This is just so wrong on a human decency level.
I understand that the woman bears a lot of the responsibility for what happened here. Someone with her condition should carry an inhaler, even two!, at all times.
And I also understand that a company needs to make money and can't be giving discounts to everyone.
This, however, was a special case. She was ONE measly dollar short for pete's sake. She was in severe distress and could have died. At some point, rules have to be broken and human decency has to take over.
Either way, that stupid dollar bought this company the WORST publicity ever. What a bunch of idiots.
Was it the counter help up front they were pestering, or the pharmacists back in the pharmacy area?
That would make a difference in my opinion as to whether or not the employees did anything wrong.
,Exactly. Whether or not a particular individual backs the pharmacy's actions in this case, CVS has just shot itself in the foot on a grand scale.
I know I won't shop thereany time soonever. It's clear I'm not alone in this sentiment.
Good job, CVS / employees! :thumbs:
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So you're going to hose over thousands of great & hardworking innocent CVS employees nationwide because one clerk made a bad call. That's nice. Hopefully all those unrelated meanies will suffer from the loss of business, lose their jobs and their kids won't get new bikes for Christmas. :wow:
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So you're going to hose over thousands of great & hardworking innocent CVS employees nationwide because one clerk made a bad call. That's nice. Hopefully all those unrelated meanies will suffer from the loss of business, lose their jobs and their kids won't get new bikes for Christmas. :wow:
CVS will pay record fine over sale of drug
The nation's largest pharmacy chain will pay a record fine for illegally selling large amounts of a key methamphetamine ingredient to criminal traffickers, a problem that prosecutors say led to a surge in production of the widely abused drug in California.
CVS Pharmacy Inc. agreed to pay a $75-million fine and forfeit $2.6 million in profits on the unlawful sales of pseudoephedrine in California and Nevada in 2007 and 2008, according to federal prosecutors based in Los Angeles.
The company admitted that CVS stores in California, Nevada and 23 other states were vulnerable for more than a year to criminals who bought enough PSE through repeated purchases to make methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant abused in epidemic proportions and linked to violence and other crimes.
CVS blamed the problem on the flawed implementation of an electronic monitoring system that was supposed to guard against excessive purchases. [Yeah, riiiiiight.]
In an effort to curb the production of methamphetamine, the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 required retailers to store PSE products behind the counter, check purchasers' identifications and limit sales to the equivalent of one package a day and three a month. Customers also had to sign for each purchase.
Prosecutors said the company fixed the problem only after discovering that the government had opened an investigation. "CVS's flagrant violation" made the company "a direct link in the methamphetamine supply chain," said Michele M. Leonhart, acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Meth makers targeted CVS stores, especially in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas, sometimes "cleaning out store shelves," according to a news release announcing the agreement Thursday.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Shana T. Mintz, who led negotiations with CVS on behalf of the government, said that from September 2007 through November 2008, CVS sold more generic pseudoephedrine in Southern California stores than in their stores in the rest of the country combined.
Mintz said investigators found many CVS customers who made up to a dozen purchases in a single store in one day. One customer made 10 transactions in 53 minutes at a CVS in Huntington Park, she said.
Was this employee an ass for not giving her the inhaler when she was having an attack and the boyfriend was willing to give collateral for a dollar? Yes he was and if I was a manager I would have a brief chat that it is OK to be a dollar short when a woman is having an attack right there.
Are the other customers wrong for not helping out with a dollar? Hell yes! It is a dollar and the woman obviously needs the inhaler so just be a good sport and give them one. Hell I have paid for homeless men and women's dinner before.
Will I stop going to CVS because of this one employee? Hell no.
As was pointed out, you probably need a prescription for one, and dispensing prescription medications without a prescription is against the law.
EXTREMELY against the law.
I doubt it was a matter of a dollar.
I would've probably called an ambulance, in this clerk's position.
If the woman had died waiting for it (unlikely), I would've felt bad, but I still wouldn't have regretted my decision, which would've been the right one at the time.
Responsible asthmatics keep their emergency inhalers full and on hand.
I shop at Walgreen's.
There are legitimate arguments for both sides. I don't blame CVS because it's probably corporate policy to sell things for x and expect x payment for it. Corporations do not operate as humanistic entities.
Having said that, if the clerk, a bystander, or someone else couldn't help out to the tune of a buck or let something slide then that's a real bummer.
Conversely, I've also been heckled by people at gas stations who claim they didn't have enough gas and are in dire straits if they can't get a few bucks of your gas. They'll even promise to pay you, a complete stranger, back.
This is not a case of right or wrong. It's a strict judgment call.
:lamo Riiight. Thousands of CVS employees are going to be fired and their kids won't have Christmas this year because I won't shop there. :lamo
I don't like Big Pharma one bit. Nor do I give a rip about its CVS minions. Why should I care about them when they clearly don't care about me/their customers? For them, it's all about the holy greenback.
The fact is, the whole of society would be better off today if CVS had been shut down when they first started breaking the law in 2005.
Should CVS Have Sold $21 Inhaler To Asthma Sufferer Who Only Had $20? - The Consumerist
Is profitability so important that CVS did the right thing here?
And then the district attorney could ask you why, if you know you have asthma, didn't you carry an inhaler with you if you knew you're susceptible to asthma attacks. Individuals should be responsible with their health and have the foresight to carry their medications with them if they can have an attack at any moment. That is not the responsibility of a private pharmacy business.
Having worked retail and restaurants, I have to comment that the cashier shouldn't be blamed for this either. In every restaurant and retail store I've worked in that if your drawer comes up a dollar short that you can be terminated for it. Add in the fact, that the job the cashier works is minimum wage. It's hard to pay bills and have any money left over to help someone else. The entire story reeks of sensationalism just to paint CVS as the bad guy.
One thing to note, some inhalers have chemicals in them used to make meth, if I'm not mistaken.
They use to sell a variety that could, but I believe they discontinued it. They weren't inhalers for asthma.
If you were the manager of a CVS, and you had someone in your pharmacy who could die if not for a $1, then would you or would you not simply take it out of your own wallet? This is a matter of simple human decency. I don't give a crap about CVS, the people who were working at this pharmacy were heartless.
They use to sell a variety that could, but I believe they discontinued it. They weren't inhalers for asthma.
First of all you, said it wasn't just you chosing to boycott. If you really feel you won't make any impact, then your boycott is pointless other than making yourself feel good.
I am not kidding, my son just said the same thing to me. We're on way to a farm stand that I avoided for a year because I was pissed at the owner. My son just told me I was only hurting myself during that year. :lol:
As someone said CVS is a business and not a charitable organization. As far as the manager, I would have but at then we don't know exactly what the business situation was like. I've seen managers take up to 10 minutes to respond to a customer's needs due to them being busy and short staffed.
1. Apparently, you believe I have some sort of monolithic power over where other people shop. :screwy I assure you, I don't.
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