To the editor:

Missouri’s attorney general is suing the Walgreen Co. in yet another case alleging overcharging by the chain. In the past few years, CVS has been the object of similar litigation. Both companies have a presence in the commonwealth and the latter seems almost ubiquitous. So why hasn’t Ken Cuccinelli investigated this consumer issue?

I have personally found discrepancies between the shelf sticker and the receipt price many times — around 50 cents per item — in almost every department at CVS. I have spoken to the manager at the Alexandria location that I patronize most regularly and been told that there’s not enough staff to keep up with the computerized changes from corporate.

With all that extra, ill-gotten money, you would think it would cover the salary of at least one more minimum-wage employee. Yes, I’ve gone the refund route, but that process is annoying and time-consuming. And the displeasure at issuing more than one or two to the same customer is palpable.

Since our attorney general claimed he was financially unable to give back the value of the gifts in kind he received from Star Scientific, I suspect he is familiar with shopping at either of these two drugstores. Why he failed to jump on the “waste, fraud and abuse” bandwagon like so many other ambitious would-be governors — who know that the path to the executive’s office is best paved with tackling issues near and dear to potential voters’ pocketbooks — is baffling, particularly in the difficult economic times that straddled his tenure. Equally puzzling is that the issues he continues to highlight are the socially and geographically polarizing ones.

There are two months left in this campaign, which so far has drawn plenty of apathy. The rising polls for the Democratic contestant are primarily because of the Republican’s guilt by association.

One of these guys needs to begin talking about what he can do for Virginians, not what Virginians can do for him. Holding pharmacies accountable is simple and might be a good place to start.

– Karen Ann DeLuca
Alexandria