Save Mart closing pharmacy

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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

Back to the intended topic,4708 Manzanita still has an open pharmacy at the moment but the save Mart website has removed other mentions of pharmacy services (not even an advisory mention or press release of the Walgreens deal). Crestview Village (that store's 1963-era parent center)will soon be pharmacy-less for the first time in nearly a quarter century:The Thrifty Drug location closed around 1991(before being acquired by Leonard Green which would merge it with Payless after acquiring the latter from k-mart)and remained vacant before a few years before demolition for parking space for a new Lucky/sav-on that replaced an an older store across the lot which was a third of the size(currently subdivided and partially occupied by a Big 5).That replacement Lucky obviously became an Albertsons/sav-on and now the current save Mart.On a side note,the currently vacant Ross building (relocated to the Madison home Depot center)was initially a w.t. Grant variety store(chain had barely gone out of business when I was born).

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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

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norcalriteaidclerk wrote: August 18th, 2022, 6:08 pm Back to the intended topic,4708 Manzanita still has an open pharmacy at the moment but the save Mart website has removed other mentions of pharmacy services (not even an advisory mention or press release of the Walgreens deal). Crestview Village (that store's 1963-era parent center)will soon be pharmacy-less for the first time in nearly a quarter century:The Thrifty Drug location closed around 1991(before being acquired by Leonard Green which would merge it with Payless after acquiring the latter from k-mart)and remained vacant before a few years before demolition for parking space for a new Lucky/sav-on that replaced an an older store across the lot which was a third of the size(currently subdivided and partially occupied by a Big 5).That replacement Lucky obviously became an Albertsons/sav-on and now the current save Mart.On a side note,the currently vacant Ross building (relocated to the Madison home Depot center)was initially a w.t. Grant variety store(chain had barely gone out of business when I was born).

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I read UFCW is trying to get these Save Mart pharmacy employees placed elsewhere so they can retain some seniority. Does Walgreens have any UFCW Stores in most of Save Mart's markets? I don't think they do...

There are also a few markets where Walgreens isn't even present that Save Mart is closing pharmacies. Petaluma Lucky, with the closest Walgreens being 8 miles away up in Cotati. Angels Camp and Sonora area where the nearest Walgreens is all the way in Oakdale... there are probably a few other randoms in the central valley too with this situation.

Maybe this could help Rite Aid get some additional pharmacy staff. And of course Safeway/Raleys if they need it. Safeway probably has some staffing needs.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Alpha8472 »

All Rite Aid stores are unionized in Northern California. Many CVS stores in the San Francisco Bay Area are unionized.

In addition, Walgreens was unionized in San Francisco back in the early 2000s. I am not sure if it is still the case.

Macy's in San Francisco is unionized. Macy's Furniture is unionized.

https://ufcw5.org/pdf/union-service-guide.pdf
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

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Alpha8472 wrote: August 20th, 2022, 12:13 am All Rite Aid stores are unionized in Northern California. Many CVS stores in the San Francisco Bay Area are unionized.

In addition, Walgreens was unionized in San Francisco back in the early 2000s. I am not sure if it is still the case.

Macy's in San Francisco is unionized. Macy's Furniture is unionized.

https://ufcw5.org/pdf/union-service-guide.pdf
I don't think the "newer" Walgreens are unionized in CA. Maybe in some spots like San Francisco and San Jose where the company had a dated presence, they are.

It is good these Save Mart pharmacy employees have quite a few options of stores they can transfer to and remain in the union under those benefit programs. It is unfortunate Save Mart made this decision; in my experience, their pharmacy employees were very dedicated and did not deserve this.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

storewanderer wrote:
Alpha8472 wrote: August 20th, 2022, 12:13 am All Rite Aid stores are unionized in Northern California. Many CVS stores in the San Francisco Bay Area are unionized.

In addition, Walgreens was unionized in San Francisco back in the early 2000s. I am not sure if it is still the case.

Macy's in San Francisco is unionized. Macy's Furniture is unionized.

https://ufcw5.org/pdf/union-service-guide.pdf
I don't think the "newer" Walgreens are unionized in CA. Maybe in some spots like San Francisco and San Jose where the company had a dated presence, they are.

It is good these Save Mart pharmacy employees have quite a few options of stores they can transfer to and remain in the union under those benefit programs. It is unfortunate Save Mart made this decision; in my experience, their pharmacy employees were very dedicated and did not deserve this.
In addition to ufcw Local 5 serving the whole Bay area in general,the is also ufcw Local 648 which is strictly focused on the City of San Francisco.Whatever unionized Walgreens locations still exist there may be represented by Local 648,and any unionized CVS locations within the San Francisco city limits may also be represented by Local 648 rather than Local 5.

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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by Alpha8472 »

This article shows how the Pharmacy Benefit Managers are killing off pharmacies.

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/loca ... 2452dd15a6

CVS Caremark is in control of many insurance plans. CVS can kill off competitor pharmacies and in this case Save Mart was losing money on many medications. Meanwhile, CVS pharmacies are doing well since CVS Caremark would make sure that CVS pharmacies are being reimbursed extra well for medications.

The independent pharmacies have it really bad, and small chain pharmacies such as Save Mart are also losing money.

In the end, CVS and Walgreens may be the only Pharmacy chains left after CVS manages to kill off independent pharmacies. Even Target pharmacies went into debt. Then CVS conveniently swooped in and took over the Target pharmacies. CVS is bent on total domination.

Who is next to surrender to CVS. Maybe CVS might takeover the Safeway and Albertsons pharmacies?
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

Alpha8472 wrote:This article shows how the Pharmacy Benefit Managers are killing off pharmacies.

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/loca ... 2452dd15a6

CVS Caremark is in control of many insurance plans. CVS can kill off competitor pharmacies and in this case Save Mart was losing money on many medications. Meanwhile, CVS pharmacies are doing well since CVS Caremark would make sure that CVS pharmacies are being reimbursed extra well for medications.

The independent pharmacies have it really bad, and small chain pharmacies such as Save Mart are also losing money.

In the end, CVS and Walgreens may be the only Pharmacy chains left after CVS manages to kill off independent pharmacies. Even Target pharmacies went into debt. Then CVS conveniently swooped in and took over the Target pharmacies. CVS is bent on total domination.

Who is next to surrender to CVS. Maybe CVS might takeover the Safeway and Albertsons pharmacies?
Rite Aid as well as the in store pharmacies at Albertsons and Kroger owned chains all figure to continue to wage spirited battles against the big two for the foreseeable future.Costco is a special case being a membership warehouse.

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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

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norcalriteaidclerk wrote: August 21st, 2022, 1:12 amRite Aid as well as the in store pharmacies at Albertsons and Kroger owned chains all figure to continue to wage spirited battles against the big two for the foreseeable future.Costco is a special case being a membership warehouse.

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Don't count Wal Mart out either. They seem to be a better option from a service/staffing perspective than CVS and Walgreens are. Cannot believe we have gotten to this point.

I think Safeway/Albertsons will keep pharmacy. If they tried to go to CVS it may cause some FTC issues.

I am a little surprised Save Mart going to Walgreens didn't raise some issues. California no longer seems to care about the consumer and prevent this type of deal from going through in the initial form that creates monopoly situations as the once did. Of course Nevada doesn't care, that is no surprise and never would have been a surprise. I realize the market has changed to some extent with mail order pharmacy and the way Kaiser is set up, so maybe Walgreens could have successfully argued just because they are the only pharmacy in a given zip code doesn't mean they are a monopoly...
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

Post by HCal »

I recently got a COVID booster shot at a Save Mart pharmacy. Between filling out the paperwork, preparing the vaccine, administering it, and the 15 minute observation period, I was there about 45 minutes.

In that time, I saw maybe 3-4 other customers come to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. None of them had any other items. They seemed to want to get their medicine and leave. I really don't think the pharmacies are attracting customers who buy cartfuls of groceries.

Ultimately, because of the PBMs, I think the pharmacy industry will continue to consolidate. The big 3 pharmacy chains (CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid), plus Kroger, Walmart, Costco and Albertsons, will remain standing while the smaller chains sell out.

I wonder if Kingswood imposed this on Save Mart. Private equity usually thinks short term and wants to quickly extract value before flipping the company.
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Re: Save Mart closing pharmacy

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HCal wrote: August 22nd, 2022, 8:04 pm I recently got a COVID booster shot at a Save Mart pharmacy. Between filling out the paperwork, preparing the vaccine, administering it, and the 15 minute observation period, I was there about 45 minutes.

In that time, I saw maybe 3-4 other customers come to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. None of them had any other items. They seemed to want to get their medicine and leave. I really don't think the pharmacies are attracting customers who buy cartfuls of groceries.

Ultimately, because of the PBMs, I think the pharmacy industry will continue to consolidate. The big 3 pharmacy chains (CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid), plus Kroger, Walmart, Costco and Albertsons, will remain standing while the smaller chains sell out.

I wonder if Kingswood imposed this on Save Mart. Private equity usually thinks short term and wants to quickly extract value before flipping the company.
Just because the customers then did not buy other items, does not mean they do not sometimes buy other items there. And now the risk is they have to take their prescription to Safeway/Albertsons, Wal Mart Supercenter, even a Target with CVS inside, the risk is the customer sees that store as a new grocery option. If the customer leaves Save Mart for Walgreens ONLY for the prescription (and nothing else, not even an OTC item), Save Mart closes the money losing pharmacy, then it is a net win for Save Mart. But I don't see it playing out this way. Maybe it will still be a net win for their bottom line, we don't know exactly how much money these pharmacies were losing nor do we know how great of a deal Walgreens gave them for the files.

Management has been changed at Save Mart pretty extensively in recent weeks/months. They have brought in old long term Albertsons people, but looking at their history, it is not clear how much time they have spent on the West Coast. The previous CEO (who was from A&P) appears to be gone quietly as of very recently also. Also their operations/merchandising person who was a long long term Lucky person then Albertsons person, is also gone now (I think he was a big reason why we saw such positive radical changes in the promotions/mix/pricing in the past couple years).
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