A ShopRite steal
It’s that time of year again, when the subway becomes a moving, underground Petri dish and every headache is just a warm-up for the Flu. If you’re uninsured, you’re probably resigned to the age-old combo of Emergen-C and chicken soup. And you lucky few, the insured, you probably think you’re sitting pretty. (A co-pay’s a co-pay, right?) Well… here’s the dirty little secret of the prescription-filling world: Drugs can cost less without insurance. You could be paying that rock-steady $25 co-pay all for a scrip that’s $4-a-month without your fancy PPO. We were recently hit with this startling fact and wondered just how much pill prices can vary without the insurance card. Read the rest of this entry »
By now you’ve heard that Illinois-based Walgreens is buying out local rival Duane Reade. Maybe you’re shedding a tear at the news, but before you go out and buy tissues, which store is likely to have a better price on them?
Good news, New Yorkers: Walgreens prices beat Duane Reade (slightly) in our check of 15 essential (and some not-so-essential) items, and the overall price for our trip to Walgreens was about $30 cheaper. The companies said Duane Reade’s 257 stores will keep operating under their name after the buyout, but consolidation is inevitable.
Our undercover price scoping took us behind the automatic doors at the Williamsburg Duane Reade on North 5th and the Walgreens on Union Ave. While the price differences were often minor, Walgreens offers a wider variety of generic products, a noisier store, and a security-protected deodorant case to ward off obsessive-compulsive (and sweaty) kleptomaniacs. And while Duane Reade is unarguably the more aesthetically appealing of the two stores, it fails to have such necessities as the Inspire Waterproof Rubber Sheet Protector and the famed “As Seen on TV” and celebrity perfume aisles (Walgreens graces its floors with FOUR different varieties of Celine Dion fragrances). Check out the results of the study after the jump, with each round’s winner in blue. Read the rest of this entry »
Red lips have been the perennial go-to since Cleopatra. Perhaps that’s because anyone with enough nerve can really rock a true red—it gives contrast to the fair and pop to the dark-skinned. In winter, being swaddled in bulky coats and hiding hat hair becomes a statement with a properly-hued pout. Here, reviews of five lipsticks available at our local Duane Reade, rated with a little help from a crimson-lipped friend. Just go easy on the eyeliner, in the name of all that’s holy! Read the rest of this entry »
We’re not big fans of Rite Aid for all kinds of reasons (mean manager at the one near our place, cooler NY-centric branding at Duane Reade) but far be it from us to stand on principal when there’s a BOGO sale on makeup going on. That’s retail-speak for buy-one-get-one-free—on all Revlon and Almay products through Saturday (Jan. 16). On all L’Oreal items and assorted things from Maybelline, Cover Girl and Physicians Formula etc., it’s buy one, get half off the second. Nowhere in the store was the dead-lady grey nailpolish that all the fashion chicks are wearing (Chanel, right?), but those seductive yellow tags got us wondering: Which drugstore cosmetics are any good? Everyone knows cheap mascara is legit, but how about foundation and moisturizers? Do you have a favorite? Our very glammy friend Sheryl, the Bitchcakes weight-loss blogger, swears by Covergirl Outlast and L’Oreal Lipfinity. And if you can’t trust someone who rides a century without smearing her lipstick…
Bottled water is evil but sometimes unavoidable, and there’s a new kind on the market that lets New Yorkers swell with civic pride even as they trash the environment. This week’s Duane Reade circular introduces their exclusive New York Spring Water, “bottled in New York State for New Yorkers.” It doesn’t say where the water comes from, but the label copy defensively assures skeptics that “It’s clean, it’s natural, we promise.” At this price it could come from the Gowanus: $1.99 for a 12-pack of 16.9 ouncers comes out to about 17 cents a bottle, rounding up. That’s practically cheaper than tap water. By the way, how is it that DR is “introducing” the water at the “lowest price ever”?
If we were a big media outfit, this second-hand reportage might not pass muster. But we hear it from a very reliable source that Duane Reade was having a totally nutso sale today, with all summer stuff and beach paraphernelia 90 percent off. We’re talking fans for 99 cents; bags of potting soil for 25 cents; travel mugs, 50 cents; and small-to-medium-sized bags of charcoal, 60 cents. “One woman walked off with 25 bags and left me two,” said our tipster, who says the Cortelyou Road store is already fairly well picked clean. No idea what’s left at any other stores (Flatbush and Parkside said they’re cleaned out too) but it might be worth a stop on the way home tonight.
A ShopRite steal
It’s that time of year again, when the subway becomes a moving, underground Petri dish and every headache is just a warm-up for the Flu. If you’re uninsured, you’re probably resigned to the age-old combo of Emergen-C and chicken soup. And you lucky few, the insured, you probably think you’re sitting pretty. (A co-pay’s a co-pay, right?) Well… here’s the dirty little secret of the prescription-filling world: Drugs can cost less without insurance. You could be paying that rock-steady $25 co-pay all for a scrip that’s $4-a-month without your fancy PPO. We were recently hit with this startling fact and wondered just how much pill prices can vary without the insurance card. Read the rest of this entry »
By now you’ve heard that Illinois-based Walgreens is buying out local rival Duane Reade. Maybe you’re shedding a tear at the news, but before you go out and buy tissues, which store is likely to have a better price on them?
Good news, New Yorkers: Walgreens prices beat Duane Reade (slightly) in our check of 15 essential (and some not-so-essential) items, and the overall price for our trip to Walgreens was about $30 cheaper. The companies said Duane Reade’s 257 stores will keep operating under their name after the buyout, but consolidation is inevitable.
Our undercover price scoping took us behind the automatic doors at the Williamsburg Duane Reade on North 5th and the Walgreens on Union Ave. While the price differences were often minor, Walgreens offers a wider variety of generic products, a noisier store, and a security-protected deodorant case to ward off obsessive-compulsive (and sweaty) kleptomaniacs. And while Duane Reade is unarguably the more aesthetically appealing of the two stores, it fails to have such necessities as the Inspire Waterproof Rubber Sheet Protector and the famed “As Seen on TV” and celebrity perfume aisles (Walgreens graces its floors with FOUR different varieties of Celine Dion fragrances). Check out the results of the study after the jump, with each round’s winner in blue. Read the rest of this entry »
Red lips have been the perennial go-to since Cleopatra. Perhaps that’s because anyone with enough nerve can really rock a true red—it gives contrast to the fair and pop to the dark-skinned. In winter, being swaddled in bulky coats and hiding hat hair becomes a statement with a properly-hued pout. Here, reviews of five lipsticks available at our local Duane Reade, rated with a little help from a crimson-lipped friend. Just go easy on the eyeliner, in the name of all that’s holy! Read the rest of this entry »
We’re not big fans of Rite Aid for all kinds of reasons (mean manager at the one near our place, cooler NY-centric branding at Duane Reade) but far be it from us to stand on principal when there’s a BOGO sale on makeup going on. That’s retail-speak for buy-one-get-one-free—on all Revlon and Almay products through Saturday (Jan. 16). On all L’Oreal items and assorted things from Maybelline, Cover Girl and Physicians Formula etc., it’s buy one, get half off the second. Nowhere in the store was the dead-lady grey nailpolish that all the fashion chicks are wearing (Chanel, right?), but those seductive yellow tags got us wondering: Which drugstore cosmetics are any good? Everyone knows cheap mascara is legit, but how about foundation and moisturizers? Do you have a favorite? Our very glammy friend Sheryl, the Bitchcakes weight-loss blogger, swears by Covergirl Outlast and L’Oreal Lipfinity. And if you can’t trust someone who rides a century without smearing her lipstick…
Bottled water is evil but sometimes unavoidable, and there’s a new kind on the market that lets New Yorkers swell with civic pride even as they trash the environment. This week’s Duane Reade circular introduces their exclusive New York Spring Water, “bottled in New York State for New Yorkers.” It doesn’t say where the water comes from, but the label copy defensively assures skeptics that “It’s clean, it’s natural, we promise.” At this price it could come from the Gowanus: $1.99 for a 12-pack of 16.9 ouncers comes out to about 17 cents a bottle, rounding up. That’s practically cheaper than tap water. By the way, how is it that DR is “introducing” the water at the “lowest price ever”?
