A Walgreens Incident
BFB member journogrrl sent in her experience at a Walgreens, and I had to share it.
I got a prescription filled at Walgreens today. Along with the medication, I also bought a huge bottle of water and (gasp!) a pack of Ho-Ho's (two rolls). The pharmacist (head of the dept., btw) TRIED TO TALK ME OUT OF BUYING THE HO-HO's. At first she refused to ring them up, and then said: "You're just being counteractive. These are empty calories. You should have a hard-boiled egg instead."
I replied, "I haven't eaten since yesterday morning, and you don't exactly sell healthy alternatives here."
She continued her lecture, saying, "You are just hurting yourself." I smirked and said, "Thanks for the tip."
WHO is this woman to judge me (or my purchases)? Would she have made these comments to a "thin" person?
I tried to find an 800 number for customer service, but of course one does not exist. So I called the store's manager, angrily told him what happened, and then said I will tell everyone I know not to patronize Walgreens. I also pointed out that as long as my money is being spent at his store, what the heck does anyone care what I'm buying?
He wanted to know what he could do to get me to return as a customer. "Tell your pharmacists to keep their mouths shut," I said.
This is the same company that wouldn't fill a woman's birth control prescription because a pharmacist said that emergency contraception "kills babies." If these people are so morally superior to consumers' needs for medication, they should re-think their occupation and stop their intolerant, unacceptable discrimination.
If anyone has some solid contact info, or has had a similar experience, please share. Thanks!
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Posted by paul on April 20, 2005| cynorita |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
from google:
Walgreens is a
from google:
Walgreens is a major pharmacy and has stores in most of the US states.
Website: www.walgreens.com
Toll Free Customer Service:
1 (800) WALGREENS
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| KHurley |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
Oh, wow. You'd think they
Oh, wow. You'd think they were behind a pulpit, not working in "customer service."
With all this talk of "pharmacists' rights" - *I* want to know "What about my right to some frickin' privacy?"
Wow. Makes sense, though: if they're allowed to give you lectures on whether or not you can have access to medication that prevents pregnancy, why can't they give you lectures on what you put into your body?
What's happening to privacy and individual rights?
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| samus |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
Find out the pharmacists
Find out the pharmacists name, report her odd behavior to her licensing board. Sometimes (this is rare) they start sampling all those wonderful medications-if she's doing that, she needs to be stopped before she makes a fatal error.
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| Amy8888 |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
This is ridiculous. That is
This is ridiculous. That is discrimination. Do they sell cigarettes at Walgreen's, and if so, does the clerk lecture everyone who purchases those? It's no one's business what food someone purchases, period. And at least if you eat your ho ho's in a room where other people are present, those people will not possibly develop lung cancer.
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| MyssK |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
Well this just gets my goat.
Well this just gets my goat. I already patronize local, non-chain pharmacies, and this just galvanizes the decision. Really folks - give your money to the local guys if you can find one with hours you can swing! Mine closes at 6, so sometimes I have to rush after work, but I love these people.
Oh I am just so frickin' angry at that pharmacist! I am a pharm tech and work now in medical reference, and let me tell ya - personal privacy is supposed to be paramount.
Aside from that, I am also irritated by self-righteous thin medical people. When I was sick recently I lost 5 lbs from being unable to eat for a week. I was miserable and in pain. My MIL (a nurse) and my doctor, among others, all said that it was good that I had lost 5 lbs, not in any way acknowledging that it happened because I felt like hell.
*sigh* OK.. Ranting done.
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| JeanC |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
We used to go to our local
We used to go to our local Tidyman's pharmacy for our stuff, then the pharmacist moved over to Safeway and we followed, along with most of his clients. A good pharmacist is worth their weight in gold and he has some really great staff. If he moves again, we will follow. Never once has he or his staff questioned our other purchases when we've decided to just make the one stop.
Our insurance company thru work is trying to get everyone to use the Walgren's mail order for all perscriptions, but just about everyone is refusing. We'd rather pay a couple extra dollars to buy locally, with pharmacists we can trust and KNOW our health information isn't getting sold.
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| catrandom |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
I bet this pharmacist is a
I bet this pharmacist is a general health nut; she probably annoys people regularly with her opinion on their food choices.
This hasn't happened often to me, but I've found that a cheerful refusal to understand can be useful.
"You shouldn't wear cutoff jeans/wear a two-piece swimsuit/have seconds/eat that candy bar."
"Really? Why on earth not?"
That forces people to spell out exactly what they were referring to -- and it can even lead to the occasional apology, since even many very nice people have bought into the fatphobia thing.
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| Micki |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
Maybe I'm just too
Maybe I'm just too mean-looking; I've never had anyone critize my food purchases. If they don't want people to buy junk food, they shouldn't sell it. Walgreen's sells cigarettes, beer, and wine. Do the cashiers lectures customers about those purchases too? I would have thrown the stuff on the counter and told her to shove it.
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| Panthera |
April 20th, 2005 | Link |
I think the best to have
I think the best to have done was open the box right there and gobble one down. As long as you pay for it, they'll let you consume things in the store, especially if you're diabetic and HAVE to eat something right then and there like my mother has done numerous times. Then you just offer one up to the pharmicist and mention that she could use the calories.
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| wednes |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
I tend to go with the
I tend to go with the bemused ignorance also.
But once a waiter in a restuarant asked me if I was "sure" I wanted dessert. Happily my date said "Actually, now we'd like to speak with your boss."
Ching Ching! Free dinner.
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| EmilyH |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
Argh. IMHO, people should
Argh. IMHO, people should not take jobs where they know they will have to do something against their beliefs, whatever that may be. I mean, if that lady is obviously that much of a fat-phobic extremist, maybe she ought to go work for Weight Watchers. I'm sure they'd be happy to hire someone like that.
I personally wouldn't take a job if it went against something I believed very strongly in, no matter how desperate I was for a job. I would work in a fast food place first (and I absolutely hate that type of work).
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| jportnick |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
I was at Walgreens in
I was at Walgreens in December awaiting several prescriptions to be filled. My husband had just fractured his elbow and we were picking up his meds. While we were waiting we opened a bag of Lay's Dill Pickle potato chips and the pharmacist made some comment like, why don't you eat pickles because they have fewer calories? I shrugged it off but did wonder if her comment had anything to do with my size. Would she have made the same comment to a thin person?
I guess I'll never know.
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| kodiac |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
i used to work for walgreens
i used to work for walgreens and while i didn't particularly love working for them, as an entity they're only vaguely worse than any other store as far as obsessing over weight loss (although they do have an insane amount of low carb junk and the hollywood diet, which I once tried to get a customer to not purchase!) but i mean, i would go after that particular employee, although i totally agree that birth control thing is a bunch of bull too.
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| MichMurphy |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
This is really immature, but
This is really immature, but so am I.
If that pharmacist said, "You're just hurting yourself" to me, I'd be tempted to leap over that counter and be all, "Who's hurting now, bitch?"
Of course I really wouldn't, but that's what I would do if I was super cool and in movies like Steven Seagal.
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| kylie |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
I can't believe there really
I can't believe there really are people like this. Didn't their mother ever teach them manners? I would have been demanding to talk to the manager there and then. >={
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| ajoyce |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
Somehow I doubt they'd ever
Somehow I doubt they'd ever dare say anything to a man about anything he bought in the pharmacy, up to and including Viagra.
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| asrai |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
Actually, the refusal of
Actually, the refusal of birth control pills has happened at all of the major pharmacies. Pharmacists are trying to get protection of conscience clauses written into law so they don't have to sell them. IIRC, Walgreens is actually the only one of the majors who will fire employees for refusal.
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| fatthought |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
Man oh man..woman oh
Man oh man..woman oh woman..some things never change. Plus ca change, plus ca reste le meme. And yeah, I mean Walgreen's!
In 1988, I was preparing to take a plane to Chicago to spend a night with someone I was crazy about. I had a hunch that the night would involve more than, er, cuddling. So I figured I'd better purchase a few condoms in case the guy had not equipped himself.
In this Walgreen's, two of the male employees who happened to see me checking out the various brands of condoms said to each other, "Oh come on, she really thinks she's going to get lucky?"
I wanted to but did not respond, "Luckier than you two, by far."
From what I can see now, Walgreen's may have this long tradition of harassment. Or maybe not. But I am taking my informed fat person's dollars and spending them elsewhere from now on.
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| Dolley |
April 21st, 2005 | Link |
Hmmmmm. If a Walgreen's
Hmmmmm. If a Walgreen's pharmacist (or any other pharmacist, for that matter) tried to refuse me a form of emergency contraception on the grounds that it "kills babies," I would have to say to him or her, "Yes. That's the idea. Why, are you proposing to raise all the unwanted progeny of your customers? Or do you just hope that they'll get dumped on the state, so they can grow up unwanted and abused, so tormented and tortured that some day they'll snap and take out you and your children?"
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| Lizzy |
April 22nd, 2005 | Link |
So it's immoral to sell
So it's immoral to sell ho-hos to a large person, but there's nothing wrong with berating a person in public for their own private decisions? Many of us have suffered from self-esteem problems because of the way society treats us, is it not wrong to continue to beat us down further?
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| nwhiker |
April 22nd, 2005 | Link |
Actually, I think it should
Actually, I think it should be amoral to sell ho-hos to anyone! :-) (Yes, I'm kidding!)
As to the person who got hassled: a letter written to the chain, cc'd to the manager of the store would be my plan of attack.
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| nwhiker |
April 22nd, 2005 | Link |
Ugh. immoral, not amoral. I
Ugh. immoral, not amoral. I know better. And I hate errors like that one. They effect.. I mean affect :) me greatly.
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| FatChick |
April 22nd, 2005 | Link |
Wednes,
I LOVED your story!!
Wednes,
I LOVED your story!! I'd love to know how the conversation with his manager went.
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| quoda |
April 22nd, 2005 | Link |
I don't really like
I don't really like Walgreens as a pharmacy. There was a time when my mom was on pain medications and was seeing different doctors for pain management. Then this rude hotshot pharmacist guy refused to give her the pain medication she had been prescribed, saying that she was doctor hopping to get drugs.
Pharmacists who work at big chains like that are little more than pill counters. Some of them really need to learn how to properly work with customers and stop trying to play doctor.
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| nwhiker |
April 22nd, 2005 | Link |
Let's not bash all
Let's not bash all pharmacists, people, even the ones who work at big chains. Most of them are competant professionals who wouldn't dream of making nasty comments about ho-hos or refusing to fill birth control pills. Pharmacists save lives when they catch medication interactions that the MDs missed, or bad dosages or whatever. There are a few bad apples and in a profession where 120% accuracy is necessary, they stand out.
Quoda, a friend was also refused pain meds by the pharmacist. Unlike your mother, she did have an addiction problem and having it pointed out to her what was going on probably saved her life.
That said, the pharmacist at a local Walgreens started telling me all about the drug my "dh" was going to take, the sexual side effects, the weight gain, possible dry mouth etc when I pointed out that that it was for my cat.
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| Kat2 |
April 22nd, 2005 | Link |
Hopefully this isn't
Hopefully this isn't Walgreens, it's just one ignorant person. Shame on her for thinking your health is her business. Unless you were doing something dangerous (like taking grapefruit with certain medicines can prevent them from working), she should keep her mouth shut.
I think I've heard of some kind of legislation that if a pharmacist is morally opposed to selling the "emergency day-after" contraceptive, they can get someone else (another pharmacist) to do it, but I don't think that applies to regular birth control. Heck, I'm on birth control but I'm still a virgin... I am on it to treat my PCOS.
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| ajoyce |
April 24th, 2005 | Link |
For the record, I've never
For the record, I've never had a problem getting a scrip filled at any Walgreens, including birth control pills. Nor has anyone ever questioned my buying a soda or whatever along with my meds, and I've done so innumerable times.
Probably the reason pharmacists there don't question cigarette purchases is that the smokes are behind the regular counter, not in the pharmacy; thus the pharmacy folks don't ever see them. Otherwise you can bet the smokers would be getting a ration of shit from them too.
And up at the regular counter, the cashiers aren't going to question anything you buy, their asses would be so fired if they did. (Double standard, anyone?) If "Dr. Busybody" in pharmacy didn't want to ring up my Ho-Hos, I'd just say, "OK, fine, I'll pay for them up front," and then make sure the store manager found out all about it.
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| Laura |
April 30th, 2005 | Link |
I think I've heard of some
I think I've heard of some kind of legislation that if a pharmacist is morally opposed to selling the "emergency day-after" contraceptive, they can get someone else (another pharmacist) to do it
Yes, it's been proposed that the pharmacist must give alternatives, but I doubt that will ever see the light of day in the current political climate. The real tragedy on this one is that rape victims are routinely prescribed this medication, and there are instances of pharmacists refusing to fill their prescriptions. Don't even get me started. I think those pharmacies should be required to prominently display a sign saying "We refuse contraception to rape victims."
My suggested response to the "Ho-Ho" questioning would be a simple, "Hey, if you guys are going to sell junk, people are going to buy it!" That stuff isn't good for anyone, but I don't need the Food Police deciding when I should have a treat!
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