Rivers copes with these challenges through her self-proclaimed “dark sense of humor” and her knack for making people laugh. She also finds solace in supporting others who are struggling, which helps to ease her own burdens.
It can take new pharmacy locations as many as three years to build a customer base and break even, said Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds who follows the industry. That’s tough when customers also are less reliant on drugstores now than in decades past.He said shoppers buy more things online or during bigger trips to Costco or Walmart, and discount stores look even more attractive when inflation pushes up prices.
“I don’t think (consumers are) walking into the pharmacy two or three times a week and doing those little impulse buys in the front of the store as often,” Jonas said.Drugstores say they haven’t forgotten the communities left behind when a store closes. Walgreens, for instance, delivers some prescriptions for free within a 15-mile radius.But deliveries don’t involve seeing a pharmacist or a pharmacy staff. And pharmacy technicians and others behind the counter often look like their customers or may speak a language that’s dominant in the neighborhood.
At least one in six retail pharmacies reported offering services in Spanish, according to the AP’s analysis of pharmacies in 49 states and data from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs.That connection can’t easily be replaced “by telling patients, ‘Go to the next pharmacy,’” Adepoju at the University of Houston said.
Craig Jones fills a prescription at Basin Pharmacy in Basin, Wyoming. (AP Photo/Mike Clark)
Craig Jones fills a prescription at Basin Pharmacy in Basin, Wyoming. (AP Photo/Mike Clark)As for the Hurricanes, they again played without two of their top six defensemen in Jalen Chatfield and Sean Walker. Chatfield hadn’t played since Game 4 of the second-round series against conference top seed Washington, missing five straight games with an apparent lower-body injury.
Walker has missed the past two games since taking a jarring. open-ice hit from Greer in Game 2.Coach Rod Brind’Amour was unsure whether either could be an option for this series even if the Hurricanes somehow pushed it far enough.
“I was hopeful Chatfield being more day to day, but he just still hasn’t got in there with us,” Brind’Amour said before the game. “Until he’s out there I guess practicing with us, he’s not an option. Walker, same thing.”The blue-liner injuries had led Carolina to force top prospect Alexander Nikishin into the lineup. His first three NHL games have all come in the postseason, on the road, and he tallied his first NHL point with a terrific pass that sprung Logan Stankoven for Monday’s first goal.