Protesters target CVS stores over condom policy
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A labor activist group has brought its campaign for easy condom access to the streets of Los Angeles.
About 75 people demonstrated Tuesday outside a CVS pharmacy in East Los Angeles, calling on the store to change its practice of storing condoms in a locked display case and behind the counter.
Protesters said the policy of keeping condoms under lock and key is found only at CVS stores in neighborhoods with mostly Latino and black populations, a charge the drugstore chain denies.
The protest at the Lincoln Heights store was not the first against CVS, but it was the first in Los Angeles, the retailer and protest organizers said. Similar protests have taken place since late last year at CVS stores in Philadelphia, Boston and Harlem, N.Y. One was held last month in San Diego.
Locked displays stigmatize condoms and condom users in minority communities where the spread of HIV and AIDS is already higher, said Gina Bowers, a spokeswoman for Change to Win, the labor union organizing the protests.
‘Our surveyors found that condoms were only locked up in communities of color, like the Eastside,’ she said. ‘When we went to the Westside of L.A., where the communities are largely white, the stores have condoms for sale and out in the open. So all we’re asking for is equal access to these products for customers no matter where they live.’
The number of condom thefts at a given store determines which locations have the prophylactics locked up, not the ethnicity of customers, said Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman.
‘If a store has been heavily shoplifted, then it will put targeted items in a locked display case,’ he said.’Sometimes that means fragrances or razors are locked in a display case; sometimes its condoms.’
But all CVS stores sell condoms that are unlocked and accessible without employee assistance, he said. ‘Even when we have condoms in a locked display case, we have a smaller selection unlocked and on a shelf for people to buy,’ DeAngelis said.
Change to Win disputes CVS’ claim.
‘Unfortunately, our surveyors looked for condoms out in the open and we couldn’t find any of those condoms in their stores,’ Bowers said.
The group is targeting CVS pharmacies with their protests because they haven’t found that Walgreens, Rite-Aid or other stores lock up their condoms, she said.
CVS has no plans to change its policy of keeping condoms in locked display cases in stores with a history of high condom thefts, DeAngelis said.
--Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Condoms behind locked plexiglass at a CVS store in February of 2009. Photo by Business Wire