There are four large pharmacy chains in NYC and now Walgreens owns three of the four. Not long ago Walgreens purchased Duane Reade. Now the competition is limited to Walgreens and CVS.
Not to mention the airlines, and I just paid a month's rent to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, which I was forced to do because, you know, grandparents have an expiration date, and Thanksgiving is practically a holy day in our family.
I'm tired of it. Monopolies are real, and they tend to be bad for the people they purport to serve. But this is a power feedback loop that has tipped over the edge and probably gotten past control. Where are our checks and balances?
http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/airfares/programs/economics_and_...
To add to this point. My wife just got a ticket from Atlanta to Indianapolis for 49 dollars round trip. . . You can't drive from Atlanta to Indy for 49 dollars.
It's simply demand in the holiday case, but it's still ridiculous. At other times, high demand does not necessary apply and they do all kinds of things to generate demand and compete for butts in seats, especially when fuel prices are low.
But with a high-demand holiday, at a hub almost entirely monopolized by one airline, there is no ceiling to how high they can raise price in response to that demand.
Norwegian has incredible fares also, many I've seen for less than $400 round trip Los Angeles to various destinations in Scandinavia.
[0] http://freakonomics.com/2011/06/24/why-do-airlines-always-lo...
It has figures for total stores and stores with pharmacies, and it looks like it is either most or all.
You aren't going to match Walmart on $4.00 generics and have success, but often times independent chains get better discounts on everything else than many of the major chains.
Aaah, that I did not realize. But still, it seems like there's a fair amount of competition among pharmacies in the general sense. I suppose that in specific geographic locales that may not be as true though.
And I'm not saying that this merger is unilaterally a "Good Thing" or anything. It just doesn't strike me as a place where anti-trust specifically comes into play.
Try pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, the FDA, and trade policies if you want to find the culprits or actual structure behind the prices of drugs.
btw... I'm not arguing with you. It sucks.
For one thing, the deal was just announced. This happens before anti-trust scrutiny begins. Various sources have indicated that the deal is likely to be closely scrutinized by the FTC (though some predict it will be approved as-is). [0]
[0] http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/27/us-rite-aid-m-a-wa...
Numerous other pharmacy chains exist. Many major stores have pharmacy departments. This merger would hardly creates a monopoly or anywhere near one, nor will it reduce competition to a degree that one company will be in an abusive position.
Well, not always. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_purchase_of_Time_War...
Oh, and one of them is owned by CVS.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/10/22/45060056...
most grocery chains, warehouse chains, and big box retailers, have pharmacies, all with heavily discounted drugs and some are even free. Since many have insurance they don't feel the effect so the drug stores stay in business as some don't like the idea of going to the grocery store for their medicine.
The problem with drug stores is they literally don't need to exist in most places anymore because there's so much overlapping competition.
Also, who would be responsible for such antitrust moves? DOJ? The legislative? Both are corrupt to the core, and don't think I'm not counting SCOTUS in that.