Save Mart closing pharmacy

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storewanderer
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by storewanderer »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: August 11th, 2022, 7:53 pm Please tell me the omission of Rite Aid is an unintentional oversight.

As for raleys,it was an early pioneer of grocery and pharmacy under one roof.The fall 2019 closure if select pharmacies (27 out of 96, roughly 30%)was simply a concession that certain locations weren't cutting it.Even beforehand,the namesake raleys nameplate was already playing the small ball game with smaller pharmacy-less locations in centers shared with a traditional chain drugstore (Sacramento Campus Commons, Rancho Cordova Anatolia). Additionally a number of Bel Air and nob Hill locations(with or without pharmacies)have long shared centers with chain drugstores.

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Rite Aid seems to be one of the chains that is being squeezed out. They continue to accept the lower margin insurances that CVS and Walgreens either limit or flat out do not accept. Wal Mart may be able to subsidize this sort of thing but I'm not really sure Rite Aid can. The Kaiser situation seems to be an issue in California also, forcing many to go to Kaiser instead of chain store pharmacies. I'm not sure what the situation in PA or MI is, the other states where Rite Aid still has a high store count, in terms of who is accepting what, what the issues are with margin, etc. I think this situation is part of why we have seen so many Rite Aid closures in CA, not only in this recent round, but some of the past closure rounds as well in recent years.

Rite Aid also does not seem to be participating in this current thing where certain stores close all of their pharmacies and sell to CVS or Walgreens. Rite Aid does individual store file buys (like that Kmart in Grass Valley, and some Raleys) but isn't doing these groups like CVS and Walgreens have done with Schnucks, Target, and now Save Mart.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by storewanderer »

Okay- went to a Save Mart tonight. Signs posted that the pharmacy is closing next week and the last day to pick any prescriptions up was early next week and then you have to go to Walgreens. Signs were typed up by the store on copy paper.

They had literally hundreds of prescriptions on the racks waiting to be picked up.

Not wasting any time at all closing pharmacies out here in Nevada.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Alpha8472 »

I feel sorry for the customers who have to use Walgreens now. Walgreens pharmacies are so understaffed that you can be put on hold for an hour. The pharmacies are so busy that they cannot handle all of their phone calls and just trying to get your prescriptions filled would be impossible unless you actually walked into the pharmacy.

This is Walgreens' trick. They want you go into the pharmacy and possibly buy some things while you are there. They have terrible service and you cannot go to the Walgreens store every single time you need to talk to someone in the pharmacy.

Walgreens may even say that they "lost" some of those Save Mart prescriptions. Schedule 2 medications such as Vicodin, Norco, Oxycodone, Adderall, etc. cannot be transferred between pharmacies due to laws. Other controlled medications such as Xanax, Valium, etc. cannot be transferred more than once. They will be stuck at Walgreens. If you have a prescription from Save Mart be prepared, as you may lose your prescriptions and not be able to fill them at Walgreens.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by storewanderer »

It seems one Save Mart in Reno is not accepting new prescriptions (they seem confused on how to spell this word) and only doing refills. This is the store in Reno on Plumb Lane. This is an interesting procedure to be having. I have never seen a closing pharmacy impose such a rule. Save Mart must be doing so lousy on reimbursements that it will be more profitable for them to just sell the inventory to Walgreens in a few days, than it would be to sell it to new prescription customers the next few days.

The unhappy customer notes Walgreens is so backed up it takes them a few days to fill a prescription. That sounds about right particularly for the two Walgreens closest to this particular Save Mart on Plumb in Reno.

https://mynews4.com/news/local/all-nort ... y-medicine
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by storewanderer »

So it looks like Topco was handling pharmacy for Save Mart. Now this is starting to make more sense. Schnucks, another Topco member, closed all pharmacies. Stater- same thing. Raleys did a big downsize. I am not sure if Topco was handling the same pharmacy functions for all of those chains, as they were handling for Save Mart.

https://www.theshelbyreport.com/2022/05 ... -shoppers/

Topco has really failed these chains not being able to get them a pharmacy program that works... this is very bad for these chains. And every one of these Topco chains that closes its pharmacies is hurting the remaining Topco chains that continue to try to make pharmacy work because it reduces the group's buying power.

At this point on the west coast (CA/OR/WA), beyond the large chains, is Raleys the only major regional chain who is even attempting to run pharmacies? URM Stores has some pharmacies too up in WA...

Less competition is never a good thing for the consumer.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Romr123 »

Interesting, but I'm not sure you can blame Schnucks' departure from pharmacy strictly on problems with Topco...CVS needed to get bigger in St. Louis in the worst way--they didn't even enter until about 2006, and were woefully underrepresented as Walgreens had about a 30 year head start on a monopoly on chain pharmacy (Target helped CVS get some coverage). CVS would pay big $$ to in a flash get 100% coverage of the area.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by buckguy »

Schnucks has been in the pharmacy business since 1970. That's 50+ years of trying to figure out how to make money from it and capitalize on their super market hegemony in St. Louis.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Alpha8472 »

Save Mart only gets over the counter products from Topco. Their prescription drugs come from a supplier such as McKesson. Topco offers a pharmacy program to get lower prices when buying prescriptipn drugs, and better reimbursement from insurance companies.

Topco is smaller than CVS or Walgreens and therefore would not get prescription drugs for as little as big chains. However, the failure of a pharmacy is much more based on low prescription counts, accepting low paying Medicaid insurance plans, not doing enough vaccinations, and allowing expensive insulin to expire resulting in huge losses.

Pharmacies have to recruit new customers, push profitable vaccinations, deliver good customer service to retain loyal customers, and keep patients on their medications.

Save Mart would not transfer prescription drugs from their pharmacies to Walgreens. There are legal implications as to selling drugs to another pharmacy. All the unused drugs at Save Mart would be sent to a company that disposes of medications. In return the disposal company pays Save Mart some money for each drug.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by jamcool »

Raleys-owned Bashas' in Arizona operates United Drugs-supplied pharmacies in most of its non-tribal stores. In fact, every new grocery store/retailer-Fry's, Safeway, Walmart...has a pharmacy in Arizona (and promotes it). Probably due to the fact we have more choice in health care plans here than in California, and the chain here accept most of those plans.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by lake52 »

jamcool wrote: August 12th, 2022, 12:54 pm Raleys-owned Bashas' in Arizona operates United Drugs-supplied pharmacies in most of its non-tribal stores. In fact, every new grocery store/retailer-Fry's, Safeway, Walmart...has a pharmacy in Arizona (and promotes it). Probably due to the fact we have more choice in health care plans here than in California, and the chain here accept most of those plans.
You hit the nail on the head here, Kaiser has
40% of the market share in Northern California. You cannot use a retail pharmacy with Kaiser.

Sutter, the second largest health care provider is trying to mimic Kaiser’s in-house pharmacy function via CVS. You also have a population that is young and tech savvy, increasing the likelihood of utilizing online pharmacies.

You have the same amount of competition with half the customer base. Ultimately, the smaller chains are without the corporate backing that a chain like CVS has with Aetna and are more prone to failure.

Reno is a bit more “traditional”, but keeping pharmacies open just in Nevada doesn’t seem worth it either for these mainly Northern California chains.
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