Some employees at CVS Health Corp and Walgreens Boots Alliance's U.S. pharmacies launched a three-day walkout starting Monday to get the companies to improve working conditions and recruit more people, among other issues.
With all that money they saved not paying people they were able to install those overpriced cooler doors that is supposed to simply display the product behind them! (Which is usually wrong or out of stock at least at my locations)
And me, a hospice nurse, waiting on hold on the phone for 20-30 minutes to see if any of those people can tell me if they have any Roxanol in stock for my patient actively dying of bone cancer.
I live in one of the highest population cities in the US, and can confirm that they’re ghost towns most of the time. 1 pharm, maybe 1 tech, and 1-2 cashiers/floaters restocking shelves.
I literally only go there for vaccinations at this point.
CVS BOUGHT my health insurance company earlier this year.
If we are going to be cursed with private healthcare, can we at least maintain a competitive market? Right now it's an oligopoly at best, effectively a private monopoly for a lot of people.
I can't remember the last time I saw a local pharmacy. The chains ran them out of business around here a long, long time ago. Best we had was one particular Realo, but then they got the local TriCare contract and wow, they got in over their heads. All their long-time employees quit and the quality of the place is abysmal now.
We lost our local pharmacy before Covid. Between CVS and Walgreens, Walgreens does a decent job. CVS always had like 6 employees running around in the pharmacy and yet they still took forever to do anything. It was almost impressive.
I am sorry to hear the place you tried was a dud. The thing about indies is each one is different. Thank you for giving it a shot - while I don't work in each place I am steadfast in believing as a whole you'll have the best experience at independent places that (usually) want your business.
This might inspire people to leave and try an independent pharmacy. I imagine that most of them will stay, reducing the workload for the staff at CVS and Walgreens. Everybody wins!
Problem is a lot of those independent pharmacies are already gone. In my area, I have one independent pharmacy, one semi-local grocery store option, and Walmart. That’s the only alternates to Walgreens/CVS here.