Wondering ‘61

WARNING: This column is mundane.

Last week I needed to replace small bottles of low dose (baby=81mg) aspirin and saline nasal spray. I knew that both were carried by the pharmacy at Sawtooth Mountain Clinic. I wondered availability at other Grand Marais stores and how the prices compared. [If you don’t shop mostly in Grand Marais, you may want to skip to the internet options below.]

The best local price for saline spray was at the Clinic pharmacy, 1.5 ounces for $2.30. The best price for low dose, uncoated, unchewable aspirin was at Gene’s, 120 tablets for $3.23. Here are the complete results of my semi-reliable attempt to determine local availabilities and price.

Sawtooth Mountain Clinic: low dose aspirin, 120 tablets for $4.99. Saline solution: 1.5 ounces for 2.30.

Johnson’s Grocery Store: Saline, 1.5 ounces for $3.69. Low dose aspirin 120 tablets for $6.69.

Gene’s IGA Foods: No saline; 120 low dose aspiring tablets for $3.23. Also, several choices of 36 count chewable and one enteric coated selection, both $5.00.

Joynes’ had no saline. Low dose aspirin has been on back order for six months. Marathon had no saline but did have 36 chewable tables for $5.99.

Neither item is available at the Trading Post, Stone Harbor, Holiday, or Coop.

I was not impressed with the selection of either product online at either CVS or Walgreens in Duluth. For saline solution, Walgreens said the nearest store was in Chicago.

Searching for the products on the Internet generated uncounted choices, but most were for the far more expensive chewable and/ or uncoated tablets. The coated tablets are mostly for people with stomachs sensitive to aspirin. The chewable ones are mostly for people for whom swallowing a tablet is difficult. Otherwise, there are great savings for uncoated and non-chewable tablets.

If you decide to not buy locally, be very wary of the fine print. You can get some versions of these products very cheaply, but I suspect shipping and handling are extra.

If you are in the market for great savings on saline nasal spray, keep looking for the Sunmark brand sold as a group of three or six bottles. The per ounce cost is drastically lower.

It took me about an hour to survey the local stores in person. Now you do not have to. Perhaps the Clinic pharmacy will lower the aspirin price so we can by both at one stop. Or maybe the Clinic pharmacy can buy cheaper on the internet and pass the savings on to us.

There may be errors in the foregoing, but it is mostly reliable. If any local store has facts to add, we are all ears here (mostly). See e-address below. If you knew all this, or didn’t care, and got this far, it is not my fault you are so easily entertained or bereft of better input.

CORRECTIONS: My son Jeff watched Rocky and Bullwinkle frequently when in elementary school. He pointed out the villain was named Snidely Whiplash, not Snively like the parkway in Duluth. Mea Minima Culpa.

Reviewing the prior column on Cant Road, I see that I inferred that Cant Road, County 281, stopped on its way south and then resumed as South Cant Road. Wrong! South Cant Road is north of Cant Road, separated by an industrial plant. You can’t get directly from Cant Road to South Cant. Not my Culpa.

INVITATION: Someone wrote recently suggesting a subject for a column. I have forgotten what he asked for and cannot find the message. Perhaps he will remind me. More ideas are welcome. I promise to remember most of them; I am 80 years of age.

Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, mediator, and Judge, serving from 1997-2010. He and his wife moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses. Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without appointment by the Chief Justice.

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