I love going to pharmacy-marts like CVS, Walgreens, and Osco. Especially late at night. I wander the fluorescent aisles, inspect the goods, and peer at myself through the ceiling mirrors the cashiers use to make sure that I am not shoplifting. Aside from the drugs behind the counter (We hope!) everything there is cheaply made yet pricier than it would be at the mart-mart. But the vibe is somehow different. More five-and-dime-convenience, less box store.
There is the disgruntled sleepy cashier and the elderly woman with her coupon booklet carefully ripping out each store coupon for each item in her cart and sharply watching for the item by item discount. There are the teenagers or college kids trying to buy beer with a fake ID. There are people trying to look nondescript as they buy "unmentionables," folks who need meds (some of them badly), folks who can't sleep, folks with problems that need solving - the kinds of problems that can be solved with an ace bandage, an anti-fungal ointment, a pad to cushion a painful bunion, a nose hair trimmer.
I take comfort in walking through those aisles and seeing the solution to so many of life's little problems in one place. (Some of the bigger health related ones too.)
If only Walgreens had aisles that carried solutions to the big problems.
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