We are less than two months away from Christmas Day. The holiday shopping seasons officially starts in less than three weeks, with Black Friday. Already we are starting to see hints about Christmas shopping, and where the best deals will be at.

Commercials from Wal Mart stating the best deals will only be from them. Kmart has ran some commercials about how we need to use their Lay-A-Way plan as part of our Christmas shopping. Many other stores have already started displaying Christmas decorations.

Websites like TheBlackFriday.com have been posting what items are being sold and for how much. Then retailers like Target are wanting you to create an online account to see their Black Friday deals. Even the online retailers like Amazon.com are offering special deals from Black Friday thru Cyber Monday.

I remember the day I learned the put the basketball game at the county fair was ridged. The guy was flipping a lever behind the basket that would cause the basketball to bounce out, if he wanted you to loose. Then he would flip this lever the other direction if he wanted you to make the basket. It started me wondering what other midway games were ridged.

Years later, some friends told me about getting email from some person in Nigeria. That individual was asking for help in buying some computers in the United States. All my friend had to do was to do was accept check payment, buy the computers, ship them to what he thought was an address in Canada. For his services he would keep the remainder of the checker he was sent. In reality the check was only good enough to not get rejected by the bank until two weeks later.

Walgreens has long been the drug store for choice mostly because of them being open 24/7. Then there is the drive up window. Where I can drop off a prescription and pick it up one or two hours later.

The old fashion drug store was where you walked in and was met by some clerk cleaning up or stocking shelves. Then the pharmacist was in the back filling prescriptions. The three or four rows of shelves between the front door and the pharmacist was the over counter medication and other products the help my medical needs.

Now flash forward to today. The early part of the 21st century. The family drug has become a thing of the past. It has been replaced by the multi merchandise stop that happens to fill you prescription from the doctor.

Just like last Sunday when I walked into my local Walgreens. I did not seen any cold pills or cough syrup until I had walked 3/4 of the way to where the pharmacist’s hang out. Considering the wide selection of stuff I saw, Walgreen could be the local quick mart on steroids.

Walking in the front door I was met with a display of metal water bottles. From there I had the choice to turn right and go the ladies cosmetics or turn left and walk past two check out counter that were covered with candy and 100′s of other impulse items for me to buy.

Passing the check out counter there were wine and candy on my left and rows of Easter candy and other grocery store items. Straight ahead was the film developing and printing section. (I guess there is still a few people around that don’t use their computers to share pictures.)

Round the corner with a sweeping right turn was the 20 feet of beverage cooler on my left and a longer shelf of potato chips and other snacks on my right. I notice the overall prices of the beverages were equal to or about the same as those across the street at Winco.

Further down on my left was a shorter freezer section. There I noticed they were stocking the Marie Callender’s Steamers that are sold across the street a Winco. Walgreens sell them for $2.74 where Walgreens is selling them for $3.10.

Just about the where the over counter cold medications began was a break in the shelving. In that break was a row across the rows. In the cross row as a row to its self. with small table of back supports, candy, and cooking utensils.

In that big Walgreens store there where maybe three rows for my personal health the rest was wide variety of items that would be more impulsive purchase. These ranged from toys, candy, car care, wine, BSU gear, and a good selection of “As Seen On TV” merchandise.

Bottom-line: Walgreens has become a healthy mixture of the local mini mart and the corner drug store. Of course I must admit it is on a much larger level.

I do head for Walgreens when we are in need for the over counter medication. I find the Walgreens brand is the same as the name brand I would be paying 20% to 25% more.

What is your experience with Walgreens? I would like to hear from you.

I was headed out the door to run some errands when my wife as me to stop by the store and get  Velveeta cheese for dinner. Considering the route I was taking for my errands, I figured it would be simpler to stop by Albertsons instead of Winco.

Since I was in such a hurry, I raced in the store grabbed 2 pound box of cheese, then headed to the self check out lane. I don’t think I spent more than 3 minutes in the store from the time I walked in the door until I walked out with cheese in hand.

We are one week into 2010. The experts are saying our economy is in slow recovery. Money is still tight. Prices of most things are rising. Let us take a look at some interesting price increases.

Milk is $2.48 per gallon unless you go to Walgreens then it is $1.99. Gatorade that was 88 cents is now a $1.08 for a 32 ounce bottle. My favorite canned Iced Mocha has stayed the same at the convenience store, but gone up 30 at Winco.