There were literally store employees handing out water bottles to people waiting in line.
Mainly it’s the general pharmacist/pharmacy tech shortage, as others have noted, plus a substantial rise in housing costs the last few years that means if you’re not making a big tech salary you can’t afford to live in town.
But hey, me switching to Amazon Pharmacy eases some of the burden.
Huh, i missed that you waited in line 45 minutes. I’ve been told, “this will take a while, come back in 2 hours”, but I’ve never had to wait terribly long to talk to a pharmacist, and I’ve never been in a situation where it would be problematic to others to say, “I’d really like a 90 day supply”.
I’ve had good luck with GoodRx. I have a 'scrip that’s $318/mo sans insurance, $70 with insurance. GoodRx directed me to a local Safeway pharmacy where it was $8/mo sans insurance using their coupon.
How does GoodRx make money? What are they?
Re-examining my med with GoodRX shows an even better price. I don’t have to deal with this until about September, when my current 90 day supply runs out, so it’s good we’re sharing experiences. It looks like a combination of GoodRX and Rite-Aid gives me the best price of all. I’ll get it all worked out eventually.
Years of experience here using GoodRx to get cheapest prescriptions. One tip:
Just before you fill a script check GoodRx for the best price and which pharmacy currently that best price is at. I’ve had scripts juggle back and forth on cheapest from one fill to the next. One fill it’s at my grocery store pharmacy, next time it’s cheaper at Costco. Not every medication or every time, but often enough to check it the day of or a day or two before filling.
I used GoodRx once after a pharmacy screw up that caused an expensive med to apply ahead of one that I was getting assistance for, thus screwing up my deductible. It’s a long story. But the upshot was, I paid for the GoodRx membership, and then found out that the non-paid-membership plan price was cheaper, which was really weird (and I think their website ven implied it would be chaper with the paid membership, so a little deceptive). So I asked for a refund and got it. So the paid membership isn’t always markedly better than the free one. Check prices using both.