While Joe and I were at a pharmacy conference, I learned about a web site called “Fight 4 Rx.” Joe had already heard about it and had actually asked over 100 of our customers to sign the petition that is featured on the web site. Fight4Rx is a grassroots movement by community pharmacists across the country who are trying to teach their patients about the value of community drugstores.

I’d like to ask those of you who have never heard about this to add your name to the patient petition. Most of you know that large PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) force patients to use their mail order services and take away choices. Joe and I would like for you to sign the petition saying that you want to keep access to Plain City Druggist.

All you have to do when you get to the site is either print the petition out and have yourself and your friends and neighbors sign it or just click to send an email asking that your name be added to the petition. I clicked to email my name for the petition and the subject line of my email read: “Please Add My Name to the Petition-I Want Prescriptions at My Local Community Pharmacy.”

Please sign the petition HERE.

To combat the PBMs and forced mandatory mail order, pharmacists in New York have created “Operation AMMO,” which stands for Operation Anti-Mandatory Mail Order. To read more about what they are doing in their state to combat mail order, please visit the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York’s web site HERE.

Additionally, while we were at this conference Kimber Lanning spoke to us about the organization she belongs to in Arizona called “Local First Arizona.” What this group focuses on is asking people to shop at their local stores and stop spending their money out of town. Economic studies conducted by the group show that when someone buys something locally $73 from every $100 stays in the community supporting schools, law enforcement, local charities, and the people who work in the town. When that same person buy things out of town, only $43 out of every $100 spent stays in the local economy.

To see the studies and read more about shopping local, go HERE.

Additionally, this group supports the 10% Shift, where they ask consumers to shift 10% of what they would normally spend to local businesses. They don’t ask them to spend 10% more, only shift 10% of what they already spend to buy products they need in their own communities.

To read about the 10% Shift and calculate the impact on your local economy by making this small change, go HERE.

Mandatory Mail Order does not support local pharmacies. When businesses in Plain City choose who they want to provide their employees with health insurance, they need to make a choice that allows their employees to come to Plain City Druggist. Supporting insurance that forces a person to send their prescriptions to a company that may be thousands of miles away doesn’t just hurt us, it also hurts the whole community.

While they may think they are getting cheaper prices on that insurance, overall, they are cheating themselves and Plain City by taking money out of our local economy–money that pays our employees who then buy products from Charlie at the grocery store or Perry at the hardware; money that Joe and I spend on local taxes; money that we give to our church and local school programs and charities to help Plain City people and animals. That insurance company that forces mail order is giving no money back to Plain City for any of those things.

So think about these things the next time you have a choice. The biggest way to back up what you believe is with your money. Please use it locally. And FIGHT for what you believe in.

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