I picked up a copy of the Sacramento Bee the other day; the new and ‘improved’ size paper. And there was an article on the front page about the sale of Long’s Drugs to CVS Pharmacies. Lot’s of money changing hands on this one. And for those of us on the West coast, it’s the end of an era. Long’s had been around for 70 years and had stores just about everywhere in the north state. No, they were not the best drugstore and I had plenty of complaints for our local store. But, they had a great reputation as a ‘sporting goods store’. If you wanted fishing tackle at 1 in the morning, head on over to the nearest 24 hour Long’s and you could buy any lure or hook you might need. I wonder if CVS will continue the tradition? I doubt it.
So what does all of that have to do with the escalating price of drugs? I’m not sure…but it does say that it is certainly big business and it looks more and more like a monopoly is developing. And a great opportunity for price-fixing. Less players=more opportunity. Add in the cost of the drugs themselves and you have a real disaster for those who need them the most. Our elders.
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