R&B singer Kelly Price recently had an interesting run-in with a CVS pharmacist while trying to get a prescription filled.
The “It’s My Time” singer says she visited a 24-hour CVS drug store in Carson, California, last week at about 1 a.m. to get painkillers for an upcoming dental procedure but was told the order couldn’t be filled because it was after midnight. She says she’s visited the store plenty of times because she lives in the area and this has never happened before. Price feels it was simple discrimination “because of the neighborhood.”
The city of Carson is a lower income suburb of the Southern California area located about 13 miles south of Los Angeles. Price viewed the incident as an attack on the community.
“I was offended for the people of this neighborhood. I was offended for anybody who lives in a neighborhood that may not be considered the upper echelon where expensive homes are, or where six- and seven-figure earners live,” Price told a local news crew.
After 30 minutes of back-and-forth with the store manager, Price was finally able to get her prescription filled. She later received a phone call from CVS’ corporate officers, who issued her an apology, and released a statement that read in part: “It is not the store’s or the company’s policy to decline to fill certain prescriptions after midnight.”
According to Price, she wanted to use her voice to bring light to the issue so that the same thing wouldn’t happen to others.
“What if it were somebody that walked in and it was a life-or–death situation, and they were denied the ability to fill a prescription just because of the location of the store, ” said the Grammy-nominated singer.
