Their stores a grim these days.
One overworked kid doing everything non-pharmacy. A pharmacist. Maybe a pharm tech.
That’s it.
3 max people on payroll at any given time.
Yeah it’s ridiculous how bad they’re abusing their employees and the salaries are pretty poor as well from what I’ve heard.
With all that money they saved not paying people they were able to install those overpriced cooler doors that is supposed to simply display the product behind them! (Which is usually wrong or out of stock at least at my locations)
Those doors are seriously the stupidest ‘innovation’ I’ve seen, other than the gas pumps that constantly play ads. I have no desire to be forced to open the door to see what is actually in there.
Pro tip- keep a skewer or similar device in your sleeve to poke through the speaker so you don’t have to hear the ads- it will look like you’re pressing buttons
Someone put black duct tape over the speaker on the one I used this morning
The third button down on the right mutes all of the screens I’ve tried it on.
So does a hammer.
Protip: one of the buttons around the screen is usually a mute. In my experience, its usually second from the top on the right side.
That used to work near me but I guess the advertisers all complained enough to have that button disabled.
Those also likely led to an advertisement revenue to help keep stores profitable.
While late stage capitalism is the source of most problems, it isn’t (primarily) the source of this one.
The issue is that healthcare in general is a hellscape. You are at the mercy of whatever tucker carlson and friends said this week. And pharmacists not only have to deal with the opiate problems but also get to add birth control, hormone therapy, and vaccines to that mix.
I was chatting with the one pharmacist at the local CVS a few weeks back when I got my boosters. It already took until an hour after my appointment until he had time to give me my two jabs. In that time he vaccinated three people, got screamed at by one person for “giving kids aids”, had to fix three forms that the counter attendant fucked up, had to get at least two people’s emergency medication, and deal with someone who was insisting that “I am a (f-slur) and cut my dick off five times last year. That is why I have these six different prescriptions and you are a racist if you ask to see my ID”.
He is pretty young so he still interacts with his university a lot. And nobody he knows is going into pharmacy. Because the pay is not that good and it is now the worst of all worlds. you get the customer facing hell of being a nurse coupled with the debt of being a “real” doctor.
Maybe they can get paid more (and they should). But it doesn’t impact the lack of supply. And considering how many people are bailing on “general” medicine as a whole in exchange for specialized fields and practices because of “The Culture War”? You need to pay a WHOLE lot more for that.
I’ve restored to shaming people out loud for treating the pharmacy staff like shit and wasting my time while I wait in line. They just get flustered that someone would talk back to them and shut up.
Having done the service industry shit briefly in the past: Having a bit of support is always nice. But that is also how you escalate a customer who is “venting” into a Waffle House Royale. And considering how chuds have a tendency to be armed and looking for an excuse to unload on everyone…
It’s a shame how many adults can’t show any compassion or empathy to service workers. I’m with you that shaming them risks making things worse. All they need is for someone to report them to corporate because another customer escalated things.
I usually just try to show them I noticed the other person being rude and to let the worker know it’s not their fault. I went to the pharmacy to get the latest Covid booster right after the other branch across town closed. Even though it’s the same company in the same town, they didn’t automatically transfer anyone’s prescriptions, so the people that didn’t know the sure e was closed were all yelling at the workers. They were extremely patient with the customers, much better than I could be.
When I finally got my shot, I thanked the pharmacist and jokingly asked her if she wanted me to yell at her on my way out so I wouldn’t mess up her flow of dealing with rude people. She had a good laugh and was happy to get someone that acknowledged she was busting her butt trying to help as much as she could. I couldn’t make her situation any better, but I at least could recognize her effort.
I’ve thought about them a lot since then, and I hope they get what they need from the walkout. Nobody deserves to get treated like that.
And me, a hospice nurse, waiting on hold on the phone for 20-30 minutes to see if any of those people can tell me if they have any Roxanol in stock for my patient actively dying of bone cancer.
Don’t be so selfish. Have you thought about the shareholders???
There are bonuses at stake here!
And dividends!
Huh, my local Walgreens is usually like 1-2 pharmacists, 3-4 techs, and 2-3 people for non-pharmacy.
I live in one of the highest population cities in the US, and can confirm that they’re ghost towns most of the time. 1 pharm, maybe 1 tech, and 1-2 cashiers/floaters restocking shelves.
I literally only go there for vaccinations at this point.
Our closest store is exactly like that and the staff found out a week or so that the location is going to be closing in like a month.
Use a local pharmacy if you have the option. CVS and Walgreens are terrible to their pharmacists and other employees.
CVS BOUGHT my health insurance company earlier this year.
If we are going to be cursed with private healthcare, can we at least maintain a competitive market? Right now it’s an oligopoly at best, effectively a private monopoly for a lot of people.
Yeah I can only go to CVS due to my insurance :(
That has to be illegal right? It’s so obvious what they are doing. Buying insurance companies then forcing the customers to use their other product. And the “customer” didn’t really have a choice of what insurance to get because their company chooses for them.
The company picks the insurance based on the best deal they can get…
Try goodrx, I’m able to get my medicine at a local pharmacy that my insurance won’t pay for at the same price as the chain they try to make me go to.
Best we can do is a dystopian shit show.
Aetna? I thought it was the other way around. If so TIL.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a local pharmacy. The chains ran them out of business around here a long, long time ago. Best we had was one particular Realo, but then they got the local TriCare contract and wow, they got in over their heads. All their long-time employees quit and the quality of the place is abysmal now.
We lost our local pharmacy before Covid. Between CVS and Walgreens, Walgreens does a decent job. CVS always had like 6 employees running around in the pharmacy and yet they still took forever to do anything. It was almost impressive.
Each of you needs to Google independent pharmacy near me and give them a call. You’ll be astounded when they pick up the phone on the first try.
Tried this. He bitched because our doctor was 45 minutes away and refused to take us on we’ve had the same sleep aid scrip for years.
I am sorry to hear the place you tried was a dud. The thing about indies is each one is different. Thank you for giving it a shot - while I don’t work in each place I am steadfast in believing as a whole you’ll have the best experience at independent places that (usually) want your business.
This might inspire people to leave and try an independent pharmacy. I imagine that most of them will stay, reducing the workload for the staff at CVS and Walgreens. Everybody wins!
Problem is a lot of those independent pharmacies are already gone. In my area, I have one independent pharmacy, one semi-local grocery store option, and Walmart. That’s the only alternates to Walgreens/CVS here.
Think smaller; this is probably the first sign of large scale pharmacy unions
Some don’t have a choice, unfortunately
Yeah, I was at one for I don’t know how long. Then CVS bought them out. Now I have to drive two hours to the next closest one. No thanks.
I just switched from Walgreens this past week because they are always closed due to no staff. Usually it’s one person doing everything in there.
Same…fully support their collective efforts. But I need my meds.
Trying to move my prescriptions to mail order now.
Yeah. I know I’m lucky to have such a great one nearby. Many don’t have that option.
but I can get meds online for 30% less (or a lot more, depends on the medication)
But no controlled substances cries in ADHD
Good. I walked out of my CVS warehouse job last month, what a shit company to work for.
