A Mommy Blog About Raising Men, Not Boys.
RSS

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Two Moments of Rage at Walmart

I've been remiss in posting this past week - we hopped off on a little family vacation and I've been enmeshed in enjoying my family more than being digitally attached. So I'm a little behind in reading you and obviously I haven't had anything to say.
However, I went to WalMart today and came home with lots of things to say......most of them angry.
I think I was in a cranky mood because I went to pick up some contacts and the vision center was closed. Then I went to the Pharmacy to pick up my Albuterol. After standing in line behind a Walmart employee WITHOUT HER LITTLE ID CARD and who no manager on duty seemed to know despite the number of them that were called over to identify her, for 20 minutes until someone DID recognize her that I learned that ALBUTEROL IS NO MORE in it's current form.
Because all of us asthmatics were tearing giant continent sized holes in the ozone because of the CFCs in our metered doses. All you fuckers who drive one block to go the grocery store and keep the AC on in your car all the time - sitting at the bank, in the drive throughs, etc etc etc you weren't having any effect at all I'm sure......and I'm sure that pharmaceutical companies aren't at all interested in the AWESOME sales increases that they are going to see now that they are getting to produce BRAND NAME NEW DRUGS and not have to take the loss on the generics that everyone was getting for $4 at Walmart. AWESOME. No special interest funding this change I'm sure. Especially those of us without health insurance - that won't be able to AFFORD the new brand name I'm sure. I am so freaking ANGRY about this. It's so blatantly just about the money. The TINY bit of CFC in our metered doses wasn't doing shit. And all you pharmaceutical company bastards know it.

So I'm standing in line at the Walmart, reduced to realizing that THIS is what terror is......not being able to afford the medicine you need to BREATHE. And that way too many people live this way all the time. I guess I'll stay off the inhaler I HAVE as much as possible - try not to get winded.....try not to be around strong odors and hope.......that I have medicine with me if something turns my lungs spongy and tight.

Then I putz around trying to shake off the impending tears of rage, pick up a few things here and there and while standing in the check out line I'm reduced to another fit of rage......but this one truly just baffled me. It is, without a doubt, the single most offensive to women magazine cover I've ever seen. What schizophrenic put this together?



Let me see if I got this right........these two lost a bunch of weight, here are some brownies you can make, fight the belly fat but it's okay to be a couch potato? Are there MORE conflicting messages you can send? So you're tantalizing the fatties with those delicious brownies on the front but also appealing to their FAT GUILT by putting all the weightloss crap on the cover. What a load of shit.
I bought the magazine to scan the cover but seriously, I hated giving these fuckers any of my money.

But I might make the brownies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually it really was all about the CFCs, not about making more money. A lot of people are pissed about this, believe me. The $4 generics program has nothing at all to do with the albuterol situation. The CFC albuterol going off the market was known for over a year, the $4 generics program was implemented just a few months ago. (Something the major pharmacy chains are refusing to follow) Warrick doesn't have that many products anyway so it's not like they're willing to lose money on the albuterol and make up for it on a higher branded item. People are switching to Albuterol HFAs and Xopenex, which are made by Ivax and Sepracor, respectively.

By the way, you still may be able to find the old Albuterol Inhalers if you shop around. I work for a distributor and I know many pharmacies are still able to get it from their wholesalers.

Gidge said...

You know, I don't actually BELIEVE the 4 dollar program drove them to make the change, I'm not impaired.

However, it is REMARKABLY convenient that now they're getting NAME BRAND PRICE out of the same old drug......just with an ingredient change so that it is propelled out of the canister differently.

Which is obviously complete bullshit. The DRUG didn't change,the propulsion ingredient did. That would be the equivalent of charging name brand price for a generice birth control pill because you change the plastic on the bubble pack it's contained in and now you have to rip it out instead of pop it out.

Whatever, I guess I'll just drop dead one of these days when my inhaler runs out.