OUR BITTER PILL
New York Post Editorial
By STEPHANIE GASKELL and ANDY SOLTIS
October 20, 2006 -- Wal-Mart will be selling prescription drugs for just $4 - but not in New York City, where opposition to the world's largest retailer has kept it from opening its first branch.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said yesterday it was expanding a pilot program of selling a 30-day supply of 143 drug compounds in varying dosages for $4.
The discount effort was launched in Tampa last month, then for all of Florida, and now will be extended to 14 more states, including New York and New Jersey, officials said.
But the company, which has stores in New York's suburbs, has not been able to overcome fierce opposition by community groups and political activists in the city.
A plan to open a 132,000-square-foot store in Rego Park, Queens, was dropped last year.
Wal-Mart said it hoped to make the discounting available in all of its 3,900 stores by the end of the year.
When it launched the program in Florida, Wal-Mart cut the price of some drugs by more than $10 for a 30-day supply.
The company said it filled 88,235 new prescriptions in the first 10 days it was offered in Florida.
Some Florida customers hugged their pharmacists, Tony Nation, Wal-Mart regional pharmacy manager for Arkansas and Missouri, said yesterday.
"No one company, no one group can solve the problems facing our health-care costs," Nation said. "But this program is a start."
Wal-Mart's new policy comes as it tries to offset criticism from unions and Democrats of the pay and benefits for its 1.3 million nonunion U.S. employees. That criticism helped keep the chain out of the Apple.
City Councilman David Weprin said yesterday he would consider allowing Wal-Mart into the city if they "played by our rules."
"If they're paying their workers less, they can keep their costs down - for the wrong reasons, though," said Weprin (D-Queens), chair of the council's Finance Committee. "At the same time, I can't tell people not to search for the lowest price."
Another councilman, Democrat Michael McMahon of Staten Island, said of the discounting, "It just shows that prescription drugs are very expensive and can be cheaper."
Critics said the plan covers only a fraction of a prescription-drug market that includes about 8,700 generics approved by the FDA.
"This is a public-relations stunt meant to drive foot traffic. Most people will find their prescriptions do not fall under the $4 plan," said Charlie Sewell of the National Community Pharmacists Association, which represents about 24,000 nonchain pharmacies. With Post Wire Services |
