| rev:text
| - Before moving to Arizona, Walgreens and Long's were the closest pharmacies to my house. I appreciated Walgreens' cosmetics selection and online photo services but found the fact that they didn't sell alcohol (even wine or beer) and put their pregnancy tests in a closed case (who are they trying to protect by making women push a help button on the glass case to buy a test?) a bit disturbing. Long's had a full selection of alcohol and didn't seem to think it necessary to sequester their pregnancy tests, but had fairly high prices for common items. When we moved to Phoenix, we found that the closest pharmacy/drugstore was CVS, so we gave it a try and have been really happy with it so far. It has a great selection of everyday items, photo services, a full section of alcoholic beverages, easily accessible pregnancy tests, a friendly staff, and really competitive prices.
Best of all, it has a rewards program (called "Extra Care") that actually saves you money and earns you real rewards. With a few exceptions, everything you buy counts toward your quarterly spending and displays on your receipt (e.g., Summer quarter spending: $75). At the end of each quarter, you receive 2% cash back on all your quarterly spending in the form of a coupon (e.g., $6 Extra Care bucks) that you can apply to any future purchase. Certain products are also attached to Extra Care promotions, allowing you to earn additional Extra Care bucks. For example, they will have a promotion where your purchase of a certain type of toothpaste earns you $2 to spend later. As a member of many rewards programs (PetsMart's "Pet Perks," BevMo's "Club Bev," etc.) that only qualify you to get "special" pricing on items in the store and/or give you some *really* small coupon after you spend a s**tload of money, I was really grateful for a program that actually rewarded me for the things we buy every day. The only thing I have to be careful about is not buying things simply because they are on sale for Extra Care members; that's an easy trap to fall into!
|