Drug store giants Walgreens and Rite Aid announced new programs allowing customers to chat live online with registered pharmacists, hearkening back to a bygone era of accessibility in the customer-pharmacist relationship. Albert Wertheimer, a professor of pharmaco-economics at Temple's School of Pharmacy, says that these online perks reflect the growing competition for customers among the big national drug chains. Given that co-pays are the same, the only competitive advantage of one store over another is the degree of service and convenience," Wertheimer said.