Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
bryceleinan
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: October 25th, 2021, 7:32 pm
bryceleinan wrote: October 24th, 2021, 6:35 pm Creswell is transferring to Cottage Grove, which is a 10 minute drive down the I-5... I am driving to Coos Bay on Wednesday. so I will see what that store and Winston are doing.
This is what you get with less competition. This is why it is very bad to see these types of things happening where more and more players are exiting the pharmacy business.

A 10 minute drive doesn't sound like a big deal but when it is elderly people, or people who are sick, it is a big deal.
That’s a big problem with how they’re doing this whole thing. I get that Bi-Mart wanted out, but Wags isn’t super invested in the small communities. I’m one of those guys who can’t fill at Wags - my insurance doesn’t cover them. Even though I’m from
Nevada, Bi-Mart was my backup for when I needed stuff in Oregon, unless it was a place with a Fred Meyer.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: October 29th, 2021, 8:31 pm

That’s a big problem with how they’re doing this whole thing. I get that Bi-Mart wanted out, but Wags isn’t super invested in the small communities. I’m one of those guys who can’t fill at Wags - my insurance doesn’t cover them. Even though I’m from
Nevada, Bi-Mart was my backup for when I needed stuff in Oregon, unless it was a place with a Fred Meyer.
I am sort of surprised CVS did not make a move. They don't have much of a presence in the Northwest. They missed Bartell which I always expected would go to them.

I am wondering if Bi-Mart played a bidding war between CVS and Walgreens and Walgreens ultimately won. It is odd however given Bartell did not sell for much, but maybe for CVS and Walgreens there is more value in buying files/eliminating a competitor than buying a bunch of stores.

It could open up some opportunities for some independent pharmacies to open in some of these smaller towns.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: October 30th, 2021, 12:25 am
I am sort of surprised CVS did not make a move. They don't have much of a presence in the Northwest. They missed Bartell which I always expected would go to them.

I am wondering if Bi-Mart played a bidding war between CVS and Walgreens and Walgreens ultimately won. It is odd however given Bartell did not sell for much, but maybe for CVS and Walgreens there is more value in buying files/eliminating a competitor than buying a bunch of stores.

It could open up some opportunities for some independent pharmacies to open in some of these smaller towns.
CVS might have some kind of agreement due to already operating pharmacies inside Target, where they can't operate pharmacy departments in other non-CVS locations. Bi-Mart could be seen in some ways as a competitor to Target, even though many of the small towns do not have Target stores. Walgreens at least is an established name in the Pacific Northwest, where CVS is usually a name on a pharmacy inside Target, which has appeared in recent years.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by bryceleinan »

I talked to someone in the pharmacy in the Coos Bay store… she said they’re closing soon, with prescriptions going to North Bend Walgreens. Bummer part is that a lot of folks are out of jobs, including the person I talked to. She said the Walgreens locations don’t have enough room for all the Bi-Mart staff :-(, so they’re being let go.

I can tell you that the Safeway pharmacy in North Bend was packed to the gills - a lot of folks are transferring their prescriptions there or to Fred Meyer, so I guess they’ll benefit too.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: November 1st, 2021, 9:41 pm I talked to someone in the pharmacy in the Coos Bay store… she said they’re closing soon, with prescriptions going to North Bend Walgreens. Bummer part is that a lot of folks are out of jobs, including the person I talked to. She said the Walgreens locations don’t have enough room for all the Bi-Mart staff :-(, so they’re being let go.

I can tell you that the Safeway pharmacy in North Bend was packed to the gills - a lot of folks are transferring their prescriptions there or to Fred Meyer, so I guess they’ll benefit too.
I am guessing Rite Aid will also pick up a good amount of scripts.

Walgreens locations don't have enough room for all the Bi-Mart staff - glad to hear Walgreens is so overstaffed in that region. Chainwide they have many, many openings. For instance I just pulled their career site and see:
I know Coos Bay to Roseburg is absolutely not a practical daily commute.
Pharmacy Tech opening- North Bend, OR
Pharmacy Manager opening- Roseburg, OR (2 different positions open)
Pharmacist with Sign On Bonus- Roseburg, OR
Pharmacy Tech - Roseburg, OR
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Alpha8472 »

Many Walgreens pharmacists quit due to the overwhelming stress and understaffing. They have a hard time retaining employees. Walmart pays less, but the workload is much less. The Walmart staffing levels are much better.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by BillyGr »

bryceleinan wrote: November 1st, 2021, 9:41 pm I talked to someone in the pharmacy in the Coos Bay store… she said they’re closing soon, with prescriptions going to North Bend Walgreens. Bummer part is that a lot of folks are out of jobs, including the person I talked to. She said the Walgreens locations don’t have enough room for all the Bi-Mart staff :-(, so they’re being let go.

I can tell you that the Safeway pharmacy in North Bend was packed to the gills - a lot of folks are transferring their prescriptions there or to Fred Meyer, so I guess they’ll benefit too.
Hopefully with those other stores picking up business (including Rite Aid as mentioned in a separate post) the employees that Walgreens can't use will have options to move to one of those other stores. It does seem hard to think that there wouldn't be something open given all the issues of staffing problems that have been reported.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by SamSpade »

Current plans call for ten Bi-Mart pharmacies to be converted to Walgreens pharmacies inside our stores. We are projecting this will happen in early 2022.

At this time, these stores include:
Corvallis
Eugene (18th & Chambers)
Junction City
Klamath Falls
La Pine
Monmouth
Prineville
Stayton
Veneta
Weiser
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: November 5th, 2021, 10:14 pm Current plans call for ten Bi-Mart pharmacies to be converted to Walgreens pharmacies inside our stores. We are projecting this will happen in early 2022.

At this time, these stores include:
Corvallis
Eugene (18th & Chambers)
Junction City
Klamath Falls
La Pine
Monmouth
Prineville
Stayton
Veneta
Weiser
Weird- not Brookings?

I guess the Brookings customers can go down to the Walgreens in Crescent City, CA.

Also the Ashland customers can just drive up to Medford.

Hard for me to imagine people are going to drive 10-30 miles to fill a prescription at Walgreens, bypassing other stores like Rite Aid, either/and/or a Safeway or Fred Meyer run pharmacy.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walgreens would do an analysis. If the pharmacy has a majority of money losing Medicaid customers, they will close the pharmacy down. Walgreens only wants profitable customers who have private health insurance. Those private insurance plans make money as opposed to Medicaid customers who cause the pharmacy to lose money.

Other chains such as CVS would still take Medicaid customers as the customers would shop in the store and bring more sales to the rest of the store.
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