In Search of a City: CVS (Non-Rubbing) Alcohol Sales
When I see chronic alcoholics, many with mental health problems, buying cheap, fortified wine and “tall boys” at the downtown CVS pharmacy, I am reminded of an experience I had several years ago with a crack house near my home. Much like the crack house, CVS draws a crowd of bedraggled souls and creates a zone of disorder in the surrounding neighborhood. And like the crack house, law enforcement cannot stop alcohol-related problems because penalties for open container, public intoxication and panhandling will not persuade a person with an addiction to change behavior.
Luckily, my neighbors and I convinced the landlord of the crack house to evict the dealers, and the drug-related problems in our neighborhood disappeared immediately. No such easy solution exists with CVS.
Other beer and wine stores in the core of downtown stopped selling products with names like Hot Sex and Wild Irish Rose. CVS, however, persists.
The next time your walk by an intoxicated, chronic alcoholic in your neighborhood, be sure to thank CVS for its contribution to your quality of life.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 am
It’s amazing that we go to them for our health and well being.
Get our prescriptions filled, let our children buy candies and school supplies from them.
But yet they are still part of the problem.
CVS is located in every community, when will they look at the whole picture.
Yes, they do some good, but they also do bad.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
Great work Cleve. I like the approach you are taking with Columbus.
I just hope people are reading.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I find the CVS downtown very convenient, and I go there about once a week to get last-minute buys (birthday cards, vitamins, etc.). If CVS stops selling alcohol, the “intoxicated, chronic alcoholic” will still find somewhere to buy it. If my memory serves me correctly, the little grocery store by the Peanut Shoppe sells alcohol as well. I don’t think it’s fair to place the blame on a store that has many more positive qualities than negative. Alcoholics don’t need a CVS around the corner to feed their addiction, that’s for sure.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 am
Cleve: I thought CVS High Street agreed not to sell certain alcohol products at that location? I’ve lived and worked downtown for many years, not a newcomer who wants everything sqeaky clean and suburbia perfect. I believe residents and shoppers have the right to purchase a six pack or a decent bottle of wine downtown, but I too oppose the sale of selected beverages.
I appreciate you raising this once again as a topic and I will pursue ways to let CVS know that downtowners disapprove of their policy. The CVS Neil Avenue manages to do fine without selling beverages sought by addicts and the mentally ill.
thx –Lelia
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:15 am
I don’t think shooing people away by restricting their access to certain products in certain areas is really solving the problem. It’s just moving the problem into someone else’s neighborhood.
That’s great that you got a crack house moved away from your home, but who else’s home did they relocate next to?
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:51 am
I agree with Walker. Anyone who lives or works Downtown likely would agree with Walker, because we’ve been in dire need of a CVS on Capitol Square. I frequent this CVS, and I find it to be very clean. The staff is very helpful, and I’ve never seen anything that resembles a crack house. People — alcoholics and others — should be free to buy whatever they want.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:52 am
Also, there’s a liquor store exactly one block south of the CVS.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:39 am
Cleve,
I have a full scope perspective on this problem. I ride the #11 Bryden Rd bus every day to work and have done so for 15 years. Located near the the #11 terminus lie all the Alum Creek Road facilities that include alcohol and drug rehabilitation, work release programs, halfway house facilities and the like. You can imagine the stories I hear on a daily basis. Riding this bus keeps me in touch with what is going on at the margins of our society.
Each day, I encounter men and women that have been rounded up the previous night to sleep one off at the “drunk tank” and are released the next day.
They board the #11 and disembark at various downtown locations that sell alcohol to begin the ritual over again. I have seen many of the same people for years. Most have lost all pride and are dirty, dishevled and already intoxicated by 7:45 a.m.
I have witnessed men brazenly drinking from an open container on the bus. That is usually where I draw the line and call the police who then meet us at one of the downtown stops to remove the offender.
I wonder if the owners, management or board members at the publicly held company of CVS ride a bus like mine.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:31 am
“Other beer and wine stores in the core of downtown stopped selling products with names like Hot Sex and Wild Irish Rose. CVS, however, persists.”
So, maybe the problem is really with the manufacturers of “Hot Sex” and “Wild Irish Rose”. Maybe they should stop making the alcohol. Oh, wait. They won’t. Why? Because there is a market for it. Maybe that’s why CVS is still selling it.
Welcome to the world of capitalism.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:45 am
I also agree with Walker. If CVS stops selling alcohol, they’ll just buy it somewhere else. Besides, I’d rather have someone buy alcohol legally rather than smoke pot in front of the COTA bus stop at Broad & High almost on a daily basis. No one seems to mind and it’s appears to go on unnoticed.