Mary Smith, at the Marginal Way Walgreens This Afternoon Buying Several ,
Customers are Limited to Four Test Kits Each Per Day at Walgreens.
The Display of Home Test Kits at Walgreens, 127 Marginal Way. The Lower Shelf Displaying the Two Test Kits per Package is Almost Bare.
Manager Nick Hudson, at Walgreens, 713 Congress Street This Afternoon, Checking Out Customers.
Mary Smith attended a New Year’s Eve party in Portland last night. She didn’t know everyone there, so she stopped in at Walgreens, 127 Marginal Way, to pick up several home test kits before heading back to Lincolnville she said.
Smith, who has been staying with her parents at home in Lincolnville during a winter break from her graduate studies in finance at UC-Berkeley, said she wanted to get the test kits to protect her parents from any COVID exposure she might have gotten last night. “These home test kits are all gone in the mid-coast area. That includes Rockland, Belfast and Camden,” said Smith, 25.
Dave Dixon, a local businessman, purchased the limit of four home test kits per customer today at the same store. He travels extensively on the east coast for work. Before each meeting he attends, participants are tested to be sure they are negative and are not infected with the COVID..
Nick Hudson, Manager at the Walgreens, 713 Congress Street, said that he noticed a spike in sales of the home test kits today. “We have been seeing a higher volume today becaue of New Year’s Eve celebrations last night. People were around strangers whose medical histories they didn’t know,” he said.
Hudson said that the four Walgreens in Portland take delivery of 600 home test kits once a week. Yesterday each received their allotment because today is a holiday. “It’s a good idea to keep a spare kit in a medicine cabinet at home for an emergency,” he said. The supply of test kits he received yesterday was already down by about 50% because of the high demand for them since yesterday. “What we have now will have to last us until our next delivery next week. We’ll barely make that.”
“We sell them like hotcakes every day whether or not its a holiday,” said a shift leader at Walgreens at the bottom of Munjoy HIll.
One man who did not want to be identified told this blogger that he had just recovered from Omicron and was purchasing a home test kit in case of an emergency. There is a limit of four home test kits per customer per day.
The same shift leader said she had just put out the kits that contain two tests in each package today. “Those are the biggest sellers,” she said. They sell for almost $24.00 plus tax.