Drug Store Operations

arizonaguy
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by arizonaguy »

bryceleinan wrote: March 14th, 2022, 7:47 pm I was surprised at how seamless things were for me at Safeway Pharmacy, compared to Smith's or Walmart. Went there for a couple of scripts, and while they had to order one of them (most pharmacies do), the folks were efficient and friendly, better service than I received at Smith's.
Safeway (and Walmart) seem to be able to get humans on the phone fairly quickly when calling in about medications, questions, or status. Walgreens and CVS generally tend to have long hold times in my experience.

I've never been disappointed with the speed and friendliness of service at Walmart. Safeway is generally good but my local store is a rather low volume pharmacy (the Walgreens next door and Target / CVS across the street are much busier) so there's a general lack or urgency surrounding the pharmacy.
storewanderer
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: March 14th, 2022, 7:47 pm I was surprised at how seamless things were for me at Safeway Pharmacy, compared to Smith's or Walmart. Went there for a couple of scripts, and while they had to order one of them (most pharmacies do), the folks were efficient and friendly, better service than I received at Smith's.
It works when the pharmacy is low volume like the new Reno Store is. It quits working when the pharmacy is high volume. The pharmacy at the NW Reno Safeway is very broken. Sparks one is better, but the staff are staying there hours after it closes filling prescriptions many nights.

Smiths pharmacy volume is very high and they seem to have a burnout issue (no different from CVS and Walgreens).
Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walmart pharmacies are generally staffed better than the other understaffed chains such as Walgreens or CVS. Walmart allows the pharmacy manager to schedule as much or few employees as he or she wants. However, it is a balancing act of staying on budget with labor hours or getting yelled at by higher up market managers.

Generally, Walmart pharmacy managers realize that understaffing leads to burned out employees and upset customers. Customers that get terrible service or long waits will go elsewhere. You have to staff the pharmacy enough so that customers get taken care of. CVS and Walgreens put customer service as a low priority. You can be put on hold for an hour. At Walmart, the pharmacy employees are supposed to answer the phone after no more than 3 rings. Walmart has always put customer service at the pharmacy as a priority. The manager's bonus is based on the customer surveys from pharmacy customers. A negative survey gets the pharmacy manager in trouble. The upper level market manager will make angry phone calls even if one bad survey is received. The market manager's huge financial bonus hangs in the balance. Five stars is expected. Even a 3 star survey will get the lower level employees in trouble. The employees have to call customers and apologize. It is all about bonus money.
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