8 Ohio CVS Stores "dangerously" understaffed

[storewanderer]

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... port-finds

Reading articles like this and the last article posted about CVS in Kansas City- all I can say is anyone who is somehow happy about or cheering the demise of Rite Aid, ought to reconsider their thoughts on that topic.

[Alpha8472]

CVS was dangerously understaffed back in 2011, when I interned there. That was a former Longs Drugs. Longs Drugs was a great store. They had plenty of employees and were never understaffed. Employees were happy.

Then CVS came along and cut employees. There was serious undersfaffing and overworked employees. The stores lost so many loyal customers due to long lines, reduced selection, and ugly stores.

[ClownLoach]

Playing devil's advocate here... Is this because they've cut the hours to zero, or is it because they aren't staffed/can't get staffed?

Common denominator may be the same, but curious because if they're all running short pharmacists and technicians that is different from the company ordering staffing reductions to unsafe levels. Yes the outcome is the same at the moment, but just curious.

I've heard that sometimes an experienced pharmacist makes much more than the Store Manager and sometimes the District Manager. That leads to resentfulness. There is always a shortage of pharmacists so they can't afford to get rid of higher paid ones as they're better than nobody. And the productivity culture is driving older pharmacists to retire early thus making the problem worse (an experienced pharmacist is always more productive than a rookie).

I've heard that many retail pharmacists are leaving as soon as they can get a hospital pharmacist job, and that many are going to Kaiser Permanente too. They don't want to work in the retail environment.

[Alpha8472]

Yes, pharmacies are leaving Walgreens and CVS to get jobs at hospitals or skilled nursing facilities. The chain pharmacies are cutting hours and reducing pharmacists to part time or barely above part time. You cannot afford your mortgage or bills if you are only getting part time hours.

The understaffing at pharmacies is causing burnout. You used to have 2 pharmacists most of the day. Now you are lucky if you have any overlap with two pharmacists at some stores. Too much work, no overtime allowed, long lines, and unreasonable work loads...

The chain pharmacies think cutting hours will save money. However, it is causing pharmacists and other pharmacy workers to quit for better jobs at hospitals. You cannot make a living on part time hours.

CVS really started cutting hours on in recent history. It was never this bad before. There is a pharmacist shortage due to hours being cut.

These chain pharmacies need to realize that you cannot beat a horse nearly to death and expect it to work harder. You need more staffing, give the employees full time hours so they will make a career out of it. Part time workers are not loyal. They will leave the moment they can get a full time job at a hospital.

Proper staffing will more than pay for it in the long run. There will be fewer mistakes and fewer wrongful death and injury lawsuits.

Kaiser is better than a retail store, but Kaiser is an awful company to work for. The unions are weak. The attendance policies are brutal and the company attitude is poor. The hospital pharmacists are also overworked, but they are paid higher and full time hours are available. You can make a living on the wages and the benefits are good.

Walmart used to staff their Pharmacies well until several months ago. Now pharmacists and technicians are quitting left and right. You cannot survive on barely above part time hours. You can't just hire some part time college kid and expect them to do the job. This job takes attention to detail or patients will drop dead from medication errors. One wrong pill and the customer is dead or seriously ill in the hospital.

You cut hours to save a few dollars and end up losing half your staff. The replacements are dangerously untrained and inexperienced. Now you end up with an employee rebellion and lawsuits from medical injuries.

[storewanderer]

It feels like retail pharmacy is basically hitting a breaking point. Too many operators have staffing problems, customers are getting more and more demanding, corporate expects more and more out of the employees...

I was quite surprised by Wal Mart's recent move. They had previously really been supporting pharmacy.

CVS can do whatever it wants, at the end of the day they will be the last nationwide drugstore chain standing.

[SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT]

Playing devil's advocate here... Is this because they've cut the hours to zero, or is it because they aren't staffed/can't get staffed?

Common denominator may be the same, but curious because if they're all running short pharmacists and technicians that is different from the company ordering staffing reductions to unsafe levels. Yes the outcome is the same at the moment, but just curious.

I've heard that sometimes an experienced pharmacist makes much more than the Store Manager and sometimes the District Manager. That leads to resentfulness. There is always a shortage of pharmacists so they can't afford to get rid of higher paid ones as they're better than nobody. And the productivity culture is driving older pharmacists to retire early thus making the problem worse (an experienced pharmacist is always more productive than a rookie).

I've heard that many retail pharmacists are leaving as soon as they can get a hospital pharmacist job, and that many are going to Kaiser Permanente too. They don't want to work in the retail environment.

In southern California at the unionized RAD and Thrifty Payless units, new PharmD's receive $60.00 an hour ($2400 wk,/$131k yr.), while top of scale (5 year) PharmD makes $70.20 an hour ($2808 wk,/$146k yr.). Then there are those PHarmD's that have been with RAD and predecessor companies that are making much more than the 5yr PharmD scale. Luckily for them, the contract specifies that those making more than the 5 yr scale will not lose pay, or have their pay reduced.

The RX techs who are full-time cannot have their hours reduced, unless their location is closing. If location is closed, the affected tech(s) may choose to invoke seniority bumping rights for another location within their district. Unfortunately, the number of RAD locations is diminishing on a week by week basis - and the pickings are getting slimmer where affected techs may transfer to.
RX techs receive $23.85 an hour after five years.

SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT

[storewanderer]

In southern California at the unionized RAD and Thrifty Payless units, new PharmD's receive $60.00 an hour ($2400 wk,/$131k yr.), while top of scale (5 year) PharmD makes $70.20 an hour ($2808 wk,/$146k yr.). Then there are those PHarmD's that have been with RAD and predecessor companies that are making much more than the 5yr PharmD scale. Luckily for them, the contract specifies that those making more than the 5 yr scale will not lose pay, or have their pay reduced.

The RX techs who are full-time cannot have their hours reduced, unless their location is closing. If location is closed, the affected tech(s) may choose to invoke seniority bumping rights for another location within their district. Unfortunately, the number of RAD locations is diminishing on a week by week basis - and the pickings are getting slimmer where affected techs may transfer to.
RX techs receive $23.85 an hour after five years.

SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT

This is another area where the Rite Aid store closures create a competitive disadvantage for the company. As the more senior long term employees "bump" lower paid less senior employees, payroll costs rise at the few remaining stores as the concentration of employees starts to be toward more senior/higher paid employees. Ideally the more senior employees are more efficient than newer employees so to that point the added cost is somewhat absorbed, but at the end of the day if 70% of Rite Aid's techs are at 23.85/hr only 20% of the techs at CVS make that much, the added labor cost only makes it that much harder for Rite Aid to exist.

That was also a problem for Ralphs in NorCal after they closed too many stores- the more senior employees bumped out less senior employees as stores closed. Of course the stores ran like well oiled machines with efficient, professional employees but it seems many customers did not necessarily care about that. Meanwhile Safeway and Raleys were opening a lot of new stores and hiring a lot of new people at the bottom of the union payscale and customers preferred those newer/cheaper stores.

[Romr123]

That was the downfall of A&P in a lot of areas---a gradually more concentrated, more expensive, higher seniority staff for stores as they dwindled.

[BillyGr]

That was the downfall of A&P in a lot of areas---a gradually more concentrated, more expensive, higher seniority staff for stores as they dwindled.

Funny - as I was reading Storewander's post (before scrolling down enough to see yours), that thought was in my mind as well

[norcalriteaidclerk]

As much as my store has had front end staffing problems for the past couple years,pharmacy staffing has been relatively stable,though for my first couple years at Sunrise Village we only had one regular pharmacy tech.