Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

reymann
Personnel Manager
Personnel Manager
Posts: 279
Joined: August 13th, 2014, 8:25 pm
Been thanked: 27 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by reymann »

what's going on in san francisco is a double whammy, slow returning to the office and people permanently leaving the city for cheaper real estate further inland. i also feel like more of the businesses in downtown SF are gonna start migrating to sacramento on top of everything soon enough.
veteran+
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Posts: 2233
Joined: January 3rd, 2015, 7:53 am
Has thanked: 1202 times
Been thanked: 71 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by veteran+ »

:roll:
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by Alpha8472 »

I found Sacramento to be a totally different city. It seemed almost park-like around the Capitol. There were lots of trees and it seemed much less like a concrete jungle. However, the city seemed so spread out. It was difficult to walk around.

I don't know about the night life, but it seemed really boring compared to San Francisco.

The climate was absolutely miserable with 100 degree temperatures in the summer. I walked around for just a few minutes and I was drenched in sweat. It is not pleasant unless you have an air conditioned car. At night, the temperatures could be in the 80s. There was no relief. Perhaps that is why the homeless go to San Francisco. Sacramento is not pleasant for homeless people to live outdoors.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 16th, 2022, 5:08 pm I found Sacramento to be a totally different city. It seemed almost park-like around the Capitol. There were lots of trees and it seemed much less like a concrete jungle. However, the city seemed so spread out. It was difficult to walk around.

I don't know about the night life, but it seemed really boring compared to San Francisco.

The climate was absolutely miserable with 100 degree temperatures in the summer. I walked around for just a few minutes and I was drenched in sweat. It is not pleasant unless you have an air conditioned car. At night, the temperatures could be in the 80s. There was no relief. Perhaps that is why the homeless go to San Francisco. Sacramento is not pleasant for homeless people to live outdoors.
Sacramento has tried to develop its downtown with the new stadium and re-tooling the K Street Mall into more of a restaurant/entertainment type of complex to go with the stadium. The Kimpton Hotel built there is a really nice facility and the older Holiday Inn is, for an old Holiday Inn, considering its age, also pretty decent. There are a couple blocks nearby with some restaurants and bars that stay open late also but there is not much night life in downtown Sacramento. It is just not the same as San Francisco. There is still a very significant homeless population and there are issues in downtown Sacramento (but nothing like downtown San Francisco specifically the Union Square area at this point in time). From a retail standpoint, downtown Sacramento is a total dud. Macy's stayed at K Street but that is really about it.

San Francisco just has to much more to offer. Between historically excellent shopping, great sightseeing, the cultural areas like Chinatown and North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf (touristy but still very scenic), and much stronger public transportation, beyond the climate difference you mention being much more pleasant to hang around outside, it just has much more to offer than Sacramento. And this doesn't even touch on the arts, performances, etc. More sports, closer to the ocean. Close to a major international airport with hundreds of daily international flights worldwide accessible by multiple forms of public transportation seamlessly. Folks who leave San Francisco are basically leaving that "city life" behind them and moving to suburban sprawl life of strip malls with big flat parking lots and chain restaurants if they move to a place like Sacramento. Slowly there is getting to be more culture in places like Sacramento, but it is harder for it to gain traction, due to demographics, the sprawl situation, etc. It is much easier to offer more in a big city where things are closer together. But the crime situation has gotten so bad in San Francisco that many are opting to just leave it all behind...
User avatar
norcalriteaidclerk
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 542
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 1:01 am
Location: 916/279 area code complex
Has thanked: 63 times
Been thanked: 42 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

storewanderer wrote:
Alpha8472 wrote: August 16th, 2022, 5:08 pm I found Sacramento to be a totally different city. It seemed almost park-like around the Capitol. There were lots of trees and it seemed much less like a concrete jungle. However, the city seemed so spread out. It was difficult to walk around.

I don't know about the night life, but it seemed really boring compared to San Francisco.

The climate was absolutely miserable with 100 degree temperatures in the summer. I walked around for just a few minutes and I was drenched in sweat. It is not pleasant unless you have an air conditioned car. At night, the temperatures could be in the 80s. There was no relief. Perhaps that is why the homeless go to San Francisco. Sacramento is not pleasant for homeless people to live outdoors.
Sacramento has tried to develop its downtown with the new stadium and re-tooling the K Street Mall into more of a restaurant/entertainment type of complex to go with the stadium. The Kimpton Hotel built there is a really nice facility and the older Holiday Inn is, for an old Holiday Inn, considering its age, also pretty decent. There are a couple blocks nearby with some restaurants and bars that stay open late also but there is not much night life in downtown Sacramento. It is just not the same as San Francisco. There is still a very significant homeless population and there are issues in downtown Sacramento (but nothing like downtown San Francisco specifically the Union Square area at this point in time). From a retail standpoint, downtown Sacramento is a total dud. Macy's stayed at K Street but that is really about it.

San Francisco just has to much more to offer. Between historically excellent shopping, great sightseeing, the cultural areas like Chinatown and North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf (touristy but still very scenic), and much stronger public transportation, beyond the climate difference you mention being much more pleasant to hang around outside, it just has much more to offer than Sacramento. And this doesn't even touch on the arts, performances, etc. More sports, closer to the ocean. Close to a major international airport with hundreds of daily international flights worldwide accessible by multiple forms of public transportation seamlessly. Folks who leave San Francisco are basically leaving that "city life" behind them and moving to suburban sprawl life of strip malls with big flat parking lots and chain restaurants if they move to a place like Sacramento. Slowly there is getting to be more culture in places like Sacramento, but it is harder for it to gain traction, due to demographics, the sprawl situation, etc. It is much easier to offer more in a big city where things are closer together. But the crime situation has gotten so bad in San Francisco that many are opting to just leave it all behind...
Only twice in my lifetime have even visited San Francisco (7th grade field trip to the exploratorium spring 1990, Giants game July 1994);but at this point 15 years ago(when RAD still had stores in the City of San Francisco), I fantasized about moving there considering that even today certain bus routes run 24/7 and there are more developed ethnic enclaves(Chinatown, Japan Center, North Beach).Boy have times changed.

Back to downtown Sacramento,technically there's still chain retail on the downtown/midtown border(CVS at 1701 K, Mini-Target a block away);but the ill-advised closure of the Rite Aid at 831 K (i still miss that place) leaves a couple of 7-elevens(within five blocks of one another along j)as the only chain retail on or near the(historical)Kay.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by Alpha8472 »

Pharmacist shortage? It is Walgreens that is responsible for understaffing its pharmacies. You have a pharmacy where there is only one pharmacist scheduled. If that pharmacist calls out sick or quits, you cannot keep the pharmacy open. Laws require a pharmacist to be in the pharmacy to supervise the other employees filling prescriptions.

Walgreens is too cheap to pay for 2 pharmacists or for a floater pharmacist to be on call in case someone calls in sick.

There are pharmacy schools churning out tons of pharmacists every year, and they cannot find any open positions because Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid are not hiring. These big chains are trying to save money by staffing just one pharmacist on duty.

Pharmacists that work alone are burning out all over the country. They are overworked and they are quitting. It is a miserable job due to the understaffing. If a pharmacist is lucky they might get a job at an independent pharmacy where the staffing might be better. However, the insurance companies are killing off the independent pharmacies by terrible reimbursement rates. Just the big chains are managing to stay profitable. Many supermarket pharmacies are going into big losses.

Insurance companies are forcing customers to use mail order pharmacies, and this further reduces the customer traffic at drugstores. Drugstores are not making as many front end sales. This leads to store closures and more overworked pharmacists at the stores that remain open.

Walgreens in particular is a pharmacy where you can be put on hold for an hour on the phone. Walgreens wants you to order medications on the app, or just come in to order in person. If you are out of refills, good luck. The pharmacy employees are so overworked they may never contact your doctor to get refills. You cannot even speak to a person in the pharmacy to find out the status of your medications.

Walgreens makes customers want to go elsewhere due to understaffing.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 4th, 2022, 12:05 am Pharmacist shortage? It is Walgreens that is responsible for understaffing its pharmacies. You have a pharmacy where there is only one pharmacist scheduled. If that pharmacist calls out sick or quits, you cannot keep the pharmacy open. Laws require a pharmacist to be in the pharmacy to supervise the other employees filling prescriptions.

Walgreens is too cheap to pay for 2 pharmacists or for a floater pharmacist to be on call in case someone calls in sick.

Walgreens in particular is a pharmacy where you can be put on hold for an hour on the phone. Walgreens wants you to order medications on the app, or just come in to order in person. If you are out of refills, good luck. The pharmacy employees are so overworked they may never contact your doctor to get refills. You cannot even speak to a person in the pharmacy to find out the status of your medications.

Walgreens makes customers want to go elsewhere due to understaffing.
Walgreens has doubled or tripled pharmacy volume yet not added much staff. As they opened new stores their typical model was 8 AM to 10 PM pharmacy and only one pharmacist on duty at a time, with that overlap in the mid afternoon for the pharmacy manager to try and catch up on inventory/ordering (or fills that were behind), and that was fine as the pharmacies were not very busy just yet. Stores that were a little busier just got more tech help and maybe even a pharmacy cashier or two. But back then all they were doing was filling prescriptions.

Now look at today, plus having to administer vaccines, and still only one pharmacist on duty at a time? Unreal. They need two pharmacists on duty at once and even then it would not be easy to handle the volume and other tasks that are being expected. The COVID vaccine program BROKE the pharmacies. It literally pushed the labor to the limit and broke them, and created many thousands of dissatisfied customers in the process. I am not saying the vaccine program is the problem, the problem is these chains bit off more than their labor budgets allowed the stores to chew. They tried to hire thousands of temporary people to help, but it is not clear how those efforts went. Based on the current situation, retention of employees seems to be very challenging.

It is my understanding that it has become very, very difficult to get a floater pharmacist. There are not enough floaters to fill demand.

I was in one large chain drugstore recently in Reno and I tend to be mindful when I hear coughing to stay away. Walgreens pharmacies are so enclosed you can't see the pharmacist so I guess that says where I saw this. The person coughing non-stop was the pharmacist as he was filling pills. Yikes. Oh and no mask. But I am sure it was either that or close the pharmacy that day (which already closes early at 7 PM).
User avatar
norcalriteaidclerk
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 542
Joined: August 22nd, 2010, 1:01 am
Location: 916/279 area code complex
Has thanked: 63 times
Been thanked: 42 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

I have noticed that in Sacramento it has become commonplace for lower volume Walgreens locations to have their pharmacy to have relatively short hours on weekdays (only 9am-7pm as opposed to the industry norm of 9am-9pm and some cases longer for select higher volume chain drugstore pharmacy departments)and this is off of the official locator at Walgreens (dot)com.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
BillyGr
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1578
Joined: October 5th, 2010, 7:33 pm
Been thanked: 58 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walgreens Closures Continue in San Francisco

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: October 4th, 2022, 12:20 am Now look at today, plus having to administer vaccines, and still only one pharmacist on duty at a time? Unreal. They need two pharmacists on duty at once and even then it would not be easy to handle the volume and other tasks that are being expected. The COVID vaccine program BROKE the pharmacies. It literally pushed the labor to the limit and broke them, and created many thousands of dissatisfied customers in the process. I am not saying the vaccine program is the problem, the problem is these chains bit off more than their labor budgets allowed the stores to chew. They tried to hire thousands of temporary people to help, but it is not clear how those efforts went. Based on the current situation, retention of employees seems to be very challenging.

I was in one large chain drugstore recently in Reno and I tend to be mindful when I hear coughing to stay away. Walgreens pharmacies are so enclosed you can't see the pharmacist so I guess that says where I saw this. The person coughing non-stop was the pharmacist as he was filling pills. Yikes. Oh and no mask. But I am sure it was either that or close the pharmacy that day (which already closes early at 7 PM).
If that was an issue, the pharmacy stores could have simply opted NOT to do the shots, or they could have done (like CVS, in fact, did) get people SPECIFICALLY to give the shots on particular days (the guy that was here was telling someone that he basically worked daily, just going to different stores different days, just doing the vaccines - this was back in May of 2021).

The other question - did you ask the pharmacist why he was coughing? There are certainly conditions that cause people to cough (sometimes frequently) without it being anything that will harm others (that is, nothing that is communicable). Not to say that was the case here, just that people shouldn't assume that there is a problem when it may not be at all.
Post Reply