After hearing from others who don't have CVS stores, it got me thinking about that: one tends to assume similarity of experiences, don't you think? For instance, as someone whose parents traveled a great deal, I was stunned to get to college and meet someone who had never been on a plane. Never? In your whole life? I grant you, we were all in our late teens or early 20s, but you know, if you've live in Guyana and Brazil as a small child, you assume that everyone has traveled. Or at least I assumed.
To this day, even though I know this is true, I have to remind myself of this, that my experiences, even generalized, are not everyone's. There are CVS stores in south Florida, and they're all over Massachusetts, and there were plenty in Charlotte NC when I lived there (1994-2001), but they aren't in plenty of places.
Though in Charlotte, it was Eckerd's* that were everywhere: a friend and I used to joke that you could never give directions that included "turn right at the Eckerd on the corner" because that didn't narrow things down much.
*Ironically, I just learned that CVS bought out Eckerd in 2004, so Charlotte must look much more CVS-heavy than it used to.
Incidentally, the Wikipedia article on CVS mentions receipt length as a thing.
I've never heard of Eckerds either. We have Rite Aid and Walgreens mostly.
ReplyDeleteWe have Walgreens down here too, but I don't think Rite Aid. We had them somewhere I lived, though.
DeleteI think that's true. For example, I don't really like to travel, but I think it's assumed that most people love travel and do it fairly often. I find that it's bothersome, really. I don't like all the bother attendant to air travel. I hate the expense and the inconvenience. For me, the juice isn't really worth the squeeze, as they say.
ReplyDeleteI get that! One of my fantasies about winning the lottery is chartering a private plane any time I want to fly. It has to be so much better!
DeleteExamining your blind spots is a sure sign of developing wisdom, imo.
ReplyDeleteIt can be very interesting, and sometimes quite surprising!
DeleteWe had a chain with the very 1960s name of People's in the DC area when I was growing up. I think CVS bought them out.
ReplyDeleteI paid more attention to what was on my receipt after reading your post in hopes that there were more actual deals than I'd noticed. Nope, not here.
You lived in Guyana as a child? My husband’s family spent a couple of generations there, but left in the early 60s, so he wasn’t born there.
ReplyDeleteHere in Northern California, we used to have Long’s, which was SO much better than CVS. They gave the store managers a bit of say in the products they purchased, so it was fun to go and look around at all of the things. I used to joke that you could easily do your Christmas shopping there. Now it’s a CVS, and I have the membership too. I pay $5 a month for it, and get a $10 off coupon every month, so that seems like a no-brainer to me.
It wasn't for very long. For a year or two, we lived in Brazil, Guyana, Grenada ... and then when I was two-ish, we moved to Boston. So I don't remember any of it!
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