Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Alpha8472
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Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walgreen as of May 5 has resumed normal hours at most locations. California stores will resume normal hours on March 18 due to state regulations when more retail is allowed to reopen.

Many drugstore chains have seen increases in prescription sales and front end sales. People are constantly at the front of the local drugstores at 9 PM demanding to be let in. I usually go just before closing to avoid crowds, but there are so many procrastinators that wait until the last minute and then complain to store employees that the store closes too soon.

Have CVS and Rite Aid also gone back to normal in other areas?
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by storewanderer »

The rural Rite Aids never cut their hours... 10 PM all along.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by Alpha8472 »

I went to a low volume Walgreens an hour before closing. It has resumed the old 10 PM closing time, but apparently people do not realize it or they simply do not want to shop there. The store was completely empty of customers. The parking lot was empty except for the employees' cars. At first, I thought that the store had already closed, but there were employees inside.

There were huge areas of empty shelves where merchandise should be. They just want to sell less merchandise apparently.

Then there was an over abundance of made in China gloves, masks, and generic Tylenol from some unknown brand. It all looked very cheap and scary. The made in China masks were not medical grade. Some of the packages were in clear plastic bags with paper slips with Chinese writing on them. You could see the masks inside and the quality was very low. People apparently do not want to buy any of these.

Perhaps going back to regular hours was not a wise decision, as there aren't enough customers to justify keeping the store open.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 27th, 2020, 11:50 pm I went to a low volume Walgreens an hour before closing. It has resumed the old 10 PM closing time, but apparently people do not realize it or they simply do not want to shop there. The store was completely empty of customers. The parking lot was empty except for the employees' cars. At first, I thought that the store had already closed, but there were employees inside.

There were huge areas of empty shelves where merchandise should be. They just want to sell less merchandise apparently.

Then there was an over abundance of made in China gloves, masks, and generic Tylenol from some unknown brand. It all looked very cheap and scary. The made in China masks were not medical grade. Some of the packages were in clear plastic bags with paper slips with Chinese writing on them. You could see the masks inside and the quality was very low. People apparently do not want to buy any of these.

Perhaps going back to regular hours was not a wise decision, as there aren't enough customers to justify keeping the store open.
I think they probably had too few customers to justify the 10 PM closing time before the virus.

Walgreens seems to be in ongoing trouble. They are closing another 200 stores. I am wondering when they will start to outright exit markets. They struggle in most rural towns I see them operating in but so far keep those stores open. Eventually finances will override pride and they will close those rural stores.

They also seem to be closing a ton of stores in San Francisco. I can't figure out why they ran so many stores in that city in the first place, many without pharmacy. It appeared they were trying to "hog" sites from competition. High operating costs and intense out of control theft has turned that strategy into a real costly one. If I lived in San Francisco I'd just order online and not deal with the city mandated bag fees, Walgreens high prices, abbreviated merchandise mix due to small store size, complicated loyalty card program, locked shelves, etc. Perhaps those are other reasons why the stores are closing- too many things being done that inconvenience honest paying customers.

Walgreens also up until maybe 5-6 years ago ran San Francisco as a sort of island group of stores. They ran a different ad than the rest of the chain and did some of their own buying, so they had different products. They had some stores with an extended grocery mix through Unified. The labor model being used was different than the rest of the chain.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by Alpha8472 »

I do remember the San Francisco stores several years ago having a much wider selection than other Walgreens stores. They had more prepared foods, salads, drinks, and high end food items. It was almost like a mini-Whole Foods grab and go section. They even had automated coffee machines that brewed single cups of coffee on demand. There were always many employees restocking. However, that all changed in recent years as the homeless population exploded and theft went up. You used to be able to walk down the street and see 2 Walgreens within walking distance of each other. Now they are closing left and right.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by storewanderer »

Those flagship stores with all of the prepared food items were actually dictated by corporate. They opened them in other major cities as well; Chicago for sure, but others too, which escape my memory. Maybe Miami. The San Francisco one (135 Powell) was far nicer than the others. The first one of those opened right when they stopped letting San Francisco be its own little operation and started having it run like the rest of the company was run. That flagship store they opened in San Francisco (135 Powell) was sort of the "look at all the great things that can be done when you get to be on the corporate programs" store. It was all downhill from there. I also have to assume CVS opening more stores did impact them somehow, though some have already closed, some of those CVS do some volume and you have to assume that if CVS wasn't there those customers would be at Walgreens.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by veteran+ »

I don't believe that this expanded fresh grocery project went very well.

A former (and early on) executive from Fresh & Easy (he was terminated for inappropriate behavior) launched the initiative at Walgreens with much fanfare and projected success.

I don't think he works there any longer.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by Alpha8472 »

I see the method to the madness. Walgreens is closing locations that were robbed. I looked at the reports and indeed the closed Walgreens stores in my area (low crime suburb) were robbed and looted. The stores are closed so that they can be repaired and fortified. The doors were breached and the pharmacies were trashed. Reports indicated that looters who were arrested came from Oakland and Santa Rosa. Oakland is 30 minutes away and Santa Rosa is over an hour away. They were armed with guns. They come from far away not to steal the items on the shelves such as allergy medication, they came to target the narcotic medications. They jumped the counters and tried to take the prescription medications.

These stores need upgrades. It is time for bullet resistant glass. The drive thru window also needs upgrades to be bullet resistant. The front of the store needs to have all windows plastered over. The front door needs metal gates and concrete barriers to prevent a car from ramming the front door. The closed stores are the ones with easy freeway access. Robbers target the ones where they can easily rob and then drive off quickly using freeways to disappear.

They need to reconfigure the parking lots so that there is one entrance and exit. They need to make it difficult for cars to make a quick getaway. They need to delay the cars so that the police can arrive and catch them. This includes concrete barriers, high fences, brick walls, and obstacles to cars.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by klkla »

The Walgreens I mentioned in the other post reopened yesterday. It's still boarded up but they are letting people in.
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Re: Walgreens Resumes Normal Hours

Post by Alpha8472 »

Most of the Oakland, California area Walgreens are closed. The few that are open close at 3 pm. The ones in the distant suburbs all close at 5 pm. Robbed stores are still closed. No more 24 hour drive thru stores.

Virtually all of them are boarded up. They do not want a single window to be uncovered. Concrete barriers are being added to some stores.
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