Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

storewanderer
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Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

It seems CVS.com is no longer accepting orders online at this time. CVS.com fulfills online orders primarily from select store locations (there are a couple low volume stores in Reno that are designated as online fulfillment stores) and must be having real trouble fulfilling orders given the current run on stores. They do sometimes fulfill online orders from a warehouse in IN, but that seems to be pretty rare.

Then there is Rite Aid.com with a disclaimer that orders will take 14-21 days and tons of out of stocks. Rite Aid fulfills online orders out of its distribution centers.

Then there is Walgreens.com which on 3/13 announced free shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase in an effort to, I guess, keep people out of its stores. I am not sure how long they are taking to fulfill orders but they are out of stock on many of the same items as Rite Aid. Walgreens fulfills online orders out of its distribution centers.
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

There is a CVS in the middle of 4 casinos in Stateline, NV. Between the ski resorts being closed, CA stay at home order, and the casinos being closed this is a pretty dead area at this time.

CVS is actually the only thing open there. And it is still open 24 hours. This CVS has no pharmacy.

I went in and the store is FULLY stocked (except for hand sanitizer and toilet paper, it has EVERYTHING else). Zero out of stocks in food. Quite impressive.

Customer count appears to be almost zero. I cannot believe CVS is requiring this desolate store with no pharmacy to stay open 24 hours in a desolate location under the current scenario. Until the casinos open back up, I'm not even sure it is worth this store being open at all, let alone open 24 hours.
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

People are afraid of catching the coronavirus from a pharmacy such as CVS where all of the sick people cough all over the products. I was hesitant to go to a CVS, but I decided to go at 11 p.m. There were zero customers. It was the former Longs Drugs flagship in downtown Walnut Creek, California. The store was very well stocked also except for hand sanitizer and toilet paper. They actually had bottles of rubbing alcohol. The limit was 2 bottles. What luck!

I noticed that they taped yellow tape on the ground for the line to the cash registers. The tape said keep 6 feet apart and do not cross this yellow tape line. It seemed kind of strange, but I suppose it will help with social distancing. Social distancing certainly is not being followed at Walmart where crowds pack together like a rock concert. If anything, people will catch the coronavirus from standing in line at crowded stores.

Walgreens is only open 9 am to 9 pm even at the former 24 hour store in Walnut Creek. The drive thru is open 24 hours for the pharmacy. I am sure some people are trying to drive up and purchase random stuff non-prescription merchandise from the pharmacy drive thru window at all hours.

After 9 pm there is not many businesses open anywhere. The only places open are convenience stores and Jack In The Box. There are so few people out that it is probably not worth it to open 24 hours. However, for those who are desperate to avoid crowds and people CVS is providing the option for those who absolutely are fearful of catching something.

As a healthcare worker, I have to work late and sadly enough CVS is probably my only choice now.
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

I saw rubbing alcohol today at CVS too, first time I have seen it in a while. Many of these stores are so empty of customers, there is a 24 hour CVS in Sparks but I have not been there in a couple months. I assume it is still 24 hours.

I went into two Rite Aids. Quite a few out of stocks, CVS was in much better shape. One in South Lake Tahoe and it was just like normal other than having fewer customers. Same old "close together line" at checkout with one frazzled cashier as always. Pathetic. Definitely not the place to buy anything with one cashier open and a constant line. Down the hill in Gardnerville that Rite Aid actually had blue tape on the floor spaced 6 feet apart for people to line up at both pharmacy and checkout. They were really optimistic about business to put all this tape out, as they had 5 pieces of blue tape at each area. This store rarely has more than a couple customers inside at once.

So far I don't think Raleys and Save Mart have made any cuts to store hours.

WinCo is still open until Midnight. Hours in Pittsburg pending any more incidents like they had the other morning. Maybe Brentwood is less exciting.
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

Ah, Pittsburg. My Walmart friend told me about an incident at the Pittsburg Walmart self checkout where two women started fighting and ended up covered in blood over who was in line for the self checkout. I would drive half an hour in heavy traffic to Brentwood just to avoid the Pittsburg Winco. When I was a kid, on our first visit to a Walmart my parents were so scared of the people at the Pittsburg Walmart that they abandoned our shopping cart and dragged me out of the store. It was that bad.

Lucky supermarkets in Northern California close at 10 pm now instead of midnight. The stores had many out of stocks in produce, bread, frozen food, paper goods, and rubbing alcohol. However, there were many fresh baked products that were still unsold.
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: March 21st, 2020, 12:45 am I noticed that they taped yellow tape on the ground for the line to the cash registers. The tape said keep 6 feet apart and do not cross this yellow tape line. It seemed kind of strange, but I suppose it will help with social distancing. Social distancing certainly is not being followed at Walmart where crowds pack together like a rock concert. If anything, people will catch the coronavirus from standing in line at crowded stores.

Walgreens is only open 9 am to 9 pm even at the former 24 hour store in Walnut Creek. The drive thru is open 24 hours for the pharmacy. I am sure some people are trying to drive up and purchase random stuff non-prescription merchandise from the pharmacy drive thru window at all hours.
About the only benefit a Walmart (or supermarket type store) has is that most people use some type of cart - that at least keeps people a bit separated in a line, since you can't get closer than the cart allows. CVS or other pharmacies that doesn't usually happen, probably why the marks to help remind people.

Actually, from the emails I've gotten from Walgreens, they are encouraging sales of select non pharmacy items via the drive thru at any time of the day. Didn't say what those select items are, but one might suspect in the overnight hours they'd be much more likely to go grab more things for someone than they would during the busy parts of the day.

Kind of a historical throwback to the days when the clerks in stores got all the items for customers :)
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

When I was at CVS years ago the prescription tube at the drive thru got clogged. It was a mess. They had to send an employee out the door and around the building to deliver medications to cars. Those tube systems always break down.

The pharmacy is already busy enough, the pharmacy employees would have to run through the store shopping for the drive thru customers. The line of cars would stretch out onto the roadway. You would never get any prescriptions filled. Walgreens understaffs the pharmacy to the extreme.
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

CVS cut most store and pharmacy hours today.
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: March 22nd, 2020, 9:20 pm CVS cut most store and pharmacy hours today.
I saw signs to that effect at stores yesterday (maybe with NY setting up their latest rules effective Sunday PM?), but (at least the one I saw) was pretty minor (like going from 8am-10pm down to 8am-9pm). Not sure if that was the case in all or not.

CVS had also (at least in this area) just done a round of hours changes not long before this started, so some stores were already on a shorter opening plan (the store I reference above was not involved in that change, but a couple others close to it were).
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Re: Drugstore websites and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

Fewer people are out working late, so most customers go to the stores earlier in the day. Late at night, there were virtually no customers at my local CVS. Everyone seems to be shifting to shopping earlier in the day.

My local CVS store just switched from 24 hours to 9 to 9. This is the first time that the store will close overnight in decades. When it was still the Longs Drugs flagship store it was open 24 hours. The other 24 hour store just switched to 9 to 9 as well.
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