Wal-Mart Continues to Destroy America...

Brian Doherty | September 21, 2006

...by offering cheap generic prescription drugs to its huge customer base.

Past Reason articles that dare to question whether in fact, as most contemporary theologians seem to agree, Wal-Mart arose to Earth in a sulphurous cloud from Hell, with shelving built from the ribs of the damned, from Julian Sanchez and Nick Gillespie.

Comments

thoreau|9.21.06 @ 11:27AM|#

People who read the comments section of my blog know that Walmart is destroying America by acting as a monopoly (or is it monopsony?) provider of contaminated organic spinach.

You may be thinking that Walmart doesn't have a monopoly or monopsony or whatever in the market for organic spinach, but that's the sort of thinking that discourages lucrative lawsuits.

|9.21.06 @ 12:15PM|#

I guess the future source of all generic drugs will be China.

|9.21.06 @ 1:12PM|#

thoreau

It is my devout hope that someone will obtain a monopoly on spinach and raise the price so high that it will disappear from the marketplace.

[Die, Popeye, Die.]

|9.21.06 @ 1:19PM|#

When was the Nick G article written?

|9.21.06 @ 1:37PM|#

Most of our archive stuff is properly dated, but this one...not sure why not. From the coding, I'm guessing May 1995 issue.

|9.21.06 @ 2:59PM|#

From the Academy of Management Perspectives (http://journals.aomonline.org/amp/):

Edward Freeman, director of the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the Darden School of Business in Virginia, suggests that Wal-Mart shifts its emphasis away from "always low prices"--a strategy which generates profits for shareholders at the possible expense of employees and customers.

In case you missed it:

Edward Freeman, director of the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the Darden School of Business in Virginia, suggests that Wal-Mart shifts its emphasis away from "always low prices"--a strategy which generates profits for shareholders at the possible expense of employees and customers.

|9.21.06 @ 3:51PM|#

I'm disgusted that there are people out there that think WalMart is being bad for offering lower priced healthcare for its customers.

Yeah, we can't allow that to happen. It might do something terrible like, er, um, letting people live longer, or live in less pain, because now they can afford their meds.

|9.21.06 @ 4:36PM|#

I donno - last time I was in a Wal-mart it smelled an awful lot like Pres. Bush

|9.21.06 @ 5:52PM|#

HappyJuggler:
Usually a Walmart thread gets a lot of comments. There aren't so many here. I don't think Walmart's pharmacy prices are at issue so much. I'm a Walmart hater, but why slam them for doing something decent? Even the Walmart haters have to have a brain and concede a goddam point when warranted. Besides, Canadian imports are cheaper.

Thomas Paine's Goiter|9.21.06 @ 6:14PM|#

I love Wal-Mart. They've just made basic pharamaceutical care available for everyone. Everyone. Basic pharamaceutical care is almost a right in this country now because of Wal-Mart.

Good for Wal-Mart and fuck anyone that bashes them for this.

|9.21.06 @ 7:28PM|#

They're just encouraging the dirt people to live longer healthier lives. I cannot condone this.

Paul|9.21.06 @ 8:04PM|#

I'm a Walmart hater, but why slam them for doing something decent?

Like selling goods for as low a cost as possible? So, what, low-price drugs= good. Low-priced toys = bad?

|9.21.06 @ 10:26PM|#

I like Wal-Mart, and I give them props for this move. It's a good business move given the already low profit margin on generics, and it will help low income consumers reduce their expenditures for their prescription drugs.

That said, the "nearly 300 drugs" that Wal-Mart claims to be selling at $4/30 days supply is actually more like 90 drugs sold at multiple dosages, as the linked article mentions. It's a decent selection even still, and the sorts of drugs we prescribe to lots of patients - statins, antihypertensives, diuretics, first line antibiotics, etc. But somehow putting down 12 different doses and administration options (capsule, suspension, etc) of Amoxicillin as different "drugs" just to get the big number seems a bit disengenuous to me.

|9.21.06 @ 11:05PM|#

Good. Now Wallmart needs to have a Clinic at the front of the store next to the nail salon and optomistrist. If your kid has an ear infection or you have the flu (or the clap) you could go to Walmart and get a proscription and buy the drugs. For common problems they could bring the costs down to a point where copays and deductables become mute. Then health insurance could become real insurance in that it would protect you from overwelming and unexpected occurances.

|9.22.06 @ 1:45PM|#

Hey Paul, If I wanted a Walmart argument in this thread, I would have put in my digs. I didn't, Paul. So a big, fat F-U to you, Paul. My position on Walmart is more complicated, Paul, than your little two second opinion. I'm glad you've thought it through so thoroughly that you can use equal sign in your opinion, you know, reduced it to its mathematical simplicity. Only A-1 assholes, Paul, will take a frank concession and try to turn it into something else.

|10.29.06 @ 8:05PM|#

Don't you have anything better to do?
Why do you hate Wal*mart so much?
Did they not hire you?