Say it ain't so, Duane Reade!!!

Excuse me, Duane Reade, did I hear that right?!?!?! Did someone say Walgreen's is buying you?!?!?! Does this mean that I'm going to wake up one morning in the not-too-distant future and all my lovely little Duane Reade stores are going to have turned into

WALGREEN'Ses...es?!?!?!!? THERE ISN'T EVEN A PROPER PLURAL OF "WALGREEN'S"!!!

Deep breath. One more. Better. Well, sort of.

I love you, Duane Reade stores, plain and simple. When I walk inside one of your 257 locations in the five boroughs, I feel not only completely certain that I'm going to be able to purchase everything I need, but really kind of special because I know that only NEW YORKERS can shop in your hallowed aisles. Why, just today I said to my cubicle-mate that YOU are my preferred drugstore!

Even worse, did you know, Duane Reade, that out of all the 24-hour drugstores in Manhattan (and there are 46 of them), only SEVEN are NOT Duane Reades?!?!?! Sure, we're "the city that never sleeps" but now we're really not going to be gettin' any shut-eye knowing that if we need some very specific item that cannot be found at a corner bodega there will only be SEVEN places on this island that we can go!

Oh, yes, Duane Reade, I'm sad. You can tell, can't you? Sad. Very sad. But something inside of me knew that this would happen one day. Your rapid expansion over the past ten years made me not only very excited to see you every time I rounded a corner and rather surprised to find two of you right next to each other on occasion, but also, frankly, a little nervous for your future. Now that future has come to us all.

Oh, dear, sweet Duane Reade, how I'll miss you. My only solace is that this transition will take upwards of a year. But after a lifetime of living with the security that only you can provide, that day will ultimately come too soon.

Yours truly now and forever,

Tara