One of the best presents to New Yorkers this season: today's $700 million takeover of Duane Reade.

Founded in 1960 on the corner of Duane and Reade Streets, Duane Reade has become the city's most prominent drugstore chain. Unfortunately for consumers, prominent has also meant unwieldy -- with empire-hungry managers intent on planting outposts at every Manhattan intersection, stock reliability suffered while sloppiness reigned.

Nearly every time I visited a Duane Reade in the last year, makeshift displays of re-purposed shipping cartons made for claustrophobic aisles, while magically, whatever I needed happened not to be available. The jingle, "Everywhere you go, Duane Reade," said it all--that mentality was precisely the problem.

Hopefully, Duane Reade's exit from the public equity markets will mean a change from the transparent strategy of inflating valuation through increased visibility. Margins have dwindled from 26% to 22% as consumers have migrated to chains run by more intelligent managers (the economy is not an explanation--people do not need less toothpaste). Half as many stores with a full stock of products (and maybe even clean, walkable aisles?) would be a good place to start.

For now, I continue to use an online retailer for all contact lens solution--why assume any risk of hassle? Maybe that will change in 2004.

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The next post will be on Tuesday, January 6, 2004. Happy holidays.