every day, Walter? With generic versions of widely used drugs on the market for $4 a month... it most certainly IS a big deal as well as being very very inexpensive.

291 drugs out of 65,000 ... Probably the cheapest generics to begin with. Not meaning to be a pessimist, but that's piddly by comparison to the fact that all those shoppers will be walking the aisles while waiting for their scripts to be filled.

Wal-Mart didn't become Wal-Mart by giving things away. I still hate seeing one go up in place of a Mom & Pop.

ditto

Then what do you mean to be?



What business does give stuff away and still stay in business?

That certainly depends on ... various facts, I think.

As I tried to say: the patient doesn't notice the price .... only perhaps, when she/he has to pay less for health insurance.

another ditto

If it's a choice between Walmart and Walgreen's or other mega pharmacy chain then I don't see much difference in which one someone chooses. On the other hand, if it's a choice between a privately run pharmacy and either of the other two, I'd rather give my business to the smaller store even if I have to pay more.

The low prices don't stay low forever. Then tend to go up once the small local competition has dried up.

this is moving quickly... my ditto was to Squinney.

It's an effective business move. And Florida is the best place to start.

(I still hate Walmart.)

I think that it is a great idea. Sure, it is only the cheaper drugs that are involved, but for someone who needs to watch their pennies, it is a great deal.

I will not go to my local Wal-Mart, even if the drugs are cheaper. The line in the pharmacy is usually long, and the drug store space is not comfortable. Now when the Super Wal-Mart opens up in my neighborhood, maybe I will switch from Walgreen's.

I had mentioned on another thread that there is one local independent pharmacy in my area. The assisted living place where my mother lives uses that pharmacy. You can charge, and they bill you once a month. The druggist is the same guy, and you DO get personal service. I was seriously considering switching.

Then I realized something. At Walgreen's, the pharmacy is open 24/7. In the small drug store, It is open until 6 most days, a half day on Saturday, and is closed on Sunday. With Walgreen's, I can reorder my medications on the internet, and they send me an E Mail when my order is ready. I also can get detailed information about my prescriptions on the internet, including my cost over a period of time that I can designate. Can't get all that in a mom and pop store!!!

Walmart doesn't just target Mom and Pops' - it wants to be the only big fish in the big pond. Studies show that in small communities where Walmart has knocked out the competition they raise their prices as soon as they are the only general store within a certain mileage.

The other problem is that Walmart is a very conservative company and does not want to dispense things like the morning after pill. Let's say Jpin finds he has an STD and his only choice to get the curative drugs is his local Walmart, but Walmart has decided it's God's punishment for sexually active people to suffer with STDs and they will not dispense the required drugs. What can Jpin do? Well, he could go over the border and get them in Canada or he could drive to a town that kept Walmart out and buy them at pharmacy that does not practice such predatory business tactics, or he could suffer and just be grateful to buy cheap jockey shorts made by children in Asia.

Walmart is the smiling wolf pretending to watch over the brainless sheep.

The drugs my doctor prescribed are more or less free. I should pay a $2 service fee whenever I pick them up. However, the druggist does not charge at all, so I'm a lucky duck, I guess.

I must be tired tonight because I can't figure out why lower drug prices is, at best, a so-so item for most people (except phoenix... that woman knows what she's talkin' about) and even seems to be a bad thing in somes peoples minds... so I'll be back tomorrow to try to understand.

Jpin, it's not the lower prices that's the problem- it's the motive behind it. Walmart is not doing this to help people, it's doing it to become a pharmaceutical giant with no competition. Walmart wants to be America's communist party, no competition for your vote.

If the drug companies offered the same deal to all pharmacies that it is offering to Walmart I would be all for it, but that is not the case. Walmart is notorious for "putting the screws" on it's suppliers, destroying fair competition and basically becoming the monopoly in the marketplace. It makes for less choices in the long run. The United States of Walmart is not what we should aspire to.