Walmart and 24 hour stores

[Alpha8472]

Walmart used to install drive thru tubes for some of their pharmacies a few years ago, but they have since gone away from that. Prescriptions take even longer at the drive thru since the tube system is complicated and items must be sent through.

Walmart discovered that they did more sales if people came into the store to drop off prescriptions. If you are inside you will be tempted to buy tons of stuff. Walmart is all about increasing sales.

[wnetmacman]

Walmart used to install drive thru tubes for some of their pharmacies a few years ago, but they have since gone away from that. Prescriptions take even longer at the drive thru since the tube system is complicated and items must be sent through.

Walmart discovered that they did more sales if people came into the store to drop off prescriptions. If you are inside you will be tempted to buy tons of stuff. Walmart is all about increasing sales.

I have seen a handful of stores with the tube system. Where CVS here uses tubes, it has been for dropoff only; to pick up you had to go to the window or inside. I'm wondering if that hasn't been Walmart's intent with that system. There is a new store going up about a mile from my house, and there are no tubes or pharmacy drive thru there, but there is a Pickup area for grocery. It's a new design I haven't seen before, and I'm wondering how different it will be. We don't know the hours yet, as they are just beginning interior equipment installation.

[mbz321]

Walmart used to install drive thru tubes for some of their pharmacies a few years ago, but they have since gone away from that. Prescriptions take even longer at the drive thru since the tube system is complicated and items must be sent through.

Walmart discovered that they did more sales if people came into the store to drop off prescriptions. If you are inside you will be tempted to buy tons of stuff. Walmart is all about increasing sales.

A new Walmart near me that opened in 2016 has tubes (and very long ones at that....the Pharmacy is on the complete opposite end of the building!), although this store was likely planned for several years prior.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

Walmart has very few 24 hour pharmacies. The problem is that pharmacies are a liability. Pharmacy robberies are getting more and more common and having a pharmacy open 24 hours invites a robbery. The pharmacy staff is very expensive to employ and Walmart wants to cut down on employee payroll as much as possible. Staffing is based on how many prescriptions are filled. If the pharmacy does not get enough prescriptions filled then there is no justification for a 24 hour pharmacy. There are probably only a few 24 Walmart pharmacies in the entire chain. I know there was one in Arkansas and possibly one in Louisiana.

Rite Aid has gotten rid of most of their 24 hour pharmacies and CVS has eliminated most of the 24 hour pharmacies even at the former Longs Drugs flagship 24 hour pharmacy. It is not worth it to employ a pharmacist that does no work. CVS knows that 24 hour pharmacies are magnets for late night robberies with the limited staffing of those stores.

24 hour auto would never happen at Walmart. Walmart would never justify having employees standing around doing nothing. Also, late night robberies could also happen at the auto center. One stolen car could cost Walmart thousands of dollars.

I could be wrong(maybe because I don't frequently shop there regardless of size/format),but I don't believe WMT even keeps pharmacies open 24 hours even locations that are open around the clock(IIRC,one of the few things they do right is not open on Christmas Day).In fact,at least in the 916,they appear to be reducing 24-hour operations if not eliminating them entirely:the Birdcage location(near work)has scaled back to 5am-midnight and I believe the Madison Square one(not far from me)may have done the same.

As for chain pharmacies,even Walgreens has systematically reduced 24-hour operations locally over the years(of their 4 24-hour locations left in the metro,2 have 24-hour pharmacies one being on Dewey not far from me).NorCal's last 24-hour Rite Aid(on Alhambra in midtown)has downscaled to extended hours(7am-11pm,pharmacy hasn't been 24-hours for years though);while among the 3 24-hour CVS locations in the Sac County,just one has a 24-hour pharmacy and it's my closest chain pharmacy(to home)period.

[storewanderer]

The industry has been eliminating 24 hour pharmacies lately. It seems like it just does not "pan out" in most cases anymore. In Reno/Sparks there is a lone 24 hour Walgreens store/pharmacy (used to be 2 24 hour ones) that sits atop the interstate. CVS has a 24 hour store but closes the pharmacy earlier now, a former Sav-On in Sparks (used to have a 24 hour store in Reno as well). Rite Aid had a 24 hour store/pharmacy in Sparks and that store was traded over to Longs who actually kept it open 24 hours, but CVS ultimately closed that store.

I have seen Walgreens in the distant past in Colorado that were 24 hour drive through pharmacy only (store closed at 10 or 11). No idea if they are still doing that.

[buckguy]

The Waltons are much less generous with philanthropy than other wealthy families, and misers compared with Gates or Buffett (this is well documented). They family has never played much of a role in the active management of the company and are basically lazy dividend collectors--to see what that does to a company in the long run look at Winn Dixie. WM's predatory practices also are well documented (Nelson Licthenstein's book is a nice compendium of all the things they have done to cripple suppliers and local governments)as are their nickel and dime practices with labor; Barbara Ehrenreich and others have gone "undercover" regarding their labor practices). They allow almost no customization of merchandise and when they ran an experiment of updating their clothing lines a few years ago--they were able to raise sales in metro areas but not rural ones, so they went back to just selling what rural shoppers wanted. They easily could have increased sales by doing what most mass merchandisers have done for decades, but it was simpler to do what they've always done.

WM has really exhausted what they can do with labor costs at the store level. Merchandise goes undisplayed because of it. The level of store management is thin, as well, and the purposely hire "good soldiers" who will follow the dictates of the central office.because profits have stopped growing

The small stores were more or less imposed by Wall Street, because their return on investment hasn't grown in years and that's the metric that large investors use. Millions shop there because they don't have alternatives and sales have stopped growing because they have nothing to offer to a public beyond their base. Their model is built around volume which is why their selections are so limited by department and why they depend heavily on food to bring people into the store. They have not been able to successfully add higher margin lines. There was a time when they operated clean, well-staffed stores and could draw more affluent customers. At some point--during the 90s I would guess, they decided to race to the bottom instead which fueled tremendous growth, but now they are boxed-in and any opportunities to grow involve risk and/or higher costs (e.g., moving into urban areas). They are essentially where Sears was about 30-40 years ago--market saturation, lackluster offerings and product assortment that didn't offer a lot of direction for better margins, except Sears hadn't pissed off so many people (suppliers, customers, local governments) in the process and they are stuck with a clueless family in charge, with pressure from Wall Street, whose usual formulas (cut labor, cut quality, etc.) are death to service businesses.

WalMart has always been a nickel and dime operation in terms of how they look at costs and they'd rather save a few pennies now so that the Waltons can keep collecting dividends rather than take a a truly long-term view of their business model. They have become boxed in by various kinds of competition (web, big box) and no longer have the lowest price on most of their merchandise--they are a store of last resort and have monopolies in rural areas, but they can't seem to expand beyond that base, so all they can do is pick away at controllable costs like labor.

Being a nickel and dime operation creates maximum profits. If you look at profit margins of similar companies, they keep more. The Walton family aren't high flyers; they do some philanthropy, but don't really flaunt their wealth. I wouldn't refer to them as a store of last resort, as millions shop there.

If you believe they don't look at the performance of the company long-term, you may be missing something, as everything they do is under a long term microscope. Remember Bud's, Helen's Arts and Crafts, and Dot Discount Drugs? Those were somewhat long-term decisions. I agree that the Express stores were a failure, but they realized that they wouldn't be long-term successes like their full line stores that folks expected.

If you use their Savings Catcher, you'll get money back. So saying they aren't the lowest price is unfair; if they aren't, they give it back. Rural monopolies are because others give up; you have to compete in places they don't do business. If you try head-to-head, you'll never win, because they have buying power that one guy doesn't.

[rwsandiego]

...They are essentially where Sears was about 30-40 years ago--market saturation, lackluster offerings and product assortment that didn't offer a lot of direction for better margins, except Sears hadn't pissed off so many people (suppliers, customers, local governments) in the process and they are stuck with a clueless family in charge, with pressure from Wall Street, whose usual formulas (cut labor, cut quality, etc.) are death to service businesses...

Coincidentally, a friend I had a similar conversation to what you said in this post. Walmart will eventually do themselves in or be done in by another chain. Not sure who that might be, but it will happen.

[pseudo3d]

I'm guessing that Walmart's rural base will still live on, as there just aren't a lot of options in some of those areas. Luckily for Walmart, none of its competitors really offer quite offer the same hard goods/soft goods/food line-up it does. Probably the closest is Meijer and Fred Meyer, though even those have some problems.

[wnetmacman]

The Waltons are much less generous with philanthropy than other wealthy families, and misers compared with Gates or Buffett (this is well documented). They family has never played much of a role in the active management of the company and are basically lazy dividend collectors--to see what that does to a company in the long run look at Winn Dixie.

No, you just don't directly see what philanthropy they do because it is specifically centered around education. They are not flashy about it, like Gates and Buffett (look what we can do!). Also, three of Sam's 4 children served on the board at one time. Rob served as chairman for 24 years. John was on the board til his death, and then Jim took his place. (Alice is a bit controversial...) Rob's son in law Greg Penner took his place on the board, and Jim's son Steuart took his.

WM's predatory practices also are well documented (Nelson Licthenstein's book is a nice compendium of all the things they have done to cripple suppliers and local governments)as are their nickel and dime practices with labor; Barbara Ehrenreich and others have gone "undercover" regarding their labor practices). They allow almost no customization of merchandise and when they ran an experiment of updating their clothing lines a few years ago--they were able to raise sales in metro areas but not rural ones, so they went back to just selling what rural shoppers wanted. They easily could have increased sales by doing what most mass merchandisers have done for decades, but it was simpler to do what they've always done.

Retailers sell what they want to sell. Walmart has much higher buying power due to their size. In the 70's, Kmart dictated that if another retailer sold something in one color, they had to produce it for Kmart differently or they would drop their entire line.

I blame employees on putting up with Walmart's practices, because in most cases, a little walkout would have cured that fast. I do not see what you're saying about customization; I've never seen a parka in a Gulf Coast store, nor do I see King Cakes in stores outside Louisiana.

WM has really exhausted what they can do with labor costs at the store level. Merchandise goes undisplayed because of it. The level of store management is thin, as well, and the purposely hire "good soldiers" who will follow the dictates of the central office.because profits have stopped growing

No, they actually haven't. They are trying harder now. I'm suspecting that you may work for them.

The small stores were more or less imposed by Wall Street, because their return on investment hasn't grown in years and that's the metric that large investors use. Millions shop there because they don't have alternatives and sales have stopped growing because they have nothing to offer to a public beyond their base. Their model is built around volume which is why their selections are so limited by department and why they depend heavily on food to bring people into the store. They have not been able to successfully add higher margin lines. There was a time when they operated clean, well-staffed stores and could draw more affluent customers. At some point--during the 90s I would guess, they decided to race to the bottom instead which fueled tremendous growth, but now they are boxed-in and any opportunities to grow involve risk and/or higher costs (e.g., moving into urban areas). They are essentially where Sears was about 30-40 years ago--market saturation, lackluster offerings and product assortment that didn't offer a lot of direction for better margins, except Sears hadn't pissed off so many people (suppliers, customers, local governments) in the process and they are stuck with a clueless family in charge, with pressure from Wall Street, whose usual formulas (cut labor, cut quality, etc.) are death to service businesses.

The small stores (outside the failed Express ones) are the heart of the chain. 2016 was the first year sales went down in their history. I wouldn't count them out because sales went down .7%. I do not feel like they are where Sears was 30-40 years ago. Sears didn't learn from their mistakes. I feel like current management is taking steps to fix it, however slow they are.

[pseudo3d]

I blame employees on putting up with Walmart's practices, because in most cases, a little walkout would have cured that fast.

Walmart takes who they can get. They already ran out in-store butchers because some threatened to unionize (and as much I don't like unionization, I suspect that Walmart didn't try to offer competitive wages). I think the store employee quality of Walmart has really plummeted over the years, though I don't have any real evidence of that.

No, they actually haven't. They are trying harder now. I'm suspecting that you may work for them.

Wouldn't surprise me if that was true, many of us (including me) at RW have worked retail.

The small stores (outside the failed Express ones) are the heart of the chain. 2016 was the first year sales went down in their history. I wouldn't count them out because sales went down .7%. I do not feel like they are where Sears was 30-40 years ago. Sears didn't learn from their mistakes. I feel like current management is taking steps to fix it, however slow they are.

[/quote]
Sears might have learned had not Lampert bought them and screwed them over permanently. Then again, even without mixing Lampert and Kmart in, the divide between Sears and Sears Grand would've complicated things sooner or later.