In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 17 Oct 2024 15:50:12 -0000 (UTC),
Post by badgolfermanPost by mickyPost by Toni FowcheeWalgreens to close 1,200 unprofitable stores across US as part of
'turnaround'
"https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/retail/2024/10/15/walgreens-closing-stores-locations/75683122007/"
Interesting. They already closed the one closest to me. I don't mind
driving a little farther but the new one doesn't have a
drive-through.
Before I get to the rest: around here pharmacies from some or all
companies take a break from 1:30 to 2:00 for lunch. They won't wait on
you. You're stuck. Do you have that where you are? (OTOH, they don't
do that for dinner.)
Post by badgolfermanI suspect it has more to do with the locations of those stores and the
amount of pilfering being done by the "customers".
I don't have it in front of me anymore but I read a serious article with
several reason drug store were closing down.
I would add that about 20 years ago, some chains went on an opening
binge, with lots of new stores. You may have noticed it. I was told it
had seomthing to do with qualifying to be a medicare or some other
program something, that the bigger they were the more likely something
good would happen to them involving iirc a government contract.
So to me since the poplulation had only grown a little and drug use
would only be only be up a little (okay, below it says I'm wrong about
that), but there were so many new pharmacies, it's not surprising some
have to close. Hard to believe they lastted iirc 20 years.
Hmm. Detailed googling using a custom date range of 5, 9, and 17 years
ago didn't find what I wanted. This is the most helpful but it has
nothing about that program I claim existed. I have serious doubts if
so-called AI will be able to do better even when it's further along:
https://ilsr.org/articles/independent-pharmacies-rebound/https://ilsr.org/articles/independent-pharmacies-rebound/
Independent Pharmacies On The Rebound
Aug 1, 2001
Stacy Mitchell
After more than a decade of decline, independent pharmacies are
beginning to make a comeback. Last year, 244 new independent pharmacies
opened, according to the National Community Pharmacists Association
(NCPA). By comparison, the top three pharmacy chains had a combined
increase of 234 stores last year. Walgreens posted a net gain of 344 new
stores, CVS was up 35 stores, and Rite Aid had a net loss of 145 stores.
The increase in independent pharmacies is a sharp turnaround from the
last decade. The US lost about 1,500 independents annually during the
first half of the 1990s. The decline slowed to about 450 per year in the
late 1990s. Altogether, more than 11,000 independent pharmacies closed
in just ten years.
Today, independents number about 25,000 and account for 44 percent of
the retail prescription market. They consistently outscore their
competitors on consumer surveys. According to a study released this week
by Wilson Health Information LLC, consumers who fill their prescriptions
at local pharmacies report significantly higher levels of satisfaction
compared to those who patronize chain, supermarket, and mail order
pharmacies. Customers of independents are more likely to return and to
recommend their pharmacy to friends.
Several other studies have reached similar conclusions. In 1999,
Consumer Reports found that independents outrank their competitors in
personal attention, speed of dispensing, and the quality of medical
information provided.
A big factor behind the rising number of independent pharmacies,
according to Todd Dankmyer of the NCPA, is the growth of prescription
sales. Driven by an aging population and an array of new drugs,
prescriptions are expected to increase from 2.7 billion in 1999 to 3.7
billion in 2004. Prescription sales account for 83 percent of the
average independents revenue, compared to only half of the income of
chain drug stores, which depend more heavily on sales of convenience
items.
Another factor is that many independent pharmacists have developed
successful healthcare specialties. Some, for example, serve as
consultants to nursing homes or make house calls for patients with
specific illnesses or needs, such as HIV/AIDS or IV drug infusions.
Others offer compounding, a method of combining different drugs in
custom doses and forms. All of these specialties, notes Dankmyer, are
too labor intensive and uniquely oriented to the local market for chain
pharmacies to bother with.
Buying cooperatives have also aided independents. Most locally owned
pharmacies now belong to one of about 30 local and regional purchasing
groups, which negotiate with drug manufacturers for volume discounts.
Although pharmacy buying groups have been around for about 15 years,
they are more important now than ever. HMOs have dramatically reduced
the reimbursement rates for pharmacies. On most drugs, pharmacists net
extremely thin margins and the added cost savings provided by buying
cooperatives has become especially critical.
Some buying groups are now operating as third party networks, which
negotiate with large employers to provide pharmacy benefits through
their network of stores in much the same way as the major chain
pharmacies.
Although chain drugstore expansion continues to be an issue, the biggest
threat facing independent pharmacies, according to Dankmyer, comes not
from chains, but mail order companies. Mail order pharmacies currently
capture 15 percent of prescription spending and their share grew 24
percent last year.
Pharmacy benefit management companies (PBMs), which contract with HMOs
to provide pharmacy benefits, often create economic incentives to shift
consumers to mail order. They may, for example, require a substantially
lower co-pay if the consumer purchases by mail rather than through a
retail store. Their motivation? The top three PBMs, which cover
two-thirds of all insured Americans, own their own mail order companies.
The NCPA is working to pass state equity laws that require PBMs to make
co-pays equal regardless of the type of pharmacy the consumer chooses.
The legislative fight has been an uphill struggle, but has succeeded in
a handful of states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi,
Missouri, and Tennessee. Repeated efforts to pass a federal equity law
have failed.
Given the range of healthcare services provided by retail pharmacies,
the shift to mail order may not be in the best interests of patients
overall health. Once you level the playing field, nobody chooses mail
order, contends Dankmyer. Unless consumers are economically coerced
into using mail order, they far prefer a retail pharmacy.