3 ms·

>In July, a notice appeared on the front door of The Drug Store, the only pharmacy in rural Kernville, Calif. >That leaves Kernville residents in what research

>In July, a notice appeared on the front door of The Drug Store, the only pharmacy in rural Kernville, Calif. >That leaves Kernville residents in what researchers call a pharmacy desert, defined as living more than 10 miles from the nearest pharmacy in rural areas, two miles away in suburban communities, or a mile away in urban neighborhoods. Kernville, CA is not a city, town, or even a village, it is a census-designated place with a population of 1,549 (2020). Is this really the best example of a 'pharmacy desert' that the reports could find?

wenc 2y ago
News articles like these often cherry-pick their anecdotes to maximize outrage (therefore increase engagement). The NY Times is not above this -- they are losing eyeballs in an era where people are getting news from social media, so it's a survival strategy in part. I'm a paid subscriber of the NYTimes and from reading it daily, it obvious to me that it's imbalanced. I still read it to gauge what the elites of America are thinking, but also to understand the blind spots that NYTimes readers have.
- bleznnm 2y ago
  What do you do with that understanding? Has it had any utility in some situation?
  - wenc 2y ago
    Yes, it can be helpful in subtle ways. I hang out with NPR/NYTimes types every so often, and knowing their discourse helps me avoid certain faux pas in social situations and helps me to engage better (I start with a good baseline of their Bayesian priors). Also in terms of opportunities... NPR/NYTimes folks are purveyors of words and symbols, which means many of them are not super connected to how the world is really perceived by blue-collar folks. There are sometimes business opportunities that white collar folks don't perceive -- they can't understand why some people would want a downmarket product/service instead of an upmarket one. So many of them ignore low-end competition, and as Clay Christensen predicts, they sometimes end up being disrupted by them. If you can identify these opportunities, they're ripe for the picking because they're completely absent from (or disdained by) elite discourse. Example: take the whole kneejerk narrative about "crap Chinese culture" that prevails in NYTimes/NPR circles as well as here ("crap Chinese products on Amazon"). Yes, there are some low quality products from China, but there are actually a ton of mid-range to high-end quality stuff available at a discount because they don't yet have the cachet of Japanese brands. I get these off Amazon often and am often surprised by their functionality and quality at such low prices. The average HNer or NYTimes reader would not even pay attention to these (because "vibes"), but if you run in hobbyist circles, the acceptance of these products is much higher and there's a sizeable market that is a complete blind spot to elite types. Therein lies your untapped market. I bought these "cheap Chinese products" off Amazon recently and was more than happy with their quality. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K2G5Y78 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K2G5Y78 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R3YC1BC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R3YC1BC Another example: I bought a Hyundai car when the prevailing narrative in the US was the Hyundais were low-quality Honda knockoffs (which was never true, and Hyundais were improving at good pace, but Americans are slow to update their priors) -- and I got a car fully loaded with accessories with a 10-year powertrain warranty at a price lower than a Toyota. It was purely a perception discount. And the Hyundai turned out to be more reliable than a Toyota! (at the time -- Toyota was having quality troubles circa 2007). I got a deal because I saw the blind spots in people's perceptions. Opportunity lies where you can read the blind spots in the prevailing narrative.
jerlam 2y ago
The definition of "pharmacy desert" is so aggressive that I wonder who came up with it. I technically live in one, despite living in a urban area with a walk score of 91 and walking distance to stores, restaurants, and transit.
eesmith 2y ago
For what it's worth, https://www.gotokernville.com/ https://www.gotokernville.com/ says at least some people there consider it a town: 'Our town of Kernville ...' Just because it's a census-designated place doesn't mean that Kernville is not a town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town notes: "The United States Census identifies many census-designated places (CDPs) by the names of unincorporated towns which lie within them; however, those CDPs typically include rural and suburban areas and even surrounding villages and other towns."

wenc 2y ago

News articles like these often cherry-pick their anecdotes to maximize outrage (therefore increase engagement). The NY Times is not above this -- they are losing eyeballs in an era where people are getting news from social media, so it's a survival strategy in part. I'm a paid subscriber of the NYTimes and from reading it daily, it obvious to me that it's imbalanced. I still read it to gauge what the elites of America are thinking, but also to understand the blind spots that NYTimes readers have.

bleznnm 2y ago
What do you do with that understanding? Has it had any utility in some situation?
- wenc 2y ago
  Yes, it can be helpful in subtle ways. I hang out with NPR/NYTimes types every so often, and knowing their discourse helps me avoid certain faux pas in social situations and helps me to engage better (I start with a good baseline of their Bayesian priors). Also in terms of opportunities... NPR/NYTimes folks are purveyors of words and symbols, which means many of them are not super connected to how the world is really perceived by blue-collar folks. There are sometimes business opportunities that white collar folks don't perceive -- they can't understand why some people would want a downmarket product/service instead of an upmarket one. So many of them ignore low-end competition, and as Clay Christensen predicts, they sometimes end up being disrupted by them. If you can identify these opportunities, they're ripe for the picking because they're completely absent from (or disdained by) elite discourse. Example: take the whole kneejerk narrative about "crap Chinese culture" that prevails in NYTimes/NPR circles as well as here ("crap Chinese products on Amazon"). Yes, there are some low quality products from China, but there are actually a ton of mid-range to high-end quality stuff available at a discount because they don't yet have the cachet of Japanese brands. I get these off Amazon often and am often surprised by their functionality and quality at such low prices. The average HNer or NYTimes reader would not even pay attention to these (because "vibes"), but if you run in hobbyist circles, the acceptance of these products is much higher and there's a sizeable market that is a complete blind spot to elite types. Therein lies your untapped market. I bought these "cheap Chinese products" off Amazon recently and was more than happy with their quality. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K2G5Y78 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K2G5Y78 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R3YC1BC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R3YC1BC Another example: I bought a Hyundai car when the prevailing narrative in the US was the Hyundais were low-quality Honda knockoffs (which was never true, and Hyundais were improving at good pace, but Americans are slow to update their priors) -- and I got a car fully loaded with accessories with a 10-year powertrain warranty at a price lower than a Toyota. It was purely a perception discount. And the Hyundai turned out to be more reliable than a Toyota! (at the time -- Toyota was having quality troubles circa 2007). I got a deal because I saw the blind spots in people's perceptions. Opportunity lies where you can read the blind spots in the prevailing narrative.

jerlam 2y ago

The definition of "pharmacy desert" is so aggressive that I wonder who came up with it. I technically live in one, despite living in a urban area with a walk score of 91 and walking distance to stores, restaurants, and transit.

eesmith 2y ago

For what it's worth, https://www.gotokernville.com/ https://www.gotokernville.com/ says at least some people there consider it a town: 'Our town of Kernville ...' Just because it's a census-designated place doesn't mean that Kernville is not a town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town notes: "The United States Census identifies many census-designated places (CDPs) by the names of unincorporated towns which lie within them; however, those CDPs typically include rural and suburban areas and even surrounding villages and other towns."