Fuck you to the authority who renovated a particular drug store and sacrificed common decency for fragrant perfumes and cosmetics! Obviously you don’t care about those with environmental sensitivities and/or mobility issues or else you wouldn’t have put your bloody pharmacy and necessities on the top floor while putting unnecessary and offensive perfumes and cosmetics on the bottom floor to be experienced by the unwitting. I hope that the handicapped and/or elderly individual who inevitably gets stuck on the top floor of your facility sues your ass when the elevator eventually fails.
—Angry Shopper
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.
It kind of amazes me that scents would command such a large section of the store and at the entrance to boot – it’s pretty insensitive considering that scent is discouraged pretty much everywhere publicly because of people’s sensitivities. I don’t have such sensitivities but I hate the smell of their overpriced celebrity scents like Eau de Clit and Herpes by Lindsay. I feel like spraying the place with a few litres of Febreeze.
Phew, nothing is better than the fresh scent of Febreeze. I was a loyal customer from the beginning. Mix that with the powdery bounce of Downy and a white tee, and you’ve got yourself one sexy ass maverick.
Actually, in a specific “Drug Mart” you now have the choice of entering thru either door… They’ve now placed stickers on them that say night entrance/environmental sensitivity entrance.
It’s a stupid concept, but that’s what makes these stores money.
However, there *is* an elevator for those with mobility issues, and hey for the rest of us it’s promoting health by getting us to walk up a few stairs.
I think the REAL issue here is the price gauging by said chain of “drug marts.” Holy expensive.
The cosmetic section is fine. The line-up design needs to be tossed.
I work at Shoppers. Why do you think they put that section at the entrance? That’s where all the expensive shit is, and everything is shiny, clean and bright in that part. They want to give customers the impression that they’re coming into an upper-class boutique rather than any old drug store. There IS another door customers can go through that isn’t in the cosmetics section, but many ignore the other one and then come up to us empployees every damn day and make the same complaint thinking they’re the first person to say it. If you don’t like it then go to lawtons.
That’s a real professional attitude…
xox – what about the other SDM locations that don’t have an alternate entrance and force patrons to walk through the cloud of stink?
TTFN – I’m sure the cosmetic firms pay SDM a hefty premium shelf space fee for having their stuff at the entrance. Same thing used to occur when tobacco retailers had the power walls and all the illuminated signs.
Like I said, go to lawtons. People are always going to find something to complain about.
I am with oxo on this one, SDM’s mission statement is not to show one segment of the population they care more about them than the other. Its to run a profitable business. They are a publicly traded company and are therefore responsible to share holders to deliver a profit. These cosmetics counters, as silly and overpriced as it may be, are very profitable for these places since they mark that stuff up much more than everyday items.
If you have environmental sensitivities my sympathies go out to you since i know this must be a real headache for you ( get it….headache? ) but you can’t expect every business to conform to a scent free policy. Its a private place of business not a public building like a hospital or a post office.
If you don’t like it then no one is forcing you to shop there, and even if you were somehow forced to shop there you have an alternative entrance to by-pass the scents. And the lawsuit comment about the elevators is just ridiculous, you can’t just file a lawsuit every time something unfortunate or inconvenient happens to you.
i say bring on the scents
Give me a fucking huge and colossal break! For years we managed to somehow survive through a steady dose of everything from Cigar smoke to people who had literally bathed in cheap perfume. Now we need to put up with idiots like the OP complaining if someone even washes their hair with a scented shampoo! It is more than a bit fucking ridiculous. Here is a fucking hint. Go live in a ubble or buy one of those self enclosed suits with your own oxygen supply so you will not be subjected to the deadly scent of Obsession by Calvin Klein!
a little Vic’s under the nose.. even keeps away the smell of burning diesel, dog shit and even decomp in the harbour! Imagine what it could do for the nose offended by sweetness! May I roll my eyes now?
It is weird, isn’t it? How 15 years ago people smoked and wore scents everywhere, and now if we catch one sniff of any scent, we go ballistic. Cigarette smoke I understand (I don’t want to breathe that shit either), but when I walk by a woman wearing perfume, it’s a welcome change – especially after working in the hospital smelling Bacti-Stat and Manorapid all day.
Shut up and breath out of your mouth for all of three seconds.
I agree with NGF: the line up design is terrible. It’s a nightmare to navigate your way out of there if you’re not paying for anything at the main cash. I know there are constraints of the building but…it’s annoying when you’ve paid for your prescription upstairs and have to plough through shitloads of people in line just to gtfo of the store.
Also, fwiw, most of the scents are at the BACK of the cosmetics section. There are like MAYBE one or two at the front, but most are at the back of the store past the entrance to the rest of the store…most of the stuff in the cosmetics section is make up.
Just sayin’
THANK you Bobby33. Man…remember several years ago people were walking around with freaking surgical MASKS on their faces because of this environmental illness hysteria? Where are those people nowadays? I grant that some people are affected, but come on. We’re trying to live in a society here folks.
I went to school with this chick who claimed to have “environment illness” and when she wasn’t looking people would put on scented shit and use permanent markers and she’d be fine; it was only when she actually SAW them that she’d freak the fuck out.
FAKER++
I’m sure there are lots of hypochondriacs out there, but there actually are some people with serious health conditions that are severely affected by scents, my grandma being one of them. There are all kinds of other people that have allergies or asthma that are adversely affected by scents too. I don’t think that everyone should be expected to bend over backwards to accommodate a minority, but I do think that scented products are generally a bit overused, and I definitely agree with scent free policies in places like hospitals.
Meow- I agree with you. I just think that a little common “scents” goes a very long way. We have gone from people being allowed to smoke where they want and bathe in cheap cologne to a point where you cannot even use a scented shampoo! Why must it be all or nothing in society? Maybe it is time that we all stopped wearing deodorant? I mean sure we would all stink but at least people would not be subjected to that overpowering scent of Mennan.
I understand all of your points, but as the name implies it is a DRUG STORE! If they want to be a department store the name or the mandate should change. Patients have been going to this location for years and are encouraged to always go to ONE pharmacy. My point is that their focus has changed from providing that quality customer service, which is also part of a profitable business to that of maximum profit. Obviously they are in it to make a profit, but there is no reason why the pharmacy should the in the least accessible part of the drug store to be overthrown by self-indulgent merchandise. Oh, and XOX, they did the business I subsequently gave to Lawtons. How could you post that comment when decent people with genuine illnesses unexpectedly enter trying to fill their prescription? And for those of you who cannot understand how such sensitives became more prevalent in recent years, enlighten yourselves and look up the hygiene hyothesis.