N.D. House Votes Against Competition
Welcome to the “Good Ol’ Boy’s” state I guess. The House voted to keep the North Dakota Pharmacy law as is. The current law states that any pharmacy must be majority owned by a state licensed pharmacist. It’s a holdover from a much older time and from much older concerns. Now, it only serves to keep the likes of Walmart and Target from having company owned pharmacies in their stores. Or, providing competition for other pharmacies.
But, alas, they’ve decided that competition isn’t good for business. I’m a little surprised, since the state is predominantly a Republican state. And normally, the R’s are all for the big corporations. Mostly, I’m dissapointed that our legislature still doesn’t get it. Competition IS good for business. It promotes advancement in techniques, products, and most of all in customer service. And before you get out of hand and go on about Walmart not having any customer service, I believe that price can be a part of customer service. I also think that a pharmacist working at a Walmart or Target can be just as friendly and know you just as well as any pharmacist at any other pharmacy.
It is possible that a few pharmacies would have closed had the change been passed. But they still might anyways. And who should we blame then? Should we blame the house because the lack of competition allowed the pharmacy to stagnate and eventually wither and die? I doubt that anyone would, but it’s just as likely as the pharmacy closing because the Walmart 50 miles away got a pharmacy.