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We live in a capitalist dystopia
- Thread starter NovaSaber
- Start date
Cyberpunk as HELL. Again, all the bad, none of the cool aesthetic.
You must use the product. You must love the product. It is mandatory. Do you love the product, Citizen?
On a slightly smaller scale capitalist nightmare note: At the beginning of September, Kroger in our district decided that, rather than providing sufficient resources to their pharmacy delivery services, they would outsource the deliveries to a company called Scriptdrop.
Who's Scriptdrop? Essentially, they're a middleman company who manages the orders we send out and passes them over to a courier service for the physical delivery.
What courier service?
Uber-*******-Eats.
That's right. Our patients are now trusting their life saving medications to ******* Uber.
Not that they or we were ever told this. We only found out after three different delivery people showed up on the first day of the new system and announced themselves as Uber drivers.
It gets better, though. Because Scriptdrop/Uber doesn't provide for delivering refrigerated medication or controlled substances. So no insulins or pain meds. Y'know, the two most common things people who can't leave their homes need.
They also won't take cash or check payments, requiring online payments and starting this Monday, the previously free service will start costing $6 a delivery.
So, to sum up, our district has replaced the delivery system with one that costs more, is less convenient, less reliable and shuts out nearly everyone who most desperately needs their medications delivered.
Thank ******* god I'm a proper technician these days, at least I still have a job at the pharmacy.
Who's Scriptdrop? Essentially, they're a middleman company who manages the orders we send out and passes them over to a courier service for the physical delivery.
What courier service?
Uber-*******-Eats.
That's right. Our patients are now trusting their life saving medications to ******* Uber.
Not that they or we were ever told this. We only found out after three different delivery people showed up on the first day of the new system and announced themselves as Uber drivers.
It gets better, though. Because Scriptdrop/Uber doesn't provide for delivering refrigerated medication or controlled substances. So no insulins or pain meds. Y'know, the two most common things people who can't leave their homes need.
They also won't take cash or check payments, requiring online payments and starting this Monday, the previously free service will start costing $6 a delivery.
So, to sum up, our district has replaced the delivery system with one that costs more, is less convenient, less reliable and shuts out nearly everyone who most desperately needs their medications delivered.
Thank ******* god I'm a proper technician these days, at least I still have a job at the pharmacy.
FB friend:
Has the elusive "good billionaire" been found?
www.forbes.com
Billionaire Mark Cuban Opens Online Pharmacy To Provide Affordable Generic Drugs
The company was launched out of stealth last year.
www.forbes.com
It implies the manufacturers aren't responsible for the insane markups... OR, since we actually do know it's the manufacturers, it implies he's taking a massive loss on every pill to keep the price low.
The manufacturers mark it up, then the distributors add their markup, then the retailers add theirs. Capitalism stacks.
Oh sure, but when there's a difference between $47 and $9657, it seems unbelievable that the manufacturers's markup isn't a huge part of that. Especially since the distributors and retailers are actually competing with each other and have an incentive to keep their margins small.
He sure as hell won't if he's actually taking as big a loss on this stuff as Wonko suggested. It'd have to be offsetting the combined profit margins of the entire pharmaceutical industry. Even in this economy, no one is that rich.
I was wondering out loud if this is also available through insurance—like if you have a cheap plan that wouldn't have covered the full price versions of the drugs—and I realized that might be the angle, actually. Maybe it's not. Maybe this is only for people who are willing, or required, to pay out of pocket and in practice there aren't very many such people left thanks to the ACA and everything. So even if he's taking a loss, it won't actually add up to much in the end, and in return he gets a huge PR boost that's probably good for whatever the hell business he actually makes his money from.
I was wondering out loud if this is also available through insurance—like if you have a cheap plan that wouldn't have covered the full price versions of the drugs—and I realized that might be the angle, actually. Maybe it's not. Maybe this is only for people who are willing, or required, to pay out of pocket and in practice there aren't very many such people left thanks to the ACA and everything. So even if he's taking a loss, it won't actually add up to much in the end, and in return he gets a huge PR boost that's probably good for whatever the hell business he actually makes his money from.
He's not losing any money. Cost Plus is very upfront on charging cost plus 15%. It's just that they can buy in such bulk that they get great deals. Say what you want about the man but he's saving me $50 a month on my blood pressure med.
Dude also might be actively using generic versions of drugs, which might mean he's shipping them in and/or purchasing from another country (like canada.).
FB friend: