Mallatt's Sidesteps Walgreens and Wal-Mart

On Saturday, The Capital Times ran a story, Walgreens won't match Wal-Mart's $4:

..."We are not going to match the prices," Tiffani Bruce, spokeswoman for Walgreens, said Friday from the company's Illinois headquarters.

Neither will Community Pharmacy, a worker-managed cooperative in downtown Madison...

...it costs his shop about $8.50 in labor and overhead costs just to fill a prescription. That does not even take into account the cost of the drug itself, Kilmer added.

Kilmer said Wal-Mart's move devalues the important role pharmacists play in evaluating and dispensing medication.

"They are basically getting paid nothing for their time or expertise," he said.

David Kreling, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Pharmacy School and a pharmacist himself, said his research has found that it costs pharmacies $9 to $10 on average to dispense a prescription.

Mallatt's (technically Mallatt Home Care Pharmacy) on Monroe Street fills our prescriptions. It is real simple: we want the profits to go to someone local, they know everyone in our family, and they are a great neighbor.

I want lower drug prices, especially as I get older. There is a solution to the cost of healthcare in this country, and it is not Wal-Mart driving local pharmacies out of buisness with loss-leaders on generic drugs and it is not Wal-Mart destroying the neighborhood-based pharmacist.

Anyway, where would we get those great costumes for Halloween? No matter what Wal-Mart does, their plastic packaged gear will never match the orginal customes, the make up, and the charming blood and gore that Mallatt's brings to Halloween.

Comments

[Steve Hanson]

I used to live about a block from Mallatt's. I still remember them as one of the businesses in Madison that I used to look forward to patronizing. Especially around Halloween. I"m glad to hear that they're still there, pumping out prescriptions and makeup.

[Stuart Levitan]

And if you get there a few minutes after they close on Saturday, they'll open up to fill your prescription. Any chance Wal-Mart would re-open after it closes? I think not.

[Richard Hansen]

I worked for Mallatt's when I was in Madison West high school. The original owner, Adolf Mallatt, was an absolute peach of a guy - very person oriented. His legacy went forward with sons Jim & Bill, whom I have known since 1950. The place had a lunch counter in those days, and I was taught to be a short-order cook by Clint Johnson. Mallatt's did it right by serving the neighborhood's people, and connecting with them. A place to be preserved.