Valkyre

I Miss Sav-On

We used to have a Sav-on drug store right around the corner practically. I always thought of Sav-On being on the higher end of drug store chains. That is where I buy all the stocking stuffers for Christmas. Or the candy when Easter rolls around. Sav-On was owned by the Albertson's grocery chain. When Albertson's went on the block, the powers-that-be said that Sav-On had to be sold seperately. So when Sav-On went on the block, the CVS pharmacy chain bought them out. Okay. I've been to a CVS pharmacy once. I wasn't too impressed with them. I put them at the bottom of the drug store chains. But, they swore they wouldn't change anything. They would keep it like the old Sav-On we were used to and they would add more products at better prices. And I thought, "Really!? How badly could they fuck it up?" Turns out a lot. I went there when CVS took over and immediately noticed that the parking lot was filthy. I mean really filthy. There was paper and trash everywhere. Along with the shopping carts. When it was Sav-On, they were more diligent about collecting the carts. But, there were no carts in front of the store. They were all out in the parking lot, come blocking the parking spaces. There was never trash all over when it was Sav-On. I couldn't believe how dingy it looked. When I got inside, I couldn't find any of the little hand baskets Sav-On used to have at the front. I guess since there were no carts in front, people had been grabbing those instead. I didn't see any new products. Just less of the things I was used to seeing. I noticed that the employees weren't the same ones I recognized from Sav-On. Had they fired all the other ones from Sav-On? The one cash register that was opened was being manned by a young girl who I really think was terrified to be out in public. She never looked up during the transaction and barely spoke above a whisper. I was glad to get out of there.

Now, they've had their Grand Re-opening after remodeling the store. I decided to give them another try. I wish I hadn't. The parking lot was even more filthier than the last time. Again, the carts hadn't been collected. There were, however, a couple of stacks of the hand baskets out in front by the entrance. I was also happy to see that a lot of the employees from Sav-On were still there. However, I didn't really notice many new products. I did notice that the nice shining white tile floor had been covered by an ugly grey carpet. It really made the place look cheesy. I was getting a K-mart vibe throughout the whole place. Even though there weren't many people in the store, there was long lines at several of the registers. It seems that a lot of the items that were supposed to be on sale were not ringing up properly and the manager had to be called over several times to override the register. Their seasonal section sucked. They didn't carry as many items as Sav-On and a lot of the more expensive Christmas candies weren't even carried any more. I managed to find some things to stuff stockings with and went to check out. I got in the shortest line and waited, and waited and waited. The people in front of me were buying six items. They were some sort of "two for the price of one" thing. There was a limit of six. However, the register was limiting them to only two and rang up the other four at regular price. The manager came over and overrode the the register and the clerk rang up all six at the sale price. It came to $18 something. I saw the man open his wallet. All he had was a ten dollar bill. So, the wife starts disputing the total. This went on and on and on. They totally disregarded the people who were waiting in line behind them. I picked out another line and finally managed to get out of there. I really wish they had left things alone. Their way of "improving" over what Sav-On already had in place only really made it much, much worse. I won't be going there any more. I will try Rite Aid, or Walgreens.