I am not a crook
I have rather fond and wholesome memories of biking to the local Walgreens in Houston and buying Gold Circle Coin condoms. They usually came in gold foil but sometimes in red, blue, green or white. The foil was sturdy enough to put the packages back together after removing the condom and I once strung a bunch of them like popcorn as Christmas garland.
Since those days I have not often bought them in a store. Mail order is cheaper, more convenient, and there is more selection. The other day I tried looking for some at my local Publix grocery store but could not find what I wanted. They were near the pharmacy counter, but they were not behind the counter or locked up.
Finally I went to the local CVS Pharmacy and found what I wanted in a locked cabinet. Interestingly the small packages of one to three were outside the cabinet, maybe those are the ones they are willing to lose to desperate, embarrassed teen shoplifters? I asked at the nearby pharmacy counter to have the cabinet opened, and she paged a cashier on the speakers everyone in the store can hear. The cashier came down the aisle, asked what I wanted, I pointed, she said she would meet me at the register. She did not seem to want to open the cabinet with me nearby and was certainly not going to let me carry this precious item myself before it was paid for. (I still have not actually touched the box myself since it is still in the small bag from the store.) When I gave her a $20 bill at the register she made a show of checking it carefully with a counterfeit detection pen.
I am not sure the exact details of how condoms should best be distributed, but this is obviously far from ideal. I am way beyond being personally embarrassed to have people know I want to buy condoms, but I am concerned when I imagine someone who has never had sex before and is a bit nervous about the whole thing, trying to do the right thing and plan ahead, and then they have to run this gauntlet. It seems to, either by design or accident, make them feel like a criminal and discourage buying condoms as a normal transaction.
It really seems like condoms ought to somehow be freely and anonymously and non-judgmentally available to anyone who wants them. Any sane analysis will show that their cost is next to nothing compared to the health care costs they can prevent.
Since those days I have not often bought them in a store. Mail order is cheaper, more convenient, and there is more selection. The other day I tried looking for some at my local Publix grocery store but could not find what I wanted. They were near the pharmacy counter, but they were not behind the counter or locked up.
Finally I went to the local CVS Pharmacy and found what I wanted in a locked cabinet. Interestingly the small packages of one to three were outside the cabinet, maybe those are the ones they are willing to lose to desperate, embarrassed teen shoplifters? I asked at the nearby pharmacy counter to have the cabinet opened, and she paged a cashier on the speakers everyone in the store can hear. The cashier came down the aisle, asked what I wanted, I pointed, she said she would meet me at the register. She did not seem to want to open the cabinet with me nearby and was certainly not going to let me carry this precious item myself before it was paid for. (I still have not actually touched the box myself since it is still in the small bag from the store.) When I gave her a $20 bill at the register she made a show of checking it carefully with a counterfeit detection pen.
I am not sure the exact details of how condoms should best be distributed, but this is obviously far from ideal. I am way beyond being personally embarrassed to have people know I want to buy condoms, but I am concerned when I imagine someone who has never had sex before and is a bit nervous about the whole thing, trying to do the right thing and plan ahead, and then they have to run this gauntlet. It seems to, either by design or accident, make them feel like a criminal and discourage buying condoms as a normal transaction.
It really seems like condoms ought to somehow be freely and anonymously and non-judgmentally available to anyone who wants them. Any sane analysis will show that their cost is next to nothing compared to the health care costs they can prevent.