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I don't see the anti-trust thing. In addition to the "drug store" chains, there are pharmacies embedded in (many|most|all?) Wal*Mart stores, Target stores, Publix stores, Kroger stores, Harris Teeter stores, etc. I would guess there are other grocery chains that have pharmacies as well. Plus there are still independent pharmacies. I don't know what the situation is like in NYC specifically, but just to share an anecdote from where I live - there are two "indy" pharmacies within walking distance of my office on Main Street in Durham, NC.

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Some data on the largest retail pharmacies [pdf]: http://www.drugstorenews.com/sites/drugstorenews.com/files/P...

It has figures for total stores and stores with pharmacies, and it looks like it is either most or all.

Target pharmacies were bought by CVS. No Walmart in NYC, nor the other chains that you mention. NYC is dominated by Walgreens, Rite Aid, Duane Reade, CVS.

The ability to open a pharmacy in an area isn't restricted the way Internet and television providers are. Nothing stops a new store or chain from opening.

Except for market saturation. E.g, Walgreens, Duane Reade, and two CVS stores within two or three (short) blocks. Walgreens at 97th & Broadway, Duane Reade at 94th & Broadway, CVS at 93rd & Broadway, CVS at 96th & Amsterdam (which is one block from Broadway).

Pharmacies operate in large share through health plans. Larger pharmacies == more negotiating power == higher drugs prices. Smaller / start-up chains don't have that advantage, and hence start with several strikes against them.

This is misleading. Most independent pharmacies operate through coalition or coops in the exact same way small grocery stores do. Often times the sales of coops are on par with, or can easily exceed, the annual sales of major chains.

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.

And Duane Reade is Walgreens nowadays

Target pharmacies were bought by CVS.

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.

Duane Reade was bought by Walgreens several years ago

The grocery stores are agglomerating as well.

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?

Airline prices aren't exactly going through the roof.

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.

Atlanta's a major air travel hub, so extra-cheap flights are partially a result of that. If the poster above you has parents that are off the beaten path, it's very likely those $49 deals don't exist for the flight she or he needs.

Atlanta is a hub for many airlines. However, this was Southwest which uses point to point and not hub and spoke.

I'm talking American to Charlotte, a huge US Airways hub. US Airways was just acquired by American making it the world's largest airline.

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.

Weird thought -- did you look into flying to GSO? It's ABSURD, but last time I looked, flights from GSO and RDU through CLT were way less than from CLT itself.

I've tried several flight hacks to get there, but they actually live in Charlotte so I'd have to bail on the second leg, which means booking two legs separately and still taking a chance on getting the return one-way cancelled on me for skirting the rules. It's maybe $100 cheaper, not big enough a difference to really make it worth it.

Not to just talk about low fares, but I was amazed recently with a $38 fare from Los Angeles to Chicago. Was with Frontier so there are other fees involved, but still pretty awesome.

Norwegian has incredible fares also, many I've seen for less than $400 round trip Los Angeles to various destinations in Scandinavia.

Competition is important here, but I think low oil prices are driving customer savings.

Depends on the route. Transatlantic flights cost more this past summer than when the oil was > $100/barrel.

Sounds like high demand driven by the slumping Euro.

No way. The tickets were more expensive in Euros too. It's simply a fixed supply of seat demanded by more people than a year ago.

Yeah, more people traveling from US to Europe because the cost of a European vacation has gone down in USD due to the slumping EUR.

Also note the recent beer giant announcement, that will see the new company own all or part of 15 of the top 20 beers in the US.

That's AB InBev and SABMiller. Rumor is if it goes through many of the American brands in SABMiller will be spun off as this is more a purchase for the global presence of SABMiller.

That's just economics. Demand in the US for thanksgiving travel goes through the roof. Airlines don't magically have more planes to fly during the holiday (i.e. supply is fixed). The result: prices adjust upwards and force more people to spread out travel over different dates, find alternative arrangements, or forgo travel.

Flights actually cost that much - most airlines don't make much money on the flight itself [0]. A flight with an airline like Spirit or Frontier charge the bare minimum for flights without any extra frills.

[0] http://freakonomics.com/2011/06/24/why-do-airlines-always-lo...

CVS owns the target pharmacies just FYI.

Gotcha. I had not heard that until just now.

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