Updated 10/1/2020

Six people were trapped in an elevator in Chicago’s former John Hancock Center for three hours after plunging 84 floors. The rescue itself took a total of two hours.

In the early hours of the morning of Friday, Nov. 16, just after midnight, a hoist rope broke in an express elevator. Guests from the Signature Room on the 95th floor who were trying to go to the lobby without incident instead had a terrifyingly fast ride to the 11th floor. The elevator was able to stop there because several other hoist ropes had remained connected and worked to halt the elevator.

Elevators are necessary for a variety of reasons. Many differently-abled individuals rely on passenger lifts when they are unable to climb stairs. Additionally, for a building with 84 floors elevators are essential when it comes to making meetings on time. Learning when to use an elevator pitch can also help out your career when you’re stuck in an elevator with someone.

Expecting everyone in the building to climb stairs is simply unrealistic. But many buildings have staircases as well since the age-old question “can you use an elevator during a fire” is a hard no.

Are you curious about how elevators work? Check out this video:

When it spans more than 84 floors elevators are frequently inspected to meet the necessary safety protocols. Elevator maintenance happens frequently to prevent any issues from happening. How much does elevator maintenance cost? It depends on the type of elevator, its height, and how much the elevator can carry. Elevator maintenance jobs can enable top workers to make almost $100,000 per year in some cases. Passenger lift maintenance is essential, but most elevators come with safety protocols, like a safety brake, to slow the elevator down in the event of an emergency like this.

According to some of the elevator passengers, no one was injured but it took some time for building security to call the firefighters. As an elevator of standard-size is just 12 to 15 square feet and a mid-size one averages 15 to 18 square feet, this delay caused the passengers to be trapped in a small space for about an hour before rescue crews even arrived.

The elevator was stuck in a blind shaft, which is a shaft in which there are not openings at every floor to free the trapped passengers. Incidentally, the 11th floor was one floor without an opening. Once the rescue crews did arrive they had to break a concrete wall in the garage area of the 11th floor in order to free them.

After they broke through the wall, the crews shored up the elevator so that it wouldn’t fall further. They then used a small ladder to free those trapped inside. Elevator rider Jaime Montemayor told local news WBBM that he thought they were all going to die when the elevator started its plunge.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, escalators and elevators cause the deaths of about 30 and seriously injure about 17,000 people each year in the United States. Simply riding in an elevator is relatively low-risk, as the majority of these accidents involve workers on or near elevators.

The elevator in the Chicago skyscraper reportedly passed its annual safety inspection earlier this year. The elevator and two others are now closed as crews repair the broken hoists and investigators attempt to determine what caused the ropes to snap in the first place.

The pharmacy store chain Walgreens has opened its first store in Chicago without a pharmacy. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Walgreens recently opened a store in the West Loop that has no pharmacy, becoming one of the few Walgreens in the nation to serve only as a store. Customers in need of a pharmacy have been redirected to nearby Walgreens at Halsted and Monroe streets.

Losing the pharmacy represents a major shift for the Walgreens chain. Walgreens currently has 120 stores in Chicago alone and approximately 10,000 stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

According to Walgreens’ 2017 annual report, prescription drugs and other pharmaceutical services made up 70% of sales at its stores. This may not be too surprising considering drug discovery is a multi-billion dollar industry and medicinal cures or relief for illnesses will always be in high demand.

Just last year, Walgreens filled over 1 billion monthly prescriptions worldwide. So why open a store without a pharmacy?

Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso says he can’t confirm that Walgreens is the first drugstore to open without a pharmacy in Chicago history, but it certainly isn’t the first Walgreens to do so. Four Walgreens in New York City listed under the Duane Reade brand don’t sell prescription medications, either.

“It is rare for one of our stores to not have a pharmacy,” Caruso said. Caruso declined to comment on other reasons why the new store has opened without a pharmacy.

One potential reason the store opened without a pharmacy is that Walgreens has come under fire for opioid sales. The state of Florida recently filed a lawsuit against Walgreens and CVS for allegedly overselling painkillers and contributing to the nation’s opioid epidemic.

In 2016 alone, up to 1,186,810 arrests were made in the U.S. for drug law violations.

But, Simon Pickard, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says Walgreens may simply be moving in a new direction. Retail pharmacies, Pickard says, can be more expensive to maintain and Walgreens may be looking for other ways to stay profitable in the shadow of competition from online companies such as Amazon.

“I would imagine it’s inevitable that traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies become less prevalent,” said Pickard.

Drugstores like Walgreens have been putting a greater focus on online and mail-order pharmacies while focusing on their cosmetics and skin-care products in-store. Event marketing has also been able to generate sales for up to 79% of marketers.

Whether Walgreens is looking to change up their retail stores or they’re looking to boost other product sales, the pharmacy-less store in the West Loop will still be selling products typically found in your average Walgreens. This includes over-the-counter medication, makeup, toiletries, food, and beer.

John Bacon, author of America’s Corner Store: Walgreens’ Prescription for Success, says Walgreens may be prototyping.

“The whole business of pharmaceuticals has gotten so complicated with Medicaid and whatnot that they’re trying to see if they can probably make their life simpler without it,” said Bacon.

Bacon pointed out that Walgreens had experimented in the 1990s with removing samples from their aisles. First, they implemented the change at a few stores before implementing it everywhere.

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