CVS 24 Hour Store Staffing

[Alpha8472]

I walked into a 24 hour CVS Pharmacy store and I noticed one employee. There was absolutely no one else on the sales floor. The store used to be a Longs Drugs that once was a busy store even late at night. Now it is a ghost town.

The staffing was so bad that they even post hand written signs telling customers that the restrooms are closed until 6AM and to not enter the backroom area to go to the restrooms. Apparently, they are afraid of shoplifters running wild in the backroom.

This store could not handle a grab and run. When this store was a Longs Drugs, there was a night security guard at the front of the store. I did not see any guard at all on my visit.

The prescription pharmacy is not open 24 hours. Basically, the store is useless. I wonder why CVS even bothers to keep this store open. The only explanation that I can come up with is that this city used to be the hometown of Longs Drugs and out of some act of mercy CVS decided that they would keep two 24 hour stores in the city that was once the hometown of Longs Drugs.

[storewanderer]

We have one 24 hour CVS in Sparks. Typically, at night, there are two clerks in pharmacy and two clerks on front end. It is a fairly busy place and this staffing is similar to how it was staffed as Sav-On.

There have been times when the pharmacy is closed overnight due to lack of a graveyard shift pharmacist.

We have two 24 hour Walgreens in Reno, one has 24 hour pharmacy and one does not. The one without a 24 hour pharmacy, it is not unusual for there to only be one clerk on duty and it is not in a very good neighborhood and not particularly busy. There have been many robberies.

[Super S]

It sounds like the drugstore chains are, if choosing to be open 24 hours, setting themselves up for robbery with the low staffing. It seems like, with a staffing level that low, they should limit themselves to operating out of a drive-thru window only (like many fast food restaurants) or perhaps having a security counter between the cashier and late-night customers, perhaps building something just inside the main doors for this purpose at night, with doors that could be open as usual during the day. And have limited items available for purchase. I understand the point of SOME stores being 24 hour operations, but they are taking a big risk at some locations. There was a period of time in the late 1980s-early 1990s when it seemed like every major grocery store was a 24-hour operation. Chains such as Safeway and Albertsons have almost completely eliminated 24 hour stores. More recently, both of the Walmart stores where I live cut back from being open 24 hours due to a lack of business. About the only major store here that still sticks to a 24 hour operation is WinCo.