At first, I didn't realize the size and impact of the Walgreens and Express Scripts dispute.
Walgreens decided to stop accepting Express Scripts insurance for prescriptions because they thought that Express Scripts was charging them too much. Walgreens felt that they were losing out on money because Express Scripts wasn't paying Walgreens as much.
However, this backfired for Walgreens. Customers with Express Scripts insurance had to stop using Walgreens for their prescriptions and Walgreens lost a tons of money and business. Walgreens pharmacy sales were down by 10.8%.
Not only did Walgreens lose prescription profits, they also lost profits from sales of other merchandise because those customers with Express Scripts insurance were no longer shopping at Walgreens stores. Meanwhile, other pharmacies saw a huge increase in business as former Walgreens customers flooded other pharmacies such as Rite Aid, CVS, Target, and Walmart.
Walgreens has finally given in and will once again start accepting Express Scripts insurance in September. Apparently, Walgreens was losing so much money that they decided to accept Express Scripts' terms.
Walgreens will probably never regain many of those customers that they lost. Many customers with Express Scripts will never return. Switching pharmacies is a hassle and people are not willing to go through such a mess again.
Walgreens has always had terrible staffing levels. They are a cheapskate company. They don't hire enough people to fill prescriptions. When you call the pharmacy you are put on hold for up to 20 minutes because the few employees they have are overworked and trying to fill prescriptions. Walgreens is too stingy to hire more people. This understaffing is dangerous. It can lead to prescription mistakes such as the wrong number of pills, incorrect drugs, and other errors that could kill patients.
Some other major pharmacy chains are stingy with hiring, but they are nothing compared to Walgreens which operates with dangerously few employees. You need to spend money to hire enough people or else customer satisfaction will suffer.
If customers are unhappy and have to wait in long lines for their prescriptions, those customers will leave. The store will lose business. However, these greedy executives don't get it. They want to cut payroll costs, and in the end they are losing customers because those customers are so unhappy.