Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 6th, 2021, 11:01 am 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.
I am probably somewhat sensitive to this sort of thing for reasons unrelated, but I guess it raises the question: why did they buy these pharmacies if they knew they didn't want them/intentionally planned to inconvenience people into driving 10-30 miles for their prescriptions? Why didn't they only buy the ones they wanted and let Bi Mart sell the others on the open market (so the Rite Aid, Fred Meyer, Safeway, nearby could have bought the files)?

When Raleys closed half of their pharmacies multiple buyers were arranged and they made a concentrated effort to get the prescriptions transferred to a retailer that was, in many cases, within eyesight of the closing pharmacy. They also didn't close pharmacies in instances where they were the only pharmacy in a rural location. If there wasn't a pharmacy within eyesight then it seems like it went to what was basically the next closest pharmacy.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Alpha8472 »

My view is that Walgreens wanted to buy the records so that the competition would not get the business. Walgreens probably insisted that Bimart not give any pharmacy records to competitors. Walgreens later did an analysis and realized that many of these Bimart pharmacies are full of money losing Medicaid patients. Walgreens then proceeded to close the unprofitable ones and keep only the profitable ones. Walgreens does not care about patients. They are just looking out to maximize profits and minimize losses.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 6th, 2021, 1:44 pm My view is that Walgreens wanted to buy the records so that the competition would not get the business. Walgreens probably insisted that Bimart not give any pharmacy records to competitors. Walgreens later did an analysis and realized that many of these Bimart pharmacies are full of money losing Medicaid patients. Walgreens then proceeded to close the unprofitable ones and keep only the profitable ones. Walgreens does not care about patients. They are just looking out to maximize profits and minimize losses.
It just seems like a weird move. For instance if they decided they only wanted 25 pharmacies- why not just buy those 25 pharmacies and then let the other go out to market for file bids.

It seems like they are going to create a lot more work for themselves as people are doing script transfers in mass to the nearest Safeway, Rite Aid, or Fred Meyer who don't want to drive 10-30 miles to a Walgreens.

Maybe they somehow think they will make more money if a few people drive 10-30 miles even if the majority of customers don't, than if they had sold those files to a competitor. Odd logic. Someone must have gotten the numbers laid out in a way that justified it on paper.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by Alpha8472 »

Sadly, prescription transfers out of Walgreens is pretty easy. As the computer system easily faxes it out. The hard part is getting a Pharmacist at Walgreens to answer the phone. Most other pharmacies have to contact the patient's doctor and get new prescriptions. Walgreens' computer system makes it easy to transfer out. They just need the pharmacy fax number and information.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on November 6th, 2021, 10:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by SamSpade »

Florence, Hermiston, and Cheney are being sold to Safeway.
Ashland and Ellensburg to Rite Aid.
Brookings to Fred Meyer.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by kr.abs.swy »

I am struggling to understand why this wasn't handled better.

Initially, all prescriptions were going to be transferred to the nearest Walgreen's, with Walgreen's opening in Bi-Mart if there wasn't a store nearby. Then they started transferring prescriptions to a Walgreen's that is 15-20 minutes away in the next town, in some cases. This makes everyone look bad. Bi-Mart looks bad for signing a deal that doesn't treat their customers well. Walgreen's just looks stupid for thinking that someone in Star doesn't mind driving 15-20 minutes into North Meridian instead of transferring their prescription to Ridley's. Or that someone in Sutherlin wants to drive to Roseburg. Then they decide to transfer a handful to Safeway, Fred Meyer and Rite Aid. What happened here? Did Walgreen's get its hands on the files and decide that there wasn't adequate ROI on setting up a Walgreen's counter inside those Bi-Marts? Couldn't they have figured this out before the announcement was made?

Meanwhile in Corvallis, they are consolidating two Bi-Mart pharmacies into one Bi-Mart, with the pharmacy to be operated by Walgreen's. Corvallis is not large (+/- 50,000 people) but these two stores are located at completely opposite ends of town. To get from the store that Walgreen's will not operate in, you would start at an intersection near a Safeway with a pharmacy, drive right by a Rite Aid that is literally across the street from Bi-Mart, drive by a Neighborhood Market Walmart with a pharmacy, drive by another Safeway with a pharmacy, and then end up in a strip mall with yet another Safeway pharmacy. It is ludicrous to think that these Bi-Mart customers want to drive across town to get their prescriptions filled at the other Bi-Mart. It is a 12-15 minute drive. There is also a Fred Meyer pharmacy and an independent that you would drive by if you went a different route. Walgreen's will lose the majority of these files overnight. They should have been sold to the Rite Aid across the street or the Safeway across the highway. Bi-Mart should have made sure that these accounts were going to a store that would be reasonably convenient for their customers. And they should have had the story straight when this was announced.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by bryceleinan »

kr.abs.swy wrote: November 8th, 2021, 4:44 pm I am struggling to understand why this wasn't handled better.

Initially, all prescriptions were going to be transferred to the nearest Walgreen's, with Walgreen's opening in Bi-Mart if there wasn't a store nearby. Then they started transferring prescriptions to a Walgreen's that is 15-20 minutes away in the next town, in some cases. This makes everyone look bad. Bi-Mart looks bad for signing a deal that doesn't treat their customers well. Walgreen's just looks stupid for thinking that someone in Star doesn't mind driving 15-20 minutes into North Meridian instead of transferring their prescription to Ridley's. Or that someone in Sutherlin wants to drive to Roseburg. Then they decide to transfer a handful to Safeway, Fred Meyer and Rite Aid. What happened here? Did Walgreen's get its hands on the files and decide that there wasn't adequate ROI on setting up a Walgreen's counter inside those Bi-Marts? Couldn't they have figured this out before the announcement was made?

Meanwhile in Corvallis, they are consolidating two Bi-Mart pharmacies into one Bi-Mart, with the pharmacy to be operated by Walgreen's. Corvallis is not large (+/- 50,000 people) but these two stores are located at completely opposite ends of town. To get from the store that Walgreen's will not operate in, you would start at an intersection near a Safeway with a pharmacy, drive right by a Rite Aid that is literally across the street from Bi-Mart, drive by a Neighborhood Market Walmart with a pharmacy, drive by another Safeway with a pharmacy, and then end up in a strip mall with yet another Safeway pharmacy. It is ludicrous to think that these Bi-Mart customers want to drive across town to get their prescriptions filled at the other Bi-Mart. It is a 12-15 minute drive. There is also a Fred Meyer pharmacy and an independent that you would drive by if you went a different route. Walgreen's will lose the majority of these files overnight. They should have been sold to the Rite Aid across the street or the Safeway across the highway. Bi-Mart should have made sure that these accounts were going to a store that would be reasonably convenient for their customers. And they should have had the story straight when this was announced.
I don’t get this one either…. They would have been better off to sell the kit and kaboodle to Rite Aid or Safeway versus Walgreens. I was in Coquille while on vacation, and the Safeway pharmacy there is a few blocks from the main store. I think it’s the same in the Myrtle Creek / Tri City area as well. Rite Aid and Safeway both seem to work better in the smaller communities.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

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bryceleinan wrote: November 9th, 2021, 9:10 pm I don’t get this one either…. They would have been better off to sell the kit and kaboodle to Rite Aid or Safeway versus Walgreens. I was in Coquille while on vacation, and the Safeway pharmacy there is a few blocks from the main store. I think it’s the same in the Myrtle Creek / Tri City area as well. Rite Aid and Safeway both seem to work better in the smaller communities.
It is too bad they did not sell it to Rite Aid. That probably would have been a better fit.

Walgreens probably needs to sell another 10 locations. If you can't get the prescriptions within a few minutes of the existing store and notice the customers have to drive past multiple other pharmacies to get to the nearest Walgreens- just sell it. Few customers will stay anyway. I guess it is a good deal for the competitors- they will get many script transfers without having to pay for them.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by SamSpade »

SamSpade wrote: November 6th, 2021, 9:45 pm Florence, Hermiston, and Cheney are being sold to Safeway.
Ashland and Ellensburg to Rite Aid.
Brookings to Fred Meyer.
Update round 2:
La Grande, Madras, Pendleton also to Safeway.
Sunnyside, Wash. to Rite Aid.
Baker City, Ore. to Albertsons. This is the community with a Safeway and Albertsons across the street from each other in a town of less than 10,000 people.
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Re: Bi-Mart / Walgreen's

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: December 9th, 2021, 5:34 pm
Update round 2:
La Grande, Madras, Pendleton also to Safeway.
Sunnyside, Wash. to Rite Aid.
Baker City, Ore. to Albertsons. This is the community with a Safeway and Albertsons across the street from each other in a town of less than 10,000 people.
This was really a no good deal. Walgreens implied they were going to be operating these pharmacies or moving files to a nearby Walgreens. Not closing 1 of 2 pharmacies in town and selling the prescriptions to the Safeway that is left (and probably can't handle all the volume). I wonder how this even got past FTC as a transaction. I guess if Bi Mart had outright closed their pharmacies and put the files out on the open market, the only option to bid in a number of these cases would have been Safeway too...
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