Retail Watchers

bryceleinan wrote: ↑September 18th, 2020, 10:34 pm As far as pharmacy profitability goes, my area (Carson City / Reno) is a good indicator - Carson only has one independent pharmacy left (Dahl’s) - Raley’s closed about 30 of their pharmacies, and the pharmacy benefit managers are eating everyone’s lunch. My pharmacist friend told me that unless you’re at one of the big three drug store chains, Walmart, Kroger, Costco or Albertsons - you probably won’t survive. Raley’s and Bi-Mart are fairly similar in size, so no surprise they’re closing pharmacies.

We are going to be sorry when the only pharmacies left are a few giant chains or mail order.

There is one traditional independent pharmacy still scattered around in Reno area: up in Sun Valley (Valley Pharmacy). There is also one up in Incline Village (Village Pharmacy). The rest are gone- a few in Reno converted to a compounding/specialty focus in the past few years (same owners as Village Pharmacy).

storewanderer wrote: ↑September 19th, 2020, 12:42 am

bryceleinan wrote: ↑September 18th, 2020, 10:34 pm As far as pharmacy profitability goes, my area (Carson City / Reno) is a good indicator - Carson only has one independent pharmacy left (Dahl’s) - Raley’s closed about 30 of their pharmacies, and the pharmacy benefit managers are eating everyone’s lunch. My pharmacist friend told me that unless you’re at one of the big three drug store chains, Walmart, Kroger, Costco or Albertsons - you probably won’t survive. Raley’s and Bi-Mart are fairly similar in size, so no surprise they’re closing pharmacies.

We are going to be sorry when the only pharmacies left are a few giant chains or mail order.

There is one traditional independent pharmacy still scattered around in Reno area: up in Sun Valley (Valley Pharmacy). There is also one up in Incline Village (Village Pharmacy). The rest are gone- a few in Reno converted to a compounding/specialty focus in the past few years (same owners as Village Pharmacy).

You’re absolutely correct. I felt really bad when Mike’s closed down - the couple of times I was in there, they could fill one prescription but not the other because they lost too much money on it. They sold out to CVS, and when the waiting period was over, Dahl’s went in there. Unfortunately, Dahl’s isn’t doing retail anymore either. They’re strictly compounding and some long-term care stuff. They too sold out to CVS.

I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better - some of the Kroger stores back East have Walgreens in them, and Kroger is stocking some of the food aisles in Walgreens. Wouldn’t be surprised to see some type of merger / buyout there in the future.

I was in the Orchards Bi-Mart last week, and it seemed to be as busy as normal, just without a pharmacy. But I got to wondering...has Bi-Mart opened any new stores since the pharmacy closures started? Whether or not they include pharmacies would indicate what direction they are moving.

Walgreen's "food program" was spear headed by a former executive of Fresh & Easy. I do not remember where the food came from.

Perhaps it was always Kroger or perhaps Kroger segued into it. I wonder if that is a long tern arrangement.

veteran+ wrote: ↑February 7th, 2021, 7:12 am Walgreen's "food program" was spear headed by a former executive of Fresh & Easy. I do not remember where the food came from.

Perhaps it was always Kroger or perhaps Kroger segued into it. I wonder if that is a long tern arrangement.

The Kroger program is more recent and involves some stores in the Midwest.

Not sure where the Walgreens "fresh" food in the program they did with the Fresh & Easy executive, but I think it comes from the same vendor as who brings in their refrigerated and frozen items. That vendor escapes me but they handle a lot of convenience stores too. Some Walgreens in San Francisco used to also have extended food mix from United Grocers, then Unified, then Supervalu, but stopped that arrangement a few years ago.

I have no idea about the source back then.

But I do know the expanded fresh food program was initiated by that ex F&E Executive (perhaps 2009?).

This thread has drifted off-topic.

Moving back to Bi-Mart, I took a look at their location map and they seem to be spreading out a bit, particularly Idaho, but does have stores in central and eastern OR/WA. An interesting note is how they seem to not have many stores located north of Vancouver along the I-5 corridor, and this seems to be an area where Dollar General is focusing on. It seems like Bi-Mart's format would work in some of these areas even without a pharmacy.

Bi-Mart's best solution may be to exit the pharmacy business and to sell the pharmacy space in the stores off to CVS, Rite Aid, or Walgreens. This could be especially key now that Rite Aid has seriously beefed up its WA presence with the Bartell purchase. Bi-Mart has a high store count in OR.

If I remember correctly, Bi-Mart did go to Rite Aid with Thrifty/Payless but they had no intention of keeping it (and made that known when they announced the purchase of Thrifty/Payless), and divested it almost immediately.

Also cannot believe Bi-Mart is still running the POS system that Thrifty installed in 1992 there. Yes the hardware is different but it is the same old software. A Bi-Mart receipt today looks just like an old Thrifty receipt from 1992.

I think Longs ran that software until CVS bought them too.

storewanderer wrote: ↑February 7th, 2021, 10:47 pm

Also cannot believe Bi-Mart is still running the POS system that Thrifty installed in 1992 there. Yes the hardware is different but it is the same old software. A Bi-Mart receipt today looks just like an old Thrifty receipt from 1992.

I think Longs ran that software until CVS bought them too.

I had only visited a Bi-Mart about 2 or 3 times before the 1990s when one opened near my house, so I am not sure what they used for registers before then. Since that point though, Bi-Mart has stuck with IBM and has evolved from the first versions of the 4683 as hardware has been updated. It works, but I did notice how the current registers bear a resemblance to what Kmart used, and how their receipts do look a little dated and use a slightly different font than most retailers using similar IBM/Toshiba equipment.

[quote="Super S" post_id=28583 time=1612798999 user_id=177
I had only visited a Bi-Mart about 2 or 3 times before the 1990s when one opened near my house, so I am not sure what they used for registers before then. Since that point though, Bi-Mart has stuck with IBM and has evolved from the first versions of the 4683 as hardware has been updated. It works, but I did notice how the current registers bear a resemblance to what Kmart used, and how their receipts do look a little dated and use a slightly different font than most retailers using similar IBM/Toshiba equipment.
[/quote]

The font is just something in the system settings, it is a bigger size font. One of the Smiths prints receipts with that same font as the Bi-Mart receipts have at a couple of its self checkouts.

I am somewhat impressed they have kept their own private label line all these years.