Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

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storewanderer
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Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by storewanderer »

Was in the Raleys at 4000 Lake Tahoe Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe and noticed its pharmacy was closed and files transferred to CVS 1.2 miles away.

This is a very large store in a prime tourist location near casinos, a gondola, a large center with various restaurants/bars and a cinema, and other things. Prime location, very busy store, and a very large store. I always thought this was one of Raleys better performing stores (certainly better than most of their stores in this area at least).

Raleys operates a second location in South Lake Tahoe which is 4.7 miles away from this location. I am surprised they sold the files to CVS rather than just moved the files to their other location...
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by Alpha8472 »

Pharmacies are losing money these days. If a large number of customers are on Medicaid or Medicare, they can actually lose a ton of money. There are some insurances that are money losers such as Blue Cross Medi-Cal. Some supermarket pharmacies do so little business that many drugs expire and they never get sold. Literally thousands of dollars are lost. One wasted or accidentally unrefrigerated medicine could cost thousands.

Many supermarket pharmacies literally have so few customers that the pharmacist sits there and does nothing. Drug contracts with McKesson or other distributors are expensive. The low volumes means higher drug procurement and less profit.

Selling the pharmacy records is a source of profit. Sending those records to another Raley's will bring little profit as most of those customers will probably switch to another pharmacy such as the closer CVS.

I disagree with closing down the pharmacy. These supermarket pharmacies can be profitable, but what they need to do is to terminate those money losing contracts with certain Medicaid plans. Even the pharmacies in Wal-Mart are having troubles. They are losing tons of money by accepting those Medicaid plans such as Blue Cross Medi-Cal.

Secondly, those pharmacies are not advertising enough. They need to advertise and get customers to use the pharmacy.

Perhaps Raley's just wants to quit the entire pharmacy business rather than try to do what it takes to keep the pharmacy profitable. Someone at the corporate office is not taking their job seriously.

Why did Target get out of the pharmacy business? They were losing tons of money by accepting those Medicaid plans such as Blue Cross Medi-Cal. CVS and Walgreens stood up to Blue Cross and stopped taking that plan. The insurance companies have become greedy. They literally want retail pharmacies to die. Insurance companies want people to use their cheaper mail order pharmacies where they can cut costs and make a bigger profit.

I think Wal-Mart is next. They either have to decide to stop taking money losing insurance plans or simply close down their pharmacies. The pharmacies in Wal-Mart can be profitable if they would just say no to those money losing insurance plans. People hate on Wal-Mart, but accepting money losing plans is charity. Wal-Mart loses money on low income patients on Medicaid.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on May 14th, 2017, 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by pseudo3d »

Alpha8472 wrote:Pharmacies are losing money these days. If a large number of customers are on Medicaid or Medicare, they can actually lose a ton of money. There are some insurances that are money losers such as Blue Cross Medi-Cal. Some supermarket pharmacies do so little business that many drugs expire and they never get sold. Literally thousands of dollars are lost. One wasted or accidentally unrefrigerated medicine could cost thousands.

Many supermarket pharmacies literally have so few customers that the pharmacist sits there and does nothing. Drug contracts with McKesson or other distributors are expensive. The low volumes means higher drug procurement and less profit.

Selling the pharmacy records is a source of profit. Sending those records to another Raley's will bring little profit as most of those customers will probably switch to another pharmacy such as the closer CVS.

I disagree with closing down the pharmacy. These supermarket pharmacies can be profitable, but what they need to do is to terminate those money losing contracts with certain Medicaid plans. Even the pharmacies in Wal-Mart are having troubles. They are losing tons of money by accepting those Medicaid plans such as Blue Cross Medi-Cal.

Secondly, those pharmacies are not advertising enough. They need to advertise and get customers to use the pharmacy.

Perhaps Raley's just wants to quit the entire pharmacy business rather than try to do what it takes to keep the pharmacy profitable. Someone at the corporate office is not taking their job seriously.
Walmart can make their pharmacies more of a draw by hiding it within the store to force people to walk by other merchandise. I know we've had this discussion before but I think that's one of the main reasons why Wal-Mart doesn't do drive-through pharmacies even if they had the space and layout to do so.

Pharmacies have gotten so standardized in discount stores and supermarkets that we as consumers are trained to accept it as part of a fact and that a store that has had its pharmacy closed or removed is in trouble (and let's face it--it usually is).
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by storewanderer »

I do not think this is a store that is in trouble but as you say, closing pharmacy does not look good. Also good point as between this store and the other Raleys there are two CVS, one Rite Aid, and one Safeway all with pharmacy offerings (these are all in the CA side) and there is another Safeway 2 miles in the opposite direction (this is on the NV side) that also offers pharmacy. So would these customers really move over to the other Raleys? Probably not. There is also a CVS on the NV side but it has no pharmacy (was built with one, but it is nonoperational and has never operated).

I wonder if the new Raleys that are opening will include pharmacy.

Save Mart also seems to be lukewarm on pharmacy lately. On the two Food Maxx conversions done in Nevada, they transferred one (extremely low volume store) store's filed to another Save Mart that was still open about 5 miles away (many other pharmacies between them; CVS, Walgreens, Wal Mart, Smiths). In the other conversion they did something very weird where they operated the pharmacy in the store for about 3 months after closing the rest of the store then when they finally started to renovate for Food Maxx they closed pharmacy/sold the files to CVS across the street. Both Food Maxx Stores reopened without pharmacy.

I do not know all the technicals of bad pharmacy reimbursements in CA but I know some things as far as operations go with pharmacists in CA, overtime, forced lunch breaks, etc. which the large chains like CVS give in California due to the more strict laws there whereas in other states the working conditions are, should we say, "even more poor."

I also agree it is not a good idea to close pharmacy. You do not know how many other sales you lose along with it. The department may lose money on its face but what about the other things the pharmacy customers buy? What if you lose all those sales? How does that impact the rest of the store?
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by Alpha8472 »

When people drop off prescriptions they have to wait for them to be filled, so of course people will browse and shop. Many times, the prescription is out of stock, so the customer will come back another day and shop again. This is good for the store because the customers will be back and tempted to buy more merchandise.

Pharmacies increase sales throughout the store. Raley's and FoodMaxx should reconsider and bring those pharmacies back. However, the pharmacies need changes to make them more profitable.

People like supermarket pharmacies because they usually are not as busy as CVS or Walgreens. The wait is shorter and you get a pharmacist who has time to give health advice and more personalized care. CVS and Walgreens are understaffed and the pharmacists are so overworked that they are less likely to take time to give advice and get to know you.

Wal-Mart recently cut staffing at their pharmacies nationwide. Wait times are longer and employees are stressed out. Customers are angry and are leaving for other pharmacies. Wal-Mart is losing tons of sales. Those pharmacy customers used to buy tons of stuff while waiting for prescriptions. Trying to save money on payroll will lead to major losses in sales.
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Stepping over dollars to pick up pennies
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by ninersdd »

Reminds me how I was at the new Raleys in Sacramento today, and they didn't have a pharmacy. There was a CVS right next door though, so there's no need for one.
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by storewanderer »

Other than in Las Vegas, has there ever been a Raleys before without a pharmacy?

It was my understanding that was one of the things that "distinguished" Raleys from the other two formats (Bel Air and Nob Hill): Raleys was a "superstore" and it was "supermarket and drug center." Raleys always had a pharmacy. Bel Air and Nob Hill sometimes had a pharmacy.

I guess things have changed.
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by storewanderer »

I wonder if parking issues have basically killed off the "local" business in this store:
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/l ... ge-center/

I have actually not been able to go into this store a few times due to being unable to find parking. The lot is huge, but people fill it up and then walk elsewhere. The way the buildings are spread out, it will be difficult to "tow or fine people seen walking away." What if you are walking across the parking lot to the Starbucks or Subway or Baja Fresh out by the road then leave? Will they watch you that whole time?

For years now they have had a very strict tire marking policy where a certain color is used to mark a tire and they monitor how long you are there by changing the color used every hour. Almost every time I visit this store, even if I am only inside for 15 or 20 minutes, I find the mark on my tire. So I know they are very efficient at this.

The City of South Lake Tahoe has a nice but hidden pay parking garage behind and next to this shopping center that is under utilized and has been a money pit for them. I don't think most people know the garage is back there and I think better signs are needed to direct people to it.

I think this is a prime redevelopment site and I don't think this large grocery store is the best use of the land. I think a store half this store's size would do just as much business.
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Re: Raleys Pharmacy Closure S. Lake Tahoe, CA

Post by lola42 »

This store and shopping center are quite attractive, but unfortunately Raley's has really become just a liquor store. I can't imagine the new Whole Foods 365 will improve things for Raley's. Hotel developers are surely standing at the ready.
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