There aren't coupons for prescription drugs, but Costco (COST) is probably wishing it could print up some "$749 off" inserts right about now.

 

Consumer Reports went shopping at 200 pharmacies across the country for a month's supply of five prescription drugs that just went generic: Actos for diabetes, Lexapro for depression, Singulair for asthma, Plavix for blood thinning, and Lipitor for high cholesterol.

 

What they found was a $749 difference -- that's 447% -- between the $916 price tag at CVS (CVS) and the $167 that Costco charged for the same five drugs. For generic Lipitor alone CVS charged $150 to Costco's $17. The generic Lexapro found at CVS for $126 could be had at Costco for $7.

 

Guinea pigs: lovable starter pets, the next hipster food trend or a sustainable and cost-effective protein source? If you find that sentence confusing, you're not alone.

NPR recently reported that guinea pigs, also known as caveys or cuyes in Spanish, are turning up on the menu in a growing number of U.S. restaurants. As anyone who's watched one of those exotic cooking shows on cable TV will tell you, the rodents have a long history as a food source in South America. But adventurous U.S. diners are now apparently pushing the demand for guinea pigs to new proportions.

 

According to NPR, federal regulatory agencies apparently don't track the import of guinea pig meat into the U.S. -- but one company that deals with the animals says its imports have nearly doubled since 2008.

 

How do you keep nearly 8 million workers in constant fear of losing their jobs without actually threatening to lay off any of them? Just assure them that if they're accused of stealing at your store, they'll never work in retail again -- ever.

 

Note the wording of that last sentence and let that sink in a second: Accused of stealing. As The New York Times reports, an employee doesn't have to take a dime while working in stores like Target (TGT), Rite Aid (RAD), CVS (CVS), Family Dollar (FDO) and others in First Advantage Corp.'s Esteem database. Just a vague hint on the employee's electronic record showing that he or she had merchandise go missing during a shift or a poorly phrased written statement submitted after a sit-down with store security officers could permanently tar an employee's record.

 

Finally, something has gone right for NBC.

The Comcast (CMCSA)-owned network has finally reached late-night nirvana. As The New York Times' Bill Carter predicted on March 21, Jimmy Fallon will replace Jay Leno as the host of the long-running "Tonight" show in 2014. It is the exact scenario that NBC "categorically denied" was in the works when it was suggested by the Hollywood Reporter in early March.

If you read Carter's story posted online Wednesday, it's as if the last few weeks never happened. Leno is quoted saying he wasn't shoved aside, unlike the 2010 coup, and that "the main difference between this and the other time is I’m part of the process." Fallon added, “I have nothing but respect for Jay. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have a show to be taking over."

 

Updated 8:05 p.m. ET

Gun control votes and packed gun stores are pretty predictable pairings these days. Nowhere was that more evident this week than in Connecticut, where state lawmakers approved a sweeping bill Wednesday.

One gun store told NBC News that business jumped five-fold ahead of the vote. One shopper said people were snapping up "anything semi-automatic." 

The auto industry would love more months like March. It was the best month for auto sales in the U.S. since 2007 -- thanks in part to a pickup in the sale of pickup trucks. General Motors (GM), Ford (F) and Chrysler sold nearly 155,000 pickups in the month, a jump of 14% from March 2012, the Associated Press reported.

The New York Times quoted industry statistics that say overall, 1.45 million vehicles were sold in March, a 3.4% rise over the same time last year.

"Even though consumer confidence has been up and down this year, there are 'wealth effects' that are making Americans feel comfortable finally buying new cars they've been waiting for," Lacey Plache, an economist with Edmunds.com, told the newspaper.

Sales were good for all of the Detroit Three carmakers.

 

Know that health care plan you just signed up for? Don't get too attached.

 

The Affordable Care Act mandate most commonly known as Obamacare has some tight stipulations that, CNN says, are forcing health care companies to rip up most of their current plans and draft new ones that comply. According to a University of Chicago study, just about half of the individual health care plans currently on the market won't cut it once key provisions of the Affordable Care Act kick in next year.

 

A handful of existing plans will be grandfathered in if members have been enrolled in the plan since before the ACA passed in 2010, and the plan has maintained steady co-pay, deductible and coverage rates. But plans that don't match that description are just going to flat-out disappear in 2014 when rules requiring enhanced coverage go into effect.

 

Bitcoin, an alternative currency that doesn't exist physically, has become the talk of the financial world recently as people lose faith in the euro and other traditional currencies.

The idea of Bitcoin is tough to grasp. Bloomberg Businessweek calls it an "anarchist crypto-currency." Essentially, Bitcoins are virtual money you can use to buy things online.

You can create a Bitcoin by "mining" it online. It takes some fairly advanced algorithmic computations on your computer to do it, so most people don't get Bitcoins that way anymore. It's much easier to buy them on sites like Mt.Gox.

You can spend Bitcoins on sites like PizzaForCoins, which will take your Bitcoin payment and then place your pizza order with Domino's Pizza (DPZ) or Yum Brands' (YUM) Pizza Hut. A large, hand-tossed pizza from Pizza Hut costs about 0.1227 Bitcoins.