When did walgreens become bad?

[doubletwenty]

I heard Walgreens used to be a good company. But how many years did it take until it became really bad?

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[projektreverb]

I’ve heard it’s when the Walgreens family sold.

 

[gwarm01]

I graduated a decade ago and it was already the "absolutely never" job of last resort when I was in school.

 

[doubletwenty]

Oh wow. Sounds like it started becoming bad around 2010 then.

 

[lord999]

You're asking the question thinking they were ever good.

For much of the modern period, this was the reason.

Walgreen's heiress died amid struggle with drugs

Depression, addiction drove Loren Walgreen down the same destructive path as her late husband. CHICAGO — If not for her famous last name, few would have noticed the death of a young woman found slump…

www.capecodtimes.com

 

[doubletwenty]

That's insane. Their greed and power lives on.

 

[mentos]

All retail pharmacy went downhill starting in 2007ish when they couldn't expand anymore. There used to be tons of bodies in the pharmacy just like in a McDonald's or Chick-a-filet. The great recession sealed the deal for the point of no return. Since then it's just been cutting hours every year.

 

[rickyroxy]

We have a winner!

How CVS evolved from retail pharmacy into health care behemoth

CVS came to dominate the retail pharmacy industry and beyond. Some experts wonder whether retail's reach into health care could go too far.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Dred Pirate]

All retail pharmacy went downhill starting in 2007ish when they couldn't expand anymore. There used to be tons of bodies in the pharmacy just like in a McDonald's or Chick-a-filet. The great recession sealed the deal for the point of no return. Since then it's just been cutting hours every year.

what mcdonalds do you go to??? I went to one by my house and the damn ice cream machine was broken- I counted 3 workers, so I walked next door to Chic-fil-a - I counted 16 behind the counter.

 

[projektreverb]

what mcdonalds do you go to??? I went to one by my house and the damn ice cream machine was broken- I counted 3 workers, so I walked next door to Chic-fil-a - I counted 16 behind the counter.

Agreed, same here. Worth noting the massive service level difference between the two.

 

[Pronounce Doxazosin]

As a person who worked for them between 2009 to 2022, I’d say it was around 2017 was when it became obvious that the company’s ship was not sailing in the right direction
The Boots buy out was looking like poor management decision and many top executives were either leaving company or selling large number of shares.
Combined with Caremark’s aggressive plans to exclude WAG from their network further lowered reimbursement rates which resulted in lowered operational budgets

With that said, you can still find good areas/stores to work at, as long as your have the right people around you, but the cozy shifts are pretty much nonexistent

 

[projektreverb]

Unrelated, whatever happened to wagsrxm or whatever their username was? I’d expect them to be all over this thread.

 

[rph3664]

All retail pharmacy went downhill starting in 2007ish when they couldn't expand anymore. There used to be tons of bodies in the pharmacy just like in a McDonald's or Chick-a-filet. The great recession sealed the deal for the point of no return. Since then it's just been cutting hours every year.

Ca. 2000, they were head-to-head competing with Osco. One goes up: the other one goes up too, right across the street, no matter how inconvenient it may be for anyone else.

30 years ago, I heard (for the first of many times) that if state boards ever reach a point where they do not require a pharmacist on staff, Walgreens will be the first to jump on it.

 

[doubletwenty]

Unrelated, whatever happened to wagsrxm or whatever their username was? I’d expect them to be all over this thread.

I decided to stalk that profile a bit now that you mention it. Last post was in July 2021, wagrxm2000.

 

[mentos]

Unrelated, whatever happened to wagsrxm or whatever their username was? I’d expect them to be all over this thread.

He retired.

He played around with individual stocks with us for fun in 2020 but his wife made him stop because he watched too much CNBC. Then he went back to index funds and retired like a year later.

This was the last time we heard from him in the SDN discord.

 

[mentos]

what mcdonalds do you go to??? I went to one by my house and the damn ice cream machine was broken- I counted 3 workers, so I walked next door to Chic-fil-a - I counted 16 behind the counter.

Well I guess I haven't been inside one in a long time. Things were different before the $15/hour min wage and automation.

 

[PharFromNormal]

When the end of the generic wave of blockbuster drugs was visible on the horizon and this no longer could provide a sizable offset to the ever constant reimbursement crunch… things shifted hard to lowering cost to fill because there wasn’t and still hasn’t been any significant tailwind to replace what huge generic launches used to do for profitability

 

[APN-59 rph]

I'll be dealing with a Wally's tomorrow off and on.....It's pretty hopeless most of the time....on hold for ever IF you get a line at all...they are driving the locals crazy....generally impossible to get a transfer. Not long ago the Manager of a local Wally's got fed up ....closed the pharmacy and scooted....Just as an aside...I've been an RPh in retail for many many moons and it has always been high speed drudgery...I have had two hopelessly mismanaged (probably on purpose) chains close out from under me which was a relief actually..BUT..the pay has always gone up and up AND I have had other highly challenging occupations sometimes right along with the pharmacy job...(think sand). Now I work a day or two a week or month as needed.. I see NO REASON to suggest the Pharmacist trade to anyone. See high speed drudgery above...