The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 28, 1987, Page 3, Image 3
Money
Wednesday, January 28, 1987 * 3
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Discount dru
cut rates, qi
By CANDY M. BARR
Jjk Money editor
Discount drug store chains
which opened in South Carolin<
in 1986, are able to offer lowc
prices to customers by buying it
quantity and accepting manufac
turers' discounts, a drug stor<
manager said.
Phar Mor already has at leas
30 drugstores around the natioi
and plans to open about 47 mor
chains in 1987, said Jo
Teichman, store manager of Pha
Mor discount drug warehouse
The Columbia store opened ii
October 1986.
Although the Columbia store
located at 2340 Broad Rive
Road, is the first of the Phar Mo
chains in South Carolina, th
company has tentative plans t
open stores in Spartanburg an
northeast Columbia. Dcfinit
plans for two stores in Charlesto
are also on the way, Teichma
said.
"We sell thousands of pre
ducts, including a full line c
health and beauty aids, grocerie
Q and housewares ? everything bi
perishables," he said.
Teichman said "power bin
ing" explains the low prices Phi
Mor offers its customers, an
they never have products on sa
because their everyday prices ai
so low.
"We offer the customers a di
count when the manufacture
New consumer g
By CANDY M. BARR
A Money editor
^ A new consumer organizat
interests.
South Carolina Fair Share w
sumer organizations because it i
the right to lobby on unlimited i
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1
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i
gstores offer
lantity buying
nffpr us onp " Tiechman said.
Two-liter Cokes will be on sale
, at his store for 79 cents because
j Coca-Cola is offering the disr
count to the store, but when
1 Coca-Cola ends their discount
period, so will Phar Mor.
e Another discount drug chain,
which opened last year in Colunit
bia, is the Drug Emporium at
i 1234 Outlet Point Blvd.
c With the addition of the Cole
umbia store, which opened in
r June, 1986, Drug Emporium has
four stores in South Carolina and
n about 110 nationwide.
The four stores in South
Carolina include two in
r Charleston, one in Greenville and
t the Columbia store.
e Like Phar Mor, the Drug Emo
porium is able to offer low prices
d to the customers through quantie
ty buying, said Larry Beverly, the
n store manager.
n "We can save the customer 50
percent off of their sunglasses,
)- and 40 percent off of their
>f greeting cards," said Beverly.
;s Beverly said customers may
it find lower prices on certain items
elsewhere, but if a customer
1- shops there regularly, he will save
ir up to 30 to 40 percent off of his
d total cost.
le Beverly said the Drug Em
re porium has 2,800 different products
and "aisles of shampoo."
s- The store carries health and beaurs
ty aids, and pharmaceuticals.
roup forms coalition
ion will work on a broad area of
ill be different from the existing cons
a non-profit organization, which has
nterests and accept contributions, said
See "Fair Share," page
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City Garage pre
By CANDY M. BARR
Money editor
The towing service used by the University
Police Department unlocks and jumpstarts
more cars on campus than it tows.
Girls lock their keys into cars more than
guys, and "... they never know what street
their cars are parked on. They know the
building, but not the street," said Candy
Fant, an office manager for City Garage on
Gervais Street, which provides campus
towing.
Contrary to popular belief, she said less
than 1 percent of the company's income last
year came from towing students' cars i?oin
campus.
Fant said the majority of the calls from
USC are for towing student's cars parked in
parking spaces for the handicapped or other
illegal parking spaces. The company has also
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non-parking areas, she said.
"It seems like every five minutes we get a
call saying 'go to the BA parking lot or the
Pit,'" Fant said.
City Garage is responsible for USC's zone,
one of four car garage service zones in Columbia,
Fant said.
Most of the garage's income from campus
? comes from students' towing requests and
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body work to their cars, she said.
"It used to be that garages would listen to
their radios to tow cars and at an accident,
five or six tow trucks would be there waiting
to tow," Fant said.
The zone system makes work easier because
if the owner is not able to request a towing
service, the company assigned to the zone
takes the call.
Fant said City Garage never takes a car
without the owner, a police officer or USC official,
present to authorize the tow.
"One university officer always stays with
us during the towing procedure," Fant said,
adding that USC treats students better compared
to the city or county.
City Garage is paid a $5 service charge to
send a tow truck to the tow site, regardless of
whether the car is actually towed.
"If someone comes running out to save
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whether we tow; but we will still get the service
charge," Fant said.
City Garage charges a student $20 when the
university tows his car and $2 a day for
storage at the garage. The regular price for
towing is $30.
"Many students think that the insurance
(company) will reimburse them when the
university tows their cars, but most insurance
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companies don't pay for cars illegally parked,"
Fant said.
"The students are real nice about picking
up their cars. About 99.9 percent of the time,
they're great. They're not happy. Who's going
to be happy when their car gets towed, but
they don't hold it against us," Fant said.
Police officers will sometimes even offer to
drive the student to the garage to pick up his
car, she said.
City Garage usually has at least 10 tow
trucks operating at one time and takes between
5 and 10 minutes to tow a car, depending
on where and how it is parked.
Fant said the company has a new device,
called the wheel lift, that helps to hook tYz car
up quickly and prevent damage.
Towing business during concerts varies
largely on who's appearing at Carolina Coliseum,
she said, and those calls are mostly city
calls, not from USC.
"For something like the circus, we might
get only one call. But when Bon Jovi was
here, we got called all night," Fant said.
"Calls for ball games are even less, and we
don't go out at the end of a football game.
We either go before the fourth quarter or one
hour after the game.
"Highway patrols would be crazy to try to
get us to go out in that crowd," Fant said.
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