Submitted by Digital-Latte t3_zzpajw in springfieldMO
I just spent almost two and half hours in line at Walgreens waiting to get my daughter’s medicine the urgent care Dr prescribed. There definitely needs to be more than one 24 hour pharmacy in a town the size of Springfield.
Fuck yes. I work until 11p. I'm an asocial night owl. If there was a grocery store open until 12am or 1am, they'd know me by name because I'd be in there two or three times a week.
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Yeah, before COVID every Walmart was open 24 hours. Even the neighborhood one up the street from me.
Not all. The neighborhood market on Grand & Campbell has never been 24 hours, even before Covid.
In the 1980's I worked until 11pm and could grocery shop in Nixa after work. I think this area goes backward.
I’m out in California now. It’s the same here now. I’ve traveled to a good couple dozen states since Covid hit. It’s the same in all of them. Outside of maybe NYC (the city that literally never sleeps), it’s nearly impossible to find a 24-hour supermarket anymore. Albertsons near me in California closes at 11pm. Jewel-Oscos in Chicago close at midnight. Even in the densest parts of Los Angeles, Ralph’s closes at 1am (better than 11pm, but not 24 hours).
I have spent multiple hours in line two to three times a month at this location for more than six months. On top of routine meds not being available on time, anywhere from 2-3 or even 5 days late a couple times. These meds are now filled offsite instead of at the location, btw.
It’s frustrating and unacceptable. Now I go at 6 a.m. and have slightly better luck. I finally talked to the manager (who says they are constantly hiring techs but everyone leaves within a few weeks). I said they need to raise wages and improve conditions then. He blew me off.
I also filled out a survey online and reported everything to the Missouri Board of Pharmacy. There are regulations about customers/patients having reliable, timely access to their medications.
Of course he blew you off, those things are out of his control. He needs actionable items that can have real value in his store.
Fighting for employees to have better conditions and pay is the actionable item that will provide him real value.
Go to his GM with how many people they’ve hired in x timeframe, what they were hired at and correlate that information to how long they stayed.
Now, obviously nothing is guaranteed to work, but outright dismissing the idea saying it’s not actionable isn’t participating in good faith.
Define "better conditions" and "better pay." These are highly ambiguous terms. In that industry, these workers will just jump around to whomever is paying 50 cents more per hour. As long as Walgreens continues to have an increasing bottom line, that is all that matters to them.
Better conditions: it currently seems that these folks are working a very busy location that appears to be severely understaffed if folks are waiting hours. This is a brutal work environment. If you have the appropriate number of techs scheduled at the right times, this would probably take care of a majority of this category.
Better pay: you said it yourself, they jump to the highest bidder and good for them. Be at or near the top of the pay grade and this issue is also fixed.
From the Walgreens leadership perspective: Our competition is minimal, we have plenty of customers that are clearly willing to wait their turn... why should we hire more/skilled people and reduce our bottom line?
Walgreen’s first obligation is patient safety and health. You may not have medications that you depend on to live and feel well, but I and many others do. The manager definitely has control and can himself report the failings to the board of pharmacy if he doesn’t have the resources he needs to operate safely.
False. Walgreen's first obligation is to provide earnings for its shareholders. Walgreens, just as many other companies do, might "frame" themselves as putting customers/patients/health first to increase their business, but in reality, nothing goes above profits.
They are licensed by the state and legally obligated to follow the regulations and laws as a pharmacy. Patient safety in the pharmacy is a completely separate consideration from their retail activity.
Sure. Then you must realize that lawmakers are heavily influenced by corporations and businesses such as WG... which therefore make them not really accountable to anyone. "Ethics and compliance" is basically bullshit just to keep the public at bay and make people "feel" like WG is out to help them. I, too, have extensive experience in this... but one day, decided to open my eyes. Furthermore, if WG single most important objective was not to have business profit... then they wouldn't even have a pharmacy to begin with. Clearly, the business objective of increasing the bottom line is more important than "patient health and safety."
I have had the same problems. My monthly medications went from being ready the next day to 3-5 days when they started doing the offsite prescriptions. I have had to adjust my filling schedule for this and sometimes I still run out before they are ready.
We used to, then the pandemic hit. Pandemic fucked a lot of things up in this city.
I love how the Walgreens across from me by hospital has never even been open 24/7. Of all of them, that one really should be.
This town needs a bunch of 24/7 businesses. There's plenty of night owls that would work the shifts no problem. I come from Las Vegas, that city is never asleep.
I thought we had two, the Walgreens at Campbell/Battlefield and the Walgreens on East Sunshine
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Walgreens is shit. I work in the health field and Walgreens is literally one of the worst pharmacies not only in our area, but in the states as a whole.
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It goes so much deeper than that, but exactly, what do you know?
The entitlement is strong. Be grateful that you had the ability to get the medication.
A concerned parent with a child in a medical emergency and your first reaction is to call them entitled?
I wonder if you're just severely out of touch or are incapable of rational thought.
Perfect response.
I had a medical emergency on Christmas Eve and was thankful that a 24-7 pharmacy exists. I would never have complained about a wait time.
I can't even imagine getting this worked up over a two hour wait.
Be thankful you haven’t been in a situation where it wasn’t more pressing then? Because you were okay with an unreasonable wait time, everyone else should feel the same way?
[deleted] t1_j2d0bme wrote
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