It’s hard out here for an indy pharmacy trying to make a go of it in SoPac. It was surrounded by chain and other specialty pharmacies (Rite Aid a block west, CVS not much further away to the east, not to mention Kroger, Meijer, and CVS Inside Target a little ways south. I haven’t even gotten to Walgreens and Clark Pharmacy, to the north.
The pharmacy opened last winter emphasizing service and a personal touch that would differentiate them from the chains. Unfortunately the competition may have been too much. I hope it was a soft landing, there’s certainly no shortage of demand for pharmacists.
In lighter news, remember when I noticed the low-profile Burger King sign by the Hyatt on State Street? It has a counterpart on Victors Way now:
This all makes sense now because the parking lots for Burger King and Hyatt Place have been connected. Finally you can get a king-size Hyatt bed AND flame broiling without having to navigate State Street traffic.
An exit to the West off of I-94, the Xfinity Store has opened in Oak Valley shopping center. It’s near Target, between Men’s Wearhouse and Sally Beauty Supply. (Previously, this spot was Famous Footwear for decades.)
I’m still not super-comfortable taking photos inside a store, like some kind of creep, so instead I hung out by a planter and zoomed in on the windows, like some kind of bigger creep.
In the window you can see that, although there is plenty of TV and internet information to be had, a lot of the store is devoted to wireless phones and accessories, Xfinity’s newest service. With the recent launch of Xfinity Mobile, it was clear that Comcast needed more of a retail presence than the service counter in their longtime transmission facility on South Industrial.
Xfinity Mobile is what is known in the industry as a Virtual Network Operator — that’s when another company resells service from one of the big wireless companies like AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile. Sometimes they pass their volume savings onto the customer as a cheaper alternative to the Big Four, like Ting, Cricket, or Straight Talk do. In other cases there are value-adds like assurances of charitable giving, as Credo Mobile does, or extra timely sports content, like when Disney offered ESPN Mobile a few years ago. Once you start researching these things for yourself you can easily wind up down a rabbit-hole of obscure prepaid vendors and ad-hoc “family plans” that makes Cord Cutting look mainstream. (I am personally a Cricket customer — they are actually a division of AT&T, they use AT&T’s network, and they work fine for the price. Let me know if you want to sign up, it works out well for both of us and is an excellent way to support citizen journal-ish.)
In Xfinity Mobile’s case, they offer the convenience of bundling your mobile service with your cable bill (and resell Verizon’s service). One slightly controversial aspect of their service is that you have to buy your phone from them. You can’t buy your phone from somewhere else, even if it’s the same kind of phone, and just put an Xfinity SIM in it. They say this is to ensure compatibility and reduce troubleshooting, and I’m sure that’s part of it, but I think they want some of that sweet, sweet phone hardware money, too.
They are two doors down from Target, who has this handsome display to get you to sign up for Xfinity home internet service, but does not offer Xfinity Mobile service at this time.
See that Netgear cable modem in the above photo? (Not an affiliate link, just for information.) It costs $180.00. It has twice as many channels as my Arris, but costs three times as much. Honestly, though? Still probably cheaper than renting your cable modem, in the long run.