This might be inconvenient

News report this morning says that Rite Aid is closing a ton more stores.

Looks like the local one to me is finally on the list. I’d been suspecting it was doomed for a while now. I feel sorry for the employees, they’ve been working so hard to keep the store viable.

I suppose that CVS or Walgreens might purchase the building. Both appear to be involved in some kind of negotiations regarding the liquidation of Rite Aid’s holdings.

The building itself is new, and they have a drive through pharmacy. That might make the facility and location appealing to one or the other. I’d hope for Walgreens over CVS. I don’t much like CVS and can’t really say why that is, other than their stores always seem dirty.

The Rite Aid location hasn’t had looting issues, it’s in an out of the way community that was mostly immune to the ravages of the “Summer of Love”. But they have been dealing with increased shoplifting over the past few years. This is evidenced by certain items being locked up behind plexiglass. Axe products for example seem to require security. Why, I’m not sure other than the target demographic for the Axe brand is teens and younger adults.

I’ll take a wait and see approach and hope the place isn’t closed entirely. That would mean the closest pharmacy would be 18 – 20 miles away.

Not a super big deal, but it would mean that I’d be picking up prescriptions and shopping for groceries elsewhere. I rarely make a trip for a single item.

For example, I’ll get a haircut while the dog is being groomed. If, God forbid I need something from Walmart, I’ll walk across the lot from the groomer to that store. I really hate Walmarts. If I recall correctly, there’s a Walgreens a few miles from the groomer and there’s also a Stater Brothers or Ralphs in the same plaza. 

It probably won’t inconvenience me much but I’m likely to put off picking up pharmacy items so that one trip serves all my needs instead of driving all over hells half acre to pick up one item at a time.

It also means that shopping lists will become more important than they are now. There are a lot of elderly folks in the local area that depend on the Rite Aid and they’re not that mobile. 

For that matter, I don’t want to have to deal with them being on the road (swerving on & off the pavement, is more likely,) while I’m trying to get from point a to b.

The town the groomer is located in, reportedly already has the worst drivers in California, adding elderly people to that mix will result in a greater number of accidents. I suspect at least part of the issue is that you can get a contact high sitting at a traffic light.

(Yes, I know. People aren’t supposed to be smoking pot while driving. Guess what? They do. We have open container laws in California but smoking dope is a-okay.)

I haven’t been in a Walgreens in ages, so I don’t know what their stores are like these days. I’ve considered them several times over the past 4 years. Because shopping there with an Apple Card used to get you 3% cash back. Trouble was, that the 3% ended up being 0% by the time I added the distance to and from the Walgreens. 

Now it looks like health insurance will have me paying nothing for my one prescription. So I wouldn’t get the 3% when I need the next refill in any case.

Story of my life! 

Come to think of it, I wonder if this new fangled medical insurance covers massage? I’ll have to check, I’m not holding my breath. But it might be on the list of things they cover once a month.