You have heard of food deserts. Welcome to pharmacy deserts.

[MillCreek]

https://khn.org/news/article/last-drugstore-how-rural-communities-lose-independent-pharmacies/

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/large-parts-of-rural-america-are-becoming-drugstore-deserts-these-small-towns-found-an-escape/

Once the big box stores move in and then move out, there are no independent pharmacies left in the small towns, and you end up driving to get the antibiotics for your kid with an ear infection.

[MechAg94]

I imagine it would be pretty difficult for a pharmacist at a big store to quit and go open a small, independent pharmacy somewhere.  Aside from govt regulations they would have to set up systems to talk to all the private, semi-private, and govt insurance carriers.  I am sure I don't know all the stuff they would have to do.

[French G.]

Our rural health clinic has a very good pharmacy. This is no story we drive for everything.  I will wait for the urban pharmacy desert screaming which will be blamed on corporations and just enough in the future that we forget the pharmacies all left due to unchecked crime.

[Ben]

We actually have a small pharmacy in the pop ~1800 town near me. It seems to keep busy and I'm sure is great for older and other people who can't or don't want to drive a longer distance.

That said, as French mentioned, most rural people have to drive farther for other stuff anyway. If I need a prescription, I just get it when I make my Costco trip into the city.

Somewhat related, we had a little "field office" of one of the larger medical groups in Idaho in town here (fulltime PA, Doctor showed up a couple of days a week), but they closed last year and moved to the next little town over, about 30 minutes away. I went to them for my physicals when they were in town, but now that it's a 30 minute drive, I just drive an extra 15min to go to one of their larger medical centers in the closest city where more stuff is available.

[HankB]

I live in a nice, low-crime suburb and have multiple pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, grocery store and department store pharmacies, etc.) just a short drive away.

But when reading the title of this thread, my first thought mirrored what French G. wrote - just wait for the howling to begin in areas where high crime has proven to be a strong incentive for pharmacies to move out. (The usual suspects will tie this to white supremacy, racism, and of course, Trump.)

[Fly320s]

I live in a nice, low-crime suburb and have multiple pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, grocery store and department store pharmacies, etc.) just a short drive away.

But when reading the title of this thread, my first thought mirrored what French G. wrote - just wait for the howling to begin in areas where high crime has proven to be a strong incentive for pharmacies to move out. (The usual suspects will tie this to white supremacy, racism, and of course, Trump.)

I've seen the result of crime in San Francisco.  There are several Walgreens, RiteAids, etc. in the downtown area that have closed because of crime.

[WLJ]

Worked at a Convenient store back in the 80s. Shop lifting was an occasional problem but nothing serious, usually nothing more than the occasional HS student trying to steal a candy bar here and there when school let out. At one of our sister stores, in a certain part of town, it was reported that up to 1 out of 3 items leaving the store was shoplifted.

[K Frame]

I've seen the result of crime in San Francisco.  There are several Walgreens, RiteAids, etc. in the downtown area that have closed because of crime.

Yep, happening in a bunch of cities with more than just pharmacies -- grocery stores, restaurants, banks...

And, invariably when it happens, it becomes not an issue of crime driving them out, but racism and refusal to serve underserved communities.

Sure.

[230RN]

I just discovered my Health Insurance-linked pharmacy can mail my Rx to my POB.  Just got my first one yesterday, no problems.

[MechAg94]

Worked at a Convenient store back in the 80s. Shop lifting was an occasional problem but nothing serious, usually nothing more than the occasional HS student trying to steal a candy bar here and there when school let out. At one of our sister stores, in a certain part of town, it was reported that up to 1 out of 3 items leaving the store was shoplifted.

There is one convenience store in my smaller city that has signs up about kids coming in.  I think they won't let groups in or won't let them in with backpacks.  Too hard to keep track of them and theft was a problem.  There are a couple of apartment complexes across the street and school buses drop a bunch of kids off at certain times of the day.

[K Frame]

I've seen signs like that for years, even back in the 1980s when I was in school.

If you've ever seen Hot Fuzz, the Pegg and Frost movie, there's a sign of a similar nature in the one shop... and that movie is set in Britain.

[HankB]

I've seen the result of crime in San Francisco.  There are several Walgreens, RiteAids, etc. in the downtown area that have closed because of crime.

I grew up in Chicago and saw stores close because of crime - long BEFORE groups like Antifa and BLM formed.

In one case it was a Sears store (many years before Eddie Lampert became CEO) that closed. Sears was still a retail force to be reckoned with then, so when they announced the closing, none other than Jesse Jackson began mouthing off about how Sears didn't want to serve "his people." (FWIW, my parents took me to this Sears store many times when I was a youngster - nobody would mistake us for Jesse's people.) A Sears spokesman with some intestinal fortitude told Jesse something along the lines of "Well, if this store is serving YOUR people, tell YOUR people to stop shoplifting, robbing our customers, and stealing cars from our parking lot."

[cordex]

Once the big box stores move in and then move out, there are no independent pharmacies left in the small towns, and you end up driving to get the antibiotics for your kid with an ear infection.

Even if they hadn't been driven out of business by the big box stores, I don't think that small, independent pharmacies are any more likely to survive the conditions which cause the big box stores to run away.  If anything I'd expect them to be more sensitive to losses.

Twenty or thirty (or maybe sixty) years ago you might have made the argument that the local shops would be more connected to the community and would thus be less likely to suffer shoplifting, robbery, etc. to the degree that causes major chains to move out.  Given what we've seen in the past few years I think you'd be hard pressed to make that argument today.

[MillCreek]

On our health plan, there are financial incentives for us to get our maintenance meds via the Kroger mail order pharmacy in Portland.  So my wife and I get our statins, etc. every 90 days in the mail.  We only go to the local pharmacies if our doctor has written a one-time script for antibiotics for a UTI or similar.  Within a five mile radius of our home, I can think of (2 Safeway, 1 Wal-Mart, 1 Rite Aid, and three independent) seven drugstores, and they all seem busy enough for a metropolitan area of 20,000.

[Larry Ashcraft]

Yep, happening in a bunch of cities with more than just pharmacies -- grocery stores, restaurants, banks...

And, invariably when it happens, it becomes not an issue of crime driving them out, but racism and refusal to serve underserved communities.

Sure.

Yep.  We had a Safeway store on the lower east side that closed because of shoplifting (and robberies in the parking lot).  The people living there are still clamoring for someone else to come in and open it. Not going to happen.

[Bogie]

The manager at my local CVS (about two blocks) said that he is pretty sure that their video system will go down if someone clubs a shoplifter...

In other news, the local QuikTrip gas station said that sumdood wheeled in a dolly, and took out 30 cases of Red Bull one night. And they routinely lose 10-20 cases of beer on a weekend evening. They just pick it up and walk out.

I still other news, I'm working on a cane that will have a pool ball for a handle, and will be made of solid 3/4" aluminum.