Retail Watchers

My Kaiser Permanente health insurance now covers 4 free COVID self test kits from outside pharmacies. I used a Walmart and surprisingly they had lots of test kits in stock. Demand for tests has gone down, so they are in stock most of the time now. Kaiser only covers the BinaxNow kits, but there is a...

A couple of years ago, I noticed a huge number of Tesla cars parked behind an abandoned Hooters in Dublin, California. I did not realize it at the time, but there is a Tesla showroom nearby. I often see about a hundred Teslas with their car alarms going off at the same time. Some days there are no T...

Tesla cars have only become popular in the last few years. When Fresh & Easy was around, electric cars were rare even in rich areas of California. Now Teslas show up to recharge even at Walmart electric car chargers.

Walgreens is expanding the number of free Volta electric vehicle chargers at its locations. There are 49 now and a target of 1000 chargers at 500 Walgreens locations. Volta allows 30 minutes of free charging and the option to pay for more. The chargers show advertising on screens. I first saw these ...

You cut off the line at 1:30 but people run up after and demand that they were there before. They lie to get served. Then they argue until lunch is half over.

For nearly a week dozens of Starbucks stores in the San Francisco Bay Area have been closed. In San Francisco, many of them including the ones in busy places such as Westfield San Francisco Centre, the Folsom Street Target, and Union Square are closed. Even in the suburbs, former busy stores that we...

The masks are definitely sought after if they are wrapped. People ask at my pharmacy for them if they are wrapped. No one wants the unwrapped ones. In just the past few weeks, it seems like most of the people working in my pharmacy have caught COVID. Some employees were out sick for over a week. The...

A Los Angeles developer has purchased the San Bruno mall and will turn it into office space for tech firms. All stores and the movie theater will close. This mall was in a perfect location with a subway station, police station, and a freeway right next to it. The Food Court was very nice and the mul...

A Walgreens in the Financial District at 141 Kearny Street is closing on February 22. San Francisco is suffering from a lack of people returning to their offices to work. The city has many tech companies and they all seem to be working from home. Only 20 percent of workers have returned vs up to 45 ...

I have experienced the lunch time line at the pharmacy that I work at. Customers will complain and demand to speak to a manager. In fact, some refuse to leave and will even try to hold the gate open. It has gotten to the point where we almost had to call the police. Some people are crazy. I had a wo...