Waiting for Speedway Fowler

What is happening with CVS and Walgreens?

It seems like there's a new CVS or Walgreens going up on every street corner.



They're multiplying worse than Dunkin Donuts outlets.... and they're monsters. These stores are huge, cookie-cutter ugly boxes, with giant parking lots and sodium lights that light up the skies for miles around... as if the cities don't have enough light pollution.

And in many cases, these chains are closing existing stores in plazas in favor of new freestanding stores only a block or so away, leaving empty storefronts in their wake. And of course, whatever small independent drug stroes that have survived up to now - and there aren't many of them - get plowed under in the relentless march to litter the landscape with these ridiculous behemoths.

Unlike the Walmart uproar, I haven't heard much outcry over Walgreens and CVS essentially having the same bad impact on the community.

But it seems to me their arms race has ramped up over the past few months, so maybe people will start noticing.