CPAPtalk.com

ChicagoGranny wrote:

Zyrtec 10mg, 25 pills, $20.49. This makes it $24.57/30/days, $294.84/yr. I would still take the $10/month copay $120/yr pricing.

Oh my goodness! I hope you are not paying those prices. Like PailRider says you can get a year supply for $12 at Costco.

The generic name is ceterizine. If you don't have a Costco membership, try Amazon. Plenty of cheap options, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_sc ... Caps%2C292

No, I did pay something like that when it first went OTC, then my allergist switched me to Clarinex. Happily Clarinex is still RX, but also went generic, so I only pay $5.00 now. But...

With prices like that, I'm getting a Costco membership. $12 once a year, vs $5/monthly... Costco wins my business. Also thanks Pale Rider & Chicago Granny, you've saved me some money!

Jen

The 3 main allergy pills don't work for me, but one of them is offered free with my insurance if it is prescribed by a doctor. My insurance plan does this for one of the allergy meds and prilosec, both OTC meds, but free if prescribed.

Right now, the only allergy meds that work for me are Nasacort (gotta pay full OTC price) and chlortrimeton, which my doctor doesn't want me to use because of high blood pressure.

I sure wish the free one worked for me. The nasal spray adds up.

zoocrewphoto wrote:The 3 main allergy pills don't work for me, but one of them is offered free with my insurance if it is prescribed by a doctor. My insurance plan does this for one of the allergy meds and prilosec, both OTC meds, but free if prescribed.

Right now, the only allergy meds that work for me are Nasacort (gotta pay full OTC price) and chlortrimeton, which my doctor doesn't want me to use because of high blood pressure.

I sure wish the free one worked for me. The nasal spray adds up.

Have you tried Nasonex? It works just as well as Nasacort did for me & the difference between RX & OTC saves some money. However, my hubby uses Nasacort to avoid the potential problems getting the RX might cause with his CDL.

Jen

jencat824 wrote:

ChicagoGranny wrote:

Zyrtec 10mg, 25 pills, $20.49. This makes it $24.57/30/days, $294.84/yr. I would still take the $10/month copay $120/yr pricing.

Oh my goodness! I hope you are not paying those prices. Like PailRider says you can get a year supply for $12 at Costco.

The generic name is ceterizine. If you don't have a Costco membership, try Amazon. Plenty of cheap options, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_sc ... Caps%2C292

No, I did pay something like that when it first went OTC, then my allergist switched me to Clarinex. Happily Clarinex is still RX, but also went generic, so I only pay $5.00 now. But...

With prices like that, I'm getting a Costco membership. $12 once a year, vs $5/monthly... Costco wins my business. Also thanks Pale Rider & Chicago Granny, you've saved me some money!

Jen

they did it first with generic claritin (loratadine), for around 11$ for either 300, or 350 tabs, then they got clever and made it 365... I lol'd, and tossed it in my cart

I'm a huge costco fan, for a number of reasons, they tend to have quality goods, and their house brand "kirkland" is usually considerably cheaper than other things, and as good, or better quality. (they print a magazine monthly and one of the columns is a 'behind the scenes' thing about a particular product, and what they do, and the standards they set for their suppliers and their products) you can read back issues off their website, look down a the bottom for a link to the 'costco connection'. plus, they pay their people well, and treat them well, and consequently have low turnover, and happier employees, and that shows in how they interact with the customers. and, lots of other things...

PR,

We've got a Costco across the river & I'm going to get a membership this weekend. I went for one of the free tours a number of years ago when they first opened but my hubby figured since they didn't have our brand of cat litter, why not just stick with Sam's Club. Well, you've given me several reasons. And maybe, if I'm lucky, they will have started carrying Fresh Step. We have only 6 cats now, but back then had 11, so cat litter is pretty important at our house.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else I can save money on at Ccostco. Thanks!

Jen

jencat824 wrote:PR,
...
I'm looking forward to seeing what else I can save money on at Ccostco. Thanks!

for a while, I had both a sams and costco membership, and my experiences, and general feeling was that costco was a little cheaper for things than sams, and yet had higher quality on similar items. and, the lines were *always* shorter at costco, there would often be long lines and a few registers open at sams, and I've rarely seen more than three or four people in line at costco, unless hey had all the registeres open, because they'd open up more registers when the lines would get long.

and, the people working at costco were usually more pleasant... like they liked their jobs

I read somewhere that they don't hire MBAs at costco, they'd rather do things their way, and something like 70% of their management staff started out working on on the floor.

ok, yeah, sorry, singing the praises, again *lol* did I mention the 10$ huge pizza in the food court that I think is one of the best tasting I've had?

We like Costco, but it means a road trip. Sam's is closer; but some things you don't do because they are easy,
or even because they are hard--but because it's worth it.

jencat824 wrote:

zoocrewphoto wrote:The 3 main allergy pills don't work for me, but one of them is offered free with my insurance if it is prescribed by a doctor. My insurance plan does this for one of the allergy meds and prilosec, both OTC meds, but free if prescribed.

Right now, the only allergy meds that work for me are Nasacort (gotta pay full OTC price) and chlortrimeton, which my doctor doesn't want me to use because of high blood pressure.

I sure wish the free one worked for me. The nasal spray adds up.

Have you tried Nasonex? It works just as well as Nasacort did for me & the difference between RX & OTC saves some money. However, my hubby uses Nasacort to avoid the potential problems getting the RX might cause with his CDL.

Jen

I tried a sample and got a prescription. Unfortunately, my insurance doesn't cover it. The cash price, with coupon off the web was $130 a month. I applied for the free deal, and my doctor filled out her portion and sent it in. That was over a year ago. Never heard back. My insurance is pretty decent, but that is one thing not covered.

palerider wrote: they (Costco) pay their people well, and treat them well, and consequently have low turnover, and happier employees, and that shows in how they interact with the customers. and, lots of other things

Could the "lots of other things" be that low-income people don't shop at Costco and you like to avoid mixing with them in the aisles, at the cash registers and in the parking lot?

Costco really is a store where affluent, high-socioeconomic status households occasionally buy huge quantities of goods on the cheap: That’s Costco's business strategy (which is why its stores are pretty much found in affluent near-in suburbs).

Costco has a tiny number of SKUs in a huge store -- and consequently, has half as many employees per square foot of store. Their model is less labor intensive, which is to say, it has higher labor productivity. Which makes it unsurprising that they pay their employees more.

Costco are the specialty grocer and warehouse club for an affluent, educated college demographic. They woo this crowd with a stripped-down array of high quality stock-keeping units, and high-quality customer service. The high wages produce the high levels of customer service, and the small number of products are what allow them to pay the high wages. Fewer products to handle (and restock) lowers the labor intensity of your operation.

these strategies work in part because ... no one expects to do all their shopping at Costco. They don’t need to be comprehensive.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... ike-costco

You can get a year's supply of generic Zyrtec at Walmart for $80. That is a good bit higher than Costco and worse yet PailRider would have to mix with the low-income class.

ChicagoGranny wrote:

palerider wrote: they (Costco) pay their people well, and treat them well, and consequently have low turnover, and happier employees, and that shows in how they interact with the customers. and, lots of other things

Could the "lots of other things" be that low-income people don't shop at Costco and you like to avoid mixing with them in the aisles, at the cash registers and in the parking lot?

You can get a year's supply of generic Zyrtec at Walmart for $80. That is a good bit higher than Costco and worse yet PailRider would have to mix with the low-income class.

I talk to you, don't I? I think that proves the fallacy of your theory.

I knew there was a reason it felt different at Costco.
It was like a slice of Montana. Everybody but some of the help was white. Weird.
I was the only green person there.

chunkyfrog wrote:I knew there was a reason it felt different at Costco.
It was like a slice of Montana. Everybody but some of the help was white. Weird.
I was the only green person there.

Does this happen to you a lot in your travels?

You'd be surprised.

ChicagoGranny wrote:

LSAT wrote:

FYI...At Costco, you do not need a membership to purchase from the pharmacy or optical dept.

I think that is for prescription items only. Zyrtec is OTC.

Is there an echo in an empty pail?

We stopped by Costco today to get the first hand info.

Anything behind the counter is available to Non-Members (by law), however she did say she thought things were cheaper at Member Prices.

While they do have a wide assortment of OTC meds unless you shop there regularly, I am not sure you could save the $55 membership price in one year. You would also need to figure in the cost of travel to & fro as most Costco locations are few and far between.

Costco has a lot of good deals but Walmart is much closer to me and my prescriptions are covered very well, so for me it is prob not worth the membership price. Google has several articles on how to save when shopping at Costco - not everything is the deal it appears to be.

ps. I have always had a problem paying someone to take my money. It seems there is no shortage of people or places willing to do that.

There are just 2 of us at home. We shop at Costco once a month for mostly basics. All we need is to save $5 a month to cover the membership costs. Between just kitchen basics, toweling, toilet paper and OTC drugs, we EASILY save much more than $5. I never get out of Costco for less than $50-$75.
If you use a Costco American Express card, you can save 3% on gas and 2% on restaurants...1% on everything else. Gas is always 5-10 cents cheaper than other stations and there is always plenty of samples while you are shopping.