The Fed

Where's The LOVE'S

Anna Chodos

For many the return to campus this fall was more wretched than usual as they faced one bleak community reality: Columbia Love (Love Pharmacy on Broadway between 111th and 112th) was replaced over the summer by the much less lovely Duane Reade.
    The change was sudden and unannounced. No students received word from Columbia over the summer about the change in neighborhood pharmacies, a situation of considerable shock for Matthew Baker, SEAS '00, a self-proclaimed Love guru.
    "When I arrived on campus, I realized I had left my most essential sundries at home, so I, of course, headed out to Love's. Realizing it was no longer Love's, I was shocked and tearful. I had to stumble on to Rite Aid, my choice being for nothing else if not the familiarity of it," he recounted.
    Annoyance, too, abounds. One College junior, Erin Eckstein, a stunning blond and fierce pharmaceutical enthusiast, relied on Love's remarkable selection to supply her with her favorite gentle shampoo, which keeps color truer, hair healthier.
    "I had to walk to Rite Aid, god-dammit," she fumed.
This is not an uncommon occurrence. Students choose to go to Rite Aid, because Duane Reade carries a much smaller selection than Columbia Love once did.
    Though students are distraught, Columbia Administration has yet to issue any official statement to calm their fears. Lauren Marshall from the office of Public Affairs pointed out, "It's actually not a University property. It's not really anything that the University can comment on because it's not germane to Columbia University, the institution."
    Such an official commitment not to commit means, ultimately, that they will not be issuing a statement. However, other administrative staff, much like the students, express distress and anger at the change.
    Lea Baechler, an administrative assistant in the Office of the Dean, admits that she doesn't hear much official discussion about the situation, but that she grieves privately.
    "I'm, like, really upset about it. For me Rite Aid might have most things, but the personnel and attitude is awful. All you get is irritation and frustration... Love's was a real neighborhood store."
    Love's was, indeed, a neighborhood store.  And ours was not the only Manhattan community to be so ill-fated: in all, Love Stores (owner operated for that personal touch) once numbered fifteen in Manhattan, but ten of those sold to Duane Reade about two and a half months ago. Approximately ten other neighborhoods have been similarly stricken.
    One patron, a mother, leaving on of the remaining Love Stores on 77th and Broadway, remarked to her young son that she wished a Love Store still operated in her neighborhood, on Madison between 88th and 89th streets. A Duane Reade has accordingly opened across the street
    "I haven't talked to anyone else, but I miss it," a mother volunteered.
    When asked about Duane Reade's Lack of product that forces so many to chose Rite Aid for their purchases, Carl Reade declared, "We have a somewhat smaller selection [than Love's had]. It's a much smaller store."
    As a theory to explain this shrinkage, it has been suggested that the housing shortage might have led Columbia to pilfer some of the original love property. Unfortunately, inquiries posed to administration and Love's managerial staff into possible tampering with the walls and/or physical integrity of the store proved fruitless. However, it is certain that none of this "space" was then transported to Lerner for the student offices.
    Does a smaller store and less product somehow contribute to the absence of love in the neighborhood, felt so strongly by students, staff and mothers? Remaining Love's staff members suggested that Duane Reade is itself a loveless element.
    One Assistant Manager at Manhattan Love (at 77th and Broadway), who prefers to inhabit the shadow land of anonymity, remarked that he had been with love stores for 14 years, was then offered a job by Duane Reade, as were all previous Love employees, but ultimately come back to Love.
    "They don't treat their employees nice. They're unprofessional. They treat [their employees] like slaves. Love Stores treat their employees good."
    One might wonder why Davidson, the Duane Reade manger, who worked for Columbia Love for 12 years would remain in such abject servitude. But He sings a different tune. He likes working for Duane Reade "much better." He suggests that maybe people stay with Love to maintain a certain cushy lifestyle.
    "People stayed with Love's because they can get away with bad habits. Now I'm more in charge of what I'm doing, and Duane Reade is more centralized, much easier to work for. You can give customers more personal service."
    Doe he mean Duane Reade provides more T.L.C. than Love did?
    "You've got the same set of Love people [working here]. The customers always come back from Rite Aid. They get a lot of Love here," insisted Davidson. "We even offer the Dollar Reward card. Better than Love's 5%."
    Dare we believe it? Better savings and more love than Love, where "For Savings, Love is the Answer"? More love than a store where they sell Choice Books (R), reading to enrich your life, and beanie babies in such plentitude that they almost seem to breed before one's eyes on the shelves? That when the tallies are taken we find that Duane Reade provides more love with less product?
    Tough one to swallow, especially considering the emotional hardship endured by area residents upon Columbia Love's dissolution and the strongly perceived reduction of love in the neighborhood.
    Claude, a manager at Rite Aid, provided a less impassioned view of the situation and felt that the lack of Love in the neighborhood was hardly symptomatic of any great transition.
    "Neighborhood never gonna change. Business always changes. But not the neighborhood," said Claude.
    For the students, though, the change is real, be it the result of shifting tides in the undulating ocean that is Manhattan's business world, or a covert government operation to implant us with alien progeny through Duane Reade Dollar Reward card distribution. Baker, again, revealed how he felt about the transition.
    "There is less love in the neighborhood. But while the lack of Love is no jerkwater matter, I believe we can counter the impending scarcity of pharmaceutical options and dearth of love. Campus group hugs and shuttle buses to Manhattan Love would be my suggestion."
    Certainly, Love doesn't live here anymore, but how far will, and should, we go for Love?

September ish, 1999