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Safeway Introduces Generic Drug Discounts

Competitors scramble to keep up with Wal-Mart

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 11, 2008

• Proposed Settlement Could Lower Prescription Drug Prices • FDA: Baltimore Pharmacies Selling Expired and Counterfeit Drugs • Some Drug Prices Surging 100 Percent Or More • Kmart, Schnucks Expand Generic Rx Discounts • Coming Soon: Generic Drugs from China • Safeway Introduces Generic Drug Discounts • Medicaid Cuts 'Devastating,' Pharmacies Warn • Kroger Expands Its Generic Drug Discount Program • Supermarkets Launch Generic Drug Discount Programs • Drug Prices Can Vary Widely, Survey Finds • Wal-Mart Adds More Generic Drugs To Discount Plan • FDA Finds Problems with Online Drugs • Wal-Mart Expands $4 Generic Program • Walgreens.com's Pharmacy Gets Top Rating • Popular Blood Pressure Drug Goes Generic • Wal-Mart Expands Generic Drug Plan • Consumers Get Little Drug Price Information From Their Doctors • Florida Pharmacy Offers Generics Online for $3.79 • Wal-Mart Adds 12 More States To $4 Drug Program • Wal-Mart Expands $4 Generic Drug Program To 14 More States • Report: Shopping Around Beats Medicare Drug Prices • Drugs by Mail: Money Saver or Rx for Disaster? • Wal-Mart Expands Its Generic Drug Discounts • Feds Give Up on Canadian Drug Crackdown • Target Matches Wal-Mart's $4 Generic Rx Price • Congress OKs Drug Shopping Trips To Canada • Seniors Bemoan "Donut Day" • Wal-Mart Cuts Generic Rx Prices To $4 In Florida • AARP: Drug Prices Still Rising • Illinois Sues 48 Drug Companies • Pharmacy Benefit Managers Scrutinized • Survey Shows Value of Comparison Shopping --- • Medicare News

Safeway will begin offering $4 prescriptions on hundreds of generic drugs at stores in the eastern United States and parts of the Midwest, the latest supermarket chain to follow the trail blazed by Wal-Mart two years ago.

The discounted prescriptions will be available at stores in the Chicago area, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. The list of $4 drugs includes the antibiotic amoxicillin, blood pressure medication atenolol and levothyroxine for thyroid disease.

Wal-Mart shook up the pharmacy business when it introduced its program two years ago. Target quickly followed but other stores have been slow to do so.

Kroger unveiled its $4 program in February, modeled closely after Wal-Mart's. Walgreen Co. sells a 90-day supply of generics for $12.99, and some regional supermarket chains have discounted some generic prices.

Wal-Mart has been keeping the pressure on.

On May 6, Wal-Mart expanded its program to include orders for 90-day supplies and additional drugs to treat osteoporosis and breast cancer as well as cutting the price of more than 1,000 popular over-the-counter drugs in half, setting off competitive responses by many grocery chains, including Sweetbay Supermarkets, Hannaford Bros., Food Lion and Harveys Supermarkets.

Shop around

But consumers should be sure to shop around. The most publicized programs are not always the cheapest.

A survey released by Consumer Reports last week found that price fluctuations can be dramatic -- sometimes more than $100 for the same prescription – even within the same chain, depending on whether consumers are filling their prescriptions in, say, Omaha, Nebraska, or Billings, Montana.

Costco was the cheapest for the four drugs CR sought quotes for, followed by AARP.com and Wal-Mart. Walgreens and Rite-Aid were among the priciest for the four drugs.

Consumer Reports said it placed more than 500 calls to 163 pharmacies nationwide to gauge price differences among four prescription drugs, three name brand medicines and one generic.

Read more about the CR study ...

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