Save Mart closing pharmacy

California. No non-grocery posts.
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Alpha8472 »

Mail order medications suffer from theft. I work in a pharmacy and we gets complaints all the time that drugs were stolen from in front of their houses. Most customers hate mail order so much that they end up coming back to the store to pick up in person.

Generally Walmart Pharmacy and Costco Pharmacy have pretty good customer service. The reason is that Walmart Pharmacy bases the manager's bonus and the Health and Wellness district manager's bonus on customer survey scores. If there is a bad survey the district manager telephones the pharmacy manager and demands the pharmacy manager to call the customer and apologize. Even a 4 out of 5 is considered a failure. Perfect scores are expected.

So Walmart employees are constantly forced to provide above and beyond customer service under threat.
lake52
Cashier
Cashier
Posts: 86
Joined: November 8th, 2018, 8:44 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by lake52 »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 27th, 2022, 9:43 pm Mail order medications suffer from theft. I work in a pharmacy and we gets complaints all the time that drugs were stolen from in front of their houses. Most customers hate mail order so much that they end up coming back to the store to pick up in person.
That’s an incredible amount of selection bias you have here. People who are unhappy with mail order pharmacies for one reason or another would be the ones returning to retail pharmacies. The majority happy with mail order pharmacies would have no reason to return.

Any amount of research would prove that mail order pharmacies are experiencing exponential growth, compounded by the failure of traditional pharmacy chains. Market share is about 37%, up from 10% in the 2000s…
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by storewanderer »

I think the point is coming where more and more insurances will just flat out require mail order for routine medications. You can go to a physical pharmacy for immediate need/single time prescriptions but once refills start becoming involved- mail order.

These pharmacies do not have staffing. People do not want to work in pharmacies. It is too difficult of a job to deal with customers, doctors, in already understaffed conditions. The COVID vaccines pushed these already stressed to the max pharmacies over the edge and what we are seeing now with staffing is the result.

But a pharmacist working behind closed doors in a mail order facility has it much easier. Sure, they still have to get on the phone and talk to people. But that is much different than having an angry sick person loudly talking and spitting at you in your face because they are angry for some reason. That is also different than dealing with your pharmacy tech who was just yelled at by an angry customer and walked back into a corner sat down and started crying. Customers tend to be quite abusive in the pharmacies, moreso now than ever.
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Alpha8472 »

Retail pharmacies are difficult to run. There are people who love to come into retail stores and complain. They love to boss employees around and try to provoke a fight. The customers think they can get away with anything.

Customers verbally abuse people and they know that employees are supposed to be polite and not retaliate.
veteran+
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Posts: 2233
Joined: January 3rd, 2015, 7:53 am
Has thanked: 1202 times
Been thanked: 71 times
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by veteran+ »

I discontinued doing business with the big 3 (CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid) years ago. I stayed with Walgreens for a while because in my area they were the best. The Chain drug stores ruined their dominance and reputations with the help of their merger activities and destruction of their best SOPs.

As far as the hypermarket stores (Walmart) and membership stores........................NOT my thing.

I switched to Supermarket pharmacies and they were much better. Covid changed that and for many reasons the quality of service deteriorated.

Now I am back to that neighborhood pharmacy format (West Knoll Pharmacy) and I love it. Incredible service! NO lines and wonderful personal touch. Super efficient insurance processing! Oh, and they answer their telephone!

The big 3 deserve all the pain that it is feeling. They did it to themselves, Full Stop.
HCal
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 612
Joined: February 1st, 2021, 11:18 pm
Has thanked: 21 times
Been thanked: 67 times
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by HCal »

storewanderer wrote: September 28th, 2022, 11:53 pm I think the point is coming where more and more insurances will just flat out require mail order for routine medications. You can go to a physical pharmacy for immediate need/single time prescriptions but once refills start becoming involved- mail order.
I don't think that will happen for a while. Many people aren't comfortable with mail order (elderly), experience theft of packages (apartment buildings) or don't want household members to see/tamper with their medications (teens on birth control).

But if that ever happens, I think the majority of physical pharmacy locations will no longer be viable. Most of their business (and profits) comes from routine medications. The occasional customer needing an urgent or one-time prescription isn't going to sustain the salary of a pharmacist except in a limited number of locations in the large cities.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: September 29th, 2022, 8:26 am I discontinued doing business with the big 3 (CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid) years ago. I stayed with Walgreens for a while because in my area they were the best. The Chain drug stores ruined their dominance and reputations with the help of their merger activities and destruction of their best SOPs.

As far as the hypermarket stores (Walmart) and membership stores........................NOT my thing.

I switched to Supermarket pharmacies and they were much better. Covid changed that and for many reasons the quality of service deteriorated.

Now I am back to that neighborhood pharmacy format (West Knoll Pharmacy) and I love it. Incredible service! NO lines and wonderful personal touch. Super efficient insurance processing! Oh, and they answer their telephone!

The big 3 deserve all the pain that it is feeling. They did it to themselves, Full Stop.
I am confident every employee in the small pharmacy worked for one of these big chains in the past too. They know how it is (to work there) (and for the customer). My guess is it makes them put in that much more effort to make everyone happy at their small pharmacy.

Raleys still runs a great supermarket pharmacy, but they did not get involved in COVID Vaccines for some reason. Whatever reason it worked out well for them as their pharmacies have provided consistent service during this time period and uphold their (already limited) operating hours without issue. They do give flu shots... but they have done that for years and are set up for it to meet the demand when it comes around every fall.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: September 29th, 2022, 3:29 pm
storewanderer wrote: September 28th, 2022, 11:53 pm I think the point is coming where more and more insurances will just flat out require mail order for routine medications. You can go to a physical pharmacy for immediate need/single time prescriptions but once refills start becoming involved- mail order.
I don't think that will happen for a while. Many people aren't comfortable with mail order (elderly), experience theft of packages (apartment buildings) or don't want household members to see/tamper with their medications (teens on birth control).

But if that ever happens, I think the majority of physical pharmacy locations will no longer be viable. Most of their business (and profits) comes from routine medications. The occasional customer needing an urgent or one-time prescription isn't going to sustain the salary of a pharmacist except in a limited number of locations in the large cities.
Today's 50 somethings who order everything online (including prescriptions) are tomorrow's elderly.

I see very few teens patronizing pharmacies.
BillyGr
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1578
Joined: October 5th, 2010, 7:33 pm
Been thanked: 58 times
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: September 29th, 2022, 9:47 pm
HCal wrote: September 29th, 2022, 3:29 pm
storewanderer wrote: September 28th, 2022, 11:53 pm I think the point is coming where more and more insurances will just flat out require mail order for routine medications. You can go to a physical pharmacy for immediate need/single time prescriptions but once refills start becoming involved- mail order.
I don't think that will happen for a while. Many people aren't comfortable with mail order (elderly), experience theft of packages (apartment buildings) or don't want household members to see/tamper with their medications (teens on birth control).

But if that ever happens, I think the majority of physical pharmacy locations will no longer be viable. Most of their business (and profits) comes from routine medications. The occasional customer needing an urgent or one-time prescription isn't going to sustain the salary of a pharmacist except in a limited number of locations in the large cities.
Today's 50 somethings who order everything online (including prescriptions) are tomorrow's elderly.

I see very few teens patronizing pharmacies.
Maybe since most teens either don't take medicines that they need a pharmacy for, or those that do the parent is the one ordering/buying them?

Once they get older and get to a point where they need prescriptions more regularly, they will have to get them somewhere, which might (or might not) be at a store.
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Alpha8472 »

The major profit of pharmacies today is vaccinations. Each vaccination is very profitable except for COVID vaccinations.

You get an administration fee along with the cost of the vaccine. The profit of one shingles vaccination equals the profit of dozens of prescriptions. For shingles you have to get 2 shots and you get twice as much profit.

Opening up a vaccination only pharmacy could be very profitable. The second major source of profit is insulin. Insulin is very expensive and very profitable. Many mail order pharmacies dislike refrigerated items because the cost of shipping refrigerated items is very high. Kaiser Permanente Health Insurance does not deliver insulin or other refrigerated items. It is not profitable for Kaiser. Kaiser members must pickup insulin and refrigerated items at the pharmacy.
Post Reply