When you have to shave, you have to shave. That is, we suppose, the way our locally dominant pharmacy chain figures that it can make a buck — or three — by charging about 25 percent more for razor refills than they can be had elsewhere. Not believing it even after we discovered this, we had to return to the near-monopoly pharmacy to triple check. The razor blades were $4 apiece in the store but $2.75 direct from the manufacturer — with free shipping.
It is often said that gas prices are out of whack on the South Fork, but have you ever priced a sandwich? A friend spent $8.53 on a basic egg sandwich in Montauk one morning recently. And the big pharmacy where razors are pricey has batteries for $7.29 that we picked up from Staples — albeit with one-day delivery — for $1.14. Groceries cost more on the South Fork than they otherwise might, making a trip to Riverhead for boxes of cereal, pasta, or fruit almost worth it, if it weren’t for those gas prices.
It costs more to run a business here on the South Fork, we are told, which may be a factor in prices. For example, Stop & Shop on Newtown Lane has a poster up seeking workers, starting salary an eye-popping $21.50. But the old excuse about it being a three-month season just doesn’t hold true anymore. The 2020 census reported more than 28,000 of us year round, up more than 30 percent from a decade earlier. Thank you, but from here out, we will be preparing our egg sandwiches at home — that way we can still afford our razors.