nabeepchen

I never gave much thought to Walgreens, other than its name which sounds similar to my arch-enemy WalMart. I’ve never seen a Walgreens in Seattle, so I don’t know if they exist here, but they are all over the place in Florida, where my parents are.

But here’s a tidbit of news about Walgreens, and pay close attention if you use prescription drugs because this applies to you. If you fill your scripts at Walgreens, you might want to consider another pharmacy.

From Boing Boing:

Walgreens marks up generics by 975%

On the Freakonomics blog, Stephen Dubner (co-author of the wonderful Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything) digs into the pricing on generic drugs and finds that the main-street pharmacies mark up their offerings by 975 percent!

Even once you factor in the cost of buying a membership at Costco and Sam’s Club, the price differences were astounding. Here are the prices he found at Houston stores for 90 tablets of generic Prozac:

Walgreens: $117

Eckerd: $115

CVS: $115

Sam’s Club: $15

Costco: $12

Those aren’t typos. Walgreens charges $117 for a bottle of the same pills for which Costco charges $12.

Isn’t that great to know, how WalM