For only the second time since July 1st, 2012, I stepped foot into a national chain and spent a small amount of my hard earned money.
Let me explain. We were at a 93rd birthday party with the family, enjoying each other's company and good natured heckling. After dinner and some lazing around, it was time to bring out the cake and ice cream. (I'm allergic to milk- so, if my doctor is reading this, I did NOT eat ice cream. PS- It's hard to type when your fingers are crossed.)
I noticed my youngest child was grimacing. He's 6, so I assumed he ate his ice cream too fast and gave himself a healthy dose of brain freeze, so when he whimpered I didn't think much of it. But by the time we were in the car and headed home, he was having one of those throbbing, rolling headaches that ebbs and flows, and when it flows, it HURTS.
I took a mental inventory of the medicine cabinet and realized two things: The garlic salt was somehow in the medicine cabinet (remembered from the day before's chili making escapade), and we were totally out of children's ibuprofen or acetaminophen, which had previously been purchased at Mathes Pharmacy. I quickly pulled out my phone and looked up their hours- and of course, they'd closed 45 minutes earlier.
I tried to think of anything local that would be open that would have children's pain medicine. My oldest child can take an adult pill just fine, but not my boy. I stopped in to one of the locally owned convenience stores, and struck out in any children's medicinal products.
I think there comes a point where a child's immediate pain trumps even the most valiant local buying efforts. I wasted no time running into Walgreens and grabbing two bottles of children's ibuprofen (grape flavor). After another 45 minutes, my son was sleeping peacefully.
But the experience brings up one of the important questions I hoped this journey would unearth. What are we lacking in terms of availability locally? Are there just some things that we cannot expect to get 24/7? Or, should we reasonably be able to expect an independent drugstore/grocery store/department store to thrive in a town of our size? If not, what is the role of a national chain in this particular arena?
I don't have answers for these. In an earlier day, parents would just have to wait until their local mom and pop opened up in the morning, if they'd run out of medicine the night before, and their kiddo would have spent the night miserable. So, how can we help our towns sustain an option that's open late, late hours that also has a huge, diverse product offering?
