they paved paradise and put up a walgreen's

before i moved to the sticks, i lived in one of those towns that has torn down everything with character and replaced it with some type of chain franchise. then they suddenly realized, "hey, we need history!"  so they leave one block alone.

yeah, like a street out of mayberry in the middle of new york.

the idiot mayor even named the one old street "olde town" despite the fact that it was misspelled.

the chains continued to grow. soon the town had chili's, applebee's, starbucks.

and wal-green's.

lots and lots of wal-green's.

i think the rule is, you have to be able to see another walgreeen's from the one at which you are standing. 

on my way to shop at target, maybe a 5 mile route, i passed 6 walgreen's. SIX! if there was a good special, i would stop at every one to purchase whatever sale item i needed.

one year i bought 24 lbs. of hershey's bar s that i made into candy, and i think after i used all the coupons, rebate rewards, store specials and what have you, it was only $6. a quarter a pound for chocolate.

now the closest walgreen's is 16 miles away, in the same shopping center as taco bell and target. across the street is a starbucks. kroger is across the street on the other side of the parking lot.

if i go fifteen miles the other way from my house, i find a wal-mart that closes at midnight, a crappy dollar store, lots of cutesy gift shops that cater to the buses of antique-seeking red hatters, a lot of antiques stores full of broken crap, a wendy's, a sonic, the kfc/taco bell, a waffle house and a popeye's chicken.

i think a walgreen's is required.

just think, i could drive my smartcar right around the drive-thru!