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elfsOmaha and I got a surprise letter this weekend, announcing that our local, independent pharmacy, Manhattan Drugs, was going out of business. The letter was from the corporate grocer chain Safeway, informing us that the Safeway, 3 miles north of us, would be taking over their pharmacy records unless we elected to have them sent elsewhere. Safeway would, of course, be happy to have our business, and here's three $25 coupons for our next three drug purchases from their pharmacy.
I went over to Manhattan and talked to some of the women behind the counter. The landlord who owns the property has been raising the rates on everyone. It's pretty well acknowledge that he raised rates deliberately to drive the Dairy Queen out of business. The video store probably closed of its own accord. The florist shop closed up, too, when the corporate chain grocery store QFC (that I use all the time) started selling flowers "good enough" for most occasions. The teriyaki place is holding on by its fingernails.
The pharmacist, a nice older gentleman, had apparently negotiated with Safeway to make the move when he decided to close the business, and then sprang it on everyone last Monday. The pharmacy goes, the extra staff is, like myself, now without work.
There's been a sign up for years announcing that the strip here is going to be demolished and gentrified, with QFC and the new chain daycare center as anchors. I guess this is another step in that process. I wonder what the Starbucks will do.
This frustrates Omaha and I. It used to be that when we needed medicines, we could walk. Now, like everything else, our neighborhood's walkability has plummeted, trashed until a replacement comes in, because one of the major draws in this neighborhood, an independent local pharmacist, is gone.
I went over to Manhattan and talked to some of the women behind the counter. The landlord who owns the property has been raising the rates on everyone. It's pretty well acknowledge that he raised rates deliberately to drive the Dairy Queen out of business. The video store probably closed of its own accord. The florist shop closed up, too, when the corporate chain grocery store QFC (that I use all the time) started selling flowers "good enough" for most occasions. The teriyaki place is holding on by its fingernails.
The pharmacist, a nice older gentleman, had apparently negotiated with Safeway to make the move when he decided to close the business, and then sprang it on everyone last Monday. The pharmacy goes, the extra staff is, like myself, now without work.
There's been a sign up for years announcing that the strip here is going to be demolished and gentrified, with QFC and the new chain daycare center as anchors. I guess this is another step in that process. I wonder what the Starbucks will do.
This frustrates Omaha and I. It used to be that when we needed medicines, we could walk. Now, like everything else, our neighborhood's walkability has plummeted, trashed until a replacement comes in, because one of the major draws in this neighborhood, an independent local pharmacist, is gone.
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Date: 2009-05-04 08:40 pm (UTC)I used to use an independent pharmacy that gave me the senior citizens discount when I burst into tears on hearing the cost of a prescription for my elderly cat. I had just been laid off, and money was tight. That pharmacy went out of business when a CVS located down the block. Would CVS (or Safeway) give a cat the senior citizens discount?
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Date: 2009-05-04 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-04 09:50 pm (UTC)Reminds me of astroworld. That's the theme park we had here in Houston. It's gone now. Parent company Six Flags decided that they could make more money tearing it all down and selling the land for condos, since it was right by loop 610 and downtown - prime real estate. So they leveled it all about 1.5 years ago.
And nothing has been built there in it's place. It's big empty fields that Six Flags still has to pay taxes on, but can't sell because surprise, nobody is willing to actually pay them what their exaggerated predictions thought they could make from it. So they killed a profit maker for nothing.