Beat THAT price, Wal Mart (Stater Brothers prescriptions)

I've previously discussed how Wal Mart's low prescription pricing has had beneficial effects throughout the industry, as competitors have matched the prices. (Kind of like how union wages help wages of non-union workers. But I digress.)

Well, Stater Brothers has some new pricing that even Wal Mart will find it hard to match - although it may try. From the Press Enterprise:

San Bernardino-headquartered Stater Bros. Markets on Wednesday rolled out a new program offering a free 14-day supply of certain generic antibiotics, including refills, for those presenting valid prescriptions at its 28 stores with Super Rx pharmacies.

The idea is not new to Staters:

Stater is the first Southern California supermarket chain to offer the free drugs, though companies with primarily Eastern U.S. stores -- including Meijer, Giant Eagle and Publix -- recently started similar programs.

Brown said Stater and the other supermarket chains are part of a prescription drug purchasing cooperative, which lets the grocers pool their buying power to get lower prices from manufacturers.

Not that the manufacturers are offering the drugs for free.

The covered prescriptions, by the way, are amoxicillin, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, erythromycin, penicillin, tetracycline and trimeth/sulfa.