Obviously, this is a supermarket blog. But sometimes something else catches my attention and I decide to post that as well. About 25 miles west of Tampa, in a small coastal town called Indian Rocks Beach, I saw something that I had never seen before. And that was this.
It's a CVS. Not a CVS/pharmacy, but just a CVS. As in, a CVS drugstore without a counter for prescriptions.
Just CVS. No pharmacy.
The logo looks very lonely up there with no other words to keep it company, don't you think? And inside, where the pharmacy should be, there is just general merchandise shelves.
Now, I'd heard about these non-pharmacy pharmacies before, but I'd never seen one in person. I don't know exactly why this store doesn't have a pharmacy counter, nor do I know if it ever did. But presumably zoning regulations or the like prevented CVS from installing a service prescription department. Does anyone know of any other big-chain drugstores without prescription counters? This CVS is located at 353 Gulf Blvd, Indian Rocks Beach, FL.
Wow, pretty interesting find! I have to wonder just how many of these (and their Walgreens and Rite Aid counterparts, if any exist) are out there...
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, I don't think there are many. I remember reading about a few Rite Aids with no pharmacy counters on Josh Austin's Flickr photostream, but I think they may all be closed or replaced by now. I don't think there are many out there!
DeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteOdd... This CVS does not have a pharmacy, but sells wine and beer (according to the Google Street View). There's a Corona sign in the windows.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, one time when I was in Manhattan I went to a Duane Reade without a prescription counter... it's an odd thing to see a Pharmacy brand have no pharmacy!
Yeah! I wonder why -- as I mentioned, it's got to do with the permits or zoning, right? Wouldn't a prescription counter make up for a good chunk of the store's sales volume? I guess many modern chain drugstores don't just rely on that, though.
DeleteWe've had several CVS stores without pharmacies over the years up here in the Albany NY area, but as far as I can remember all of them were inside of malls.
ReplyDeleteSome were always that way, and others had pharmacies at one time and then removed them.
It makes sense in that case, though, as people are probably not as likely to want to deal with traffic in a mall parking lot just to go in and get a prescription, and also that some of them were in locations only accessible inside the mall which likely would restrict when they could be open as well.
In those cases, they were more for the convenience of those already shopping the mall and needing to pick up something and/or for employees of the mall to do the same.
Not sure if they still do or not (since most of these stores are no longer around, many having been in malls that also no longer exist) but they even had their bags printed with just CVS, rather than CVS/Pharmacy like the sign you see here. While it makes sense on the sign (so people know not to expect a pharmacy inside) it seemed a bit less logical on the bags.
Very interesting, thanks for the background!
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