
Walgreens announces deal to buy Rite Aid for $9 a share - skhatri11
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/27/walgreens-announces-deal-to-buy-rite-aid-for-9-a-share.html
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davidf18
I don't understand why this purchase was not turned down for on grounds of
anti-trust. There will be less competition for lowering drug costs. How is
this a good thing for American health care?

There are four large pharmacy chains in NYC and now Walgreens owns three of
the four. Not long ago Walgreens purchased Duane Reade. Now the competition is
limited to Walgreens and CVS.

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mindcrime
I don't see the anti-trust thing. In addition to the "drug store" chains,
there are pharmacies embedded in (many|most|all?) Wal*Mart stores, Target
stores, Publix stores, Kroger stores, Harris Teeter stores, etc. I would guess
there are other grocery chains that have pharmacies as well. Plus there are
still independent pharmacies. I don't know what the situation is like in NYC
specifically, but just to share an anecdote from where I live - there are two
"indy" pharmacies within walking distance of my office on Main Street in
Durham, NC.

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davidf18
Target pharmacies were bought by CVS. No Walmart in NYC, nor the other chains
that you mention. NYC is dominated by Walgreens, Rite Aid, Duane Reade, CVS.

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JoshTriplett
The ability to open a pharmacy in an area isn't restricted the way Internet
and television providers are. Nothing stops a new store or chain from opening.

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dredmorbius
Pharmacies operate in large share through health plans. Larger pharmacies ==
more negotiating power == higher drugs prices. Smaller / start-up chains don't
have that advantage, and hence start with several strikes against them.

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jhall1468
This is misleading. Most independent pharmacies operate through coalition or
coops in the exact same way small grocery stores do. Often times the sales of
coops are on par with, or can easily exceed, the annual sales of major chains.

You aren't going to match Walmart on $4.00 generics and have success, but
often times independent chains get better discounts on everything else than
many of the major chains.

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sitkack
When I write for the Onion I will do an article, "Comcast acquires itself,
raises rates"

There is always more monopoly where that came from.

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meritt
Knowing these two companies, the transaction is going to be printed on a
receipt with one line per share and a few hundred feet of legal disclaimers

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CyberDildonics
A 17.8 billion dollar deal yet every time I go in I'm asked to donate to 'the
troops' which are not a charity to begin with.

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hlmencken
There are charities that support the troops

~~~
heroh
all taxpayers are donors to the unwanted war

"the point of public relations slogans like support our troops is that they
don't mean anything... you don't want people to think about the issue, that's
the whole point of good propaganda..." \- Noam Chomsky
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7DdWmWUa_8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7DdWmWUa_8)

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digisign
I don't know much about Wallgreens, but didn't like how they've been opening
stores across the street from RA here in Los Angeles, instead of the next
deserving block.

Also hope they don't get rid of the Thrifty (drug store) ice-cream, it is one
of the only places to get a decent scoop at a low price for families. Not to
mention lots of good memories.

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djloche
The Thrifty ice cream was sadly overpriced these days at the RA I last went
to. I could have bought a half gallon of ice cream at the grocery store right
next door for the same price as two scoops at RA.

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chipotle_coyote
But you could probably have bought a half-gallon of Thrifty ice cream at RA
for the same price or less as the grocery store. :) You're paying a big
premium when you're buying it per-scoop.

I know part of Thrifty's original schtick was being low prices and still high
quality, and if they were still keeping in line with that the price would be
more like 50¢/scoop rather than $1.79 -- but AFAIK, the ice cream mostly went
away after RiteAid bought the original Thrifty drug store and they've only
started bringing it back over the last few years, at least in the SF Bay Area.

I do hope they keep the ice cream, though, just on general principle: the
bigger retail chains get, the less character they seem to retain. It was sad
for me to see CVS buy Long's Drugs a few years back -- Long's stores tended to
be bigger and just a little more charmingly eclectic.

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digisign
It's one or two bucks for a very large hand-scooped ice cream, compared to ~$6
at a parlor. I'm not sure what you two are expecting--any less and they might
as well be giving it for free. Also they're at all the RAs I've been to in
SoCal.

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n0us
I did always love Rite Aid though Walgreens is good as well. CVS is the only
one of that type of store that I routinely avoid. I wonder if Rite Aid and
Walgreens will follow suit in not selling cigarettes anymore.

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greggman
Yes CVS sucks. I can't put my finger on why exactly. It just feels cheap. Like
the paper bags they give me (which I have to pay for directly in California)
are so thin as to be nearly unusable. They're like barely thicker than tissue
paper making them not reusable.

I don't know if that's the only issue that set me off on CVS.

Walgreen annoyed me because they started replacing everything with their
"NICE" brand which is about the lowest quality possible. That displaced brands
of various things that were higher quality. I can't remember what I bought.
Might have been cotton swabs (ie q-tips) because they stopped carrying q-tips
and they were basically unusable. Plastic sticks that broke. Sticks that poked
through the cotton.

I can only hope enough people care to either vote with their wallet or
complain (I sent them a letter in the hopes to have some influence).

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davidf18
Duane Reade has "NICE" brand as well now.

CVS is good for busy NYCers because of self-checkout. Really fast, no lines
which is great. None of the other pharmacies have self-checkout and never hire
enough clerks during the busy hours when people have time to go.

