Crummy Variety Store
With 50 outlets in the District, CVS has a near monopoly on drugs, cough syrup, hair spray--and customer dissatisfaction.
Cover Story
With 50 outlets in the District, CVS has a near monopoly on drugs, cough syrup, hair spray--and customer dissatisfaction.
Photographs by Darrow Montgomery
On South Capitol Street SW, a consumer's nirvana has taken hold.
Eight cash registers sit atop a red counter ready to ring up purchases. Rows upon rows of shampoo, conditioner, soap, and laundry detergent are all placed neatly on their shelves, each label facing forward. The cosmetics displays are pristine--no crumbling pots of eye shadow or half-empty lip-gloss testers that bored teenage girls have dug their fingers into. Every greeting card is in its proper place--no birthday cards mixed in with the anniversary cards. Nothing spills into the aisles, and enthusiastic clerks will soon replenish the few items that are out of stock. The pharmacy is fully stocked.
And then the clincher: There is no line at the register.
This is CVS: clean, uncluttered, and welcoming.
Wait a minute: CVS is never clean, uncluttered, and welcoming. This seemingly perfect store is not an actual drugstore at all, but a "mock store" inside the CVS/Pharmacy Regional Learning Center, located at the end of a sleepy strip mall. The store is used to train new employees of Washington's most prevalent chain drugstore. None of the beautifully arranged items in this fantasy land are for sale. "We actually have people come in and try to buy things all the time," says Caroline Garrett, the manager of the center. "They think that it's an actual store."... Continued 
Issue of Mar. 1 - 7, 2002
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