.......will have reduced hours....


CVS and Walmart cut pharmacy hours, close some locations earlier, citing staffing shortage

.....An apparent shortage of pharmacists is forcing CVS and Walmart to reduce the hours of its pharmacies, as they close earlier in thousands of locations.

Beginning in March, both retailers will either cut or shift the hours that their pharmacies operate in response to staffing shortages and waning consumer demand as the height of the Covid-19 pandemic recedes. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

Walmart, which has pharmacies in most of its 4,600 US locations, will close them two hours earlier, at 7 pm. CVS will shift or cut hours at about 6,000 US pharmacies.

For CVS, adjusting its hours is an attempt to ensure its “pharmacy teams are available to serve patients when they’re most needed,” the company said in a statement to CNN. The changes are part of its “regular course of business,” it added, so its hours meet customer demand.

In a statement to CNN, Walmart said the new hours are the result of “direct feedback” from its pharmacy employees and customers.

“Walmart has a strong and incredible pharmacy team, and we are making this change to not only enhance their work-life balance but also to maintain the best level of service for our customers,” a Walmart spokesperson said. “By positioning our teams in the hours where our customers say they want to visit our pharmacy, we are better able to deliver excellent customer service.”

Walgreens announced last year that it was reducing hours at some of its pharmacies because of staffing shortages.

On Friday, the company told CNN that it has “at times had to adjust store or pharmacy hours at some of our locations as we work to balance staffing and resources in the market to best meet our patient and customer demand.” A Walgreen (WBA)s spokesperson added that it has seen “positive staffing trends for the past several months as we work to return more stores to normal operating hours.”

Pharmacists are facing a staffing crunch that’s hit many other fields of work, but it is particularly affecting locally owned pharmacies. According to a survey released last year by the National Community Pharmacists Association, more than three-quarters of community pharmacists are having a “tough time filling open positions,” which is resulting in longer wait times for customers...


.......reduced hours....................?!

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2023 04:51PM by NewtonMP2100.

Our local pharmacies, most importantly Walgreens because we use them, stopped being open on weekends and after 7pm a year or two ago. It’s pretty difficult as a patient. I sure hope they won’t reduce further…

You guys realize that our culture/civilization is only going to continue to deteriorate, right? At least during our lifetimes...

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It is what it is.

Kroger is the same. Reduced hours. Closed for lunch.

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Bryan
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Location: Cincinnati

I wonder if this is partly a result of Amazon staffing up their new pharmacy business. Are pharmacies going the way of small town bookstores?

Amazon launches $5-a-month unlimited prescription plan
https: //www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/business/amazon-prescription-drugs-rxpass/index.html

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In tha 360. MRF User Map



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2023 06:56PM by Filliam H. Muffman.

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Grumpyguy
Kroger is the same. Reduced hours. Closed for lunch.

Closing for lunch is more of a state law issue than a cutting hours issue. Pharmacy staff working 12 hours shifts (fairly normal for the industry) deserve 30-60 minutes to refuel and rest, and more states/state pharmacy boards are recognizing this need. Additionally the pharmacy cannot be open if a pharmacist is not present, so they can’t just stagger out all staff meal breaks.

The local Walgreens closed its pharmacy altogether when the pharmacist left.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

I wonder how pharmacist working conditions are affecting this. They're much more likely to be working for a large employer than they might have 20 years ago and this has increased work and lowered pay. To be honest, I don't think they're being compensated well in consideration with their education. They do make money if they move into managing a pharmacy. Perhaps there's always been more money in the store than the drugs.

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N-OS X-tasy!
You guys realize that our culture/civilization is only going to continue to deteriorate, right? At least during our lifetimes...

More so in China and Japan. We still have lots of great immigrants coming everyday.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

This has been a long time coming. They were talking about shortages getting worse 15-20 years ago.

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C(-)ris
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I think the big pharmacy chains are reaping what they sowed over many years.

I have a friend who works for a big chain (and works, and works...).

They make their pharmacists work long hours with more and more responsibilities. Getting time off is a major production for a pharmacist. Pay hasn't increased commensurately with the increased responsibilities. It's all about profit and cost control. Why can't they hire more pharmacists? They could but that would cut into their profits and affect their ability to compete in the cut-throat world of pricing pressure.

You could be right about the big chains. When I was in school years ago, the few I knew whoo were going towards a pharmacists degree had an ultimate goal of owning their own shop or working with a partner or two to run a pharmacy. That was a reachable goal 40 years ago. But those small locally owned or operated pharmacies are gone. Working long hours for someone else is not as desirable as working for yourself.

The big pharmacies could hire more, but from what I have been seeing there aren't as many getting their degrees in pharmacy as a proportion of those graduating from schools. The supply is just not there. The older pharmacists are retiring faster than they are being replaced.