When I went food shopping with my older son last year, I think it was the first time he had seen the self-service lanes at the Giant. When you scan an item, a female voice says, "$1.69" or whatever the price is. My son observed that the voice was very loud. I said, "Yes, and it's a good thing it's just announcing the prices and not the things you buy. 'Loaf of bread. Loaf of bread. CONDOMS!!!!'"
Well, it seems that CVS has set up a system like the one I was joking about. At some CVS stores, the condoms are locked in a case where there's a button that reads "push for assistance."
Keith Eby had a somewhat similar experience. A day after the 37-year-old health-care consultant found the condoms locked up at his neighborhood CVS at Logan Circle, he tried the CVS on M Street in Georgetown, near his office. Same problem.And it's not just CVS:
"I don't get embarrassed easily, but even I couldn't imagine ringing a buzzer and having everyone in the store know I was purchasing condoms," said Eby.
CVS, the leading drugstore chain in the Washington area, is not alone. Some Safeway and Giant stores in the District also lock up condoms, as do most Shopper's Food & Pharmacy Warehouse stores in the nearby suburbs. (Two chains that don't lock them up, no matter where their stores are located, are Rite-Aid and Eckerd.)Remember the Woody Allen movie "Bananas"? The Woody Allen character is in a bookstore and wants to buy a porn magazine. He's embarrassed, so he buys Time, Newsweek, and other mainstream magazines and slides the porn magazine into the pile. At the checkout, the cashier says: "Fifty, a dollar, dollar and a quarter..." and he yells to the back: "Hey, Ralph, how much is a copy of Orgasm?" When the guy doesn't hear him, he shouts: "Orgasm. This man wants to buy a copy. How much is it?"
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