plight of the pharmacists

Like a missionary on his first tour through a cambodian sweatshop, I was horrified to see the injustices piled upon my dear pharmacologist during my most recent routine pill up. The local Kmart is my pharm of choice which, seeing as everyone including myself seems to remember it going out of business, must be located somewhere in the southwest corner of the twilight zone. This, however, does not excuse their mistreatment of what I assume to be the most skilled and educated segment of their retail workforce.

They require them to check people out, at the counter. A courtesy policy allowing you to purchase a few small things with your prescriptions seems very reasonable, but what exists is far more sinister. I waited in line while the girl in front of me checked out an entire cart’s worth of goods. This took an eternity, considering each item had to be passed back and forth through the window (she was also on her cellphone, but that rant has been beaten to death.) Wasting my time is not something I look kindly on, but frankly my time currently has very little monetary value, for a pharmacist, this is not so. I presumed they did not work through school just to spend their days as a barcode jockey. When I inquired, this suspicion was confirmed. They offered me the corporate number, and now I am running with the cause. Pursuing it further, however, would require the unlikely combination of remembering and staying interested, but today I care.

This isn’t the first policy from the zombie retail giant I have taken issue with. Most notably their waistist lack of clothing in my size which I brought to their attention (despite my earnestness, I couldn’t convince customer service to take my complaint seriously). With the deck stacking up against them, I might be inclined to swear off blue light specials forever…if there was anywhere else to go.