This subject is something fairly interesting and one I recently learned a lot more about. I had a talk with a DM and was curious why the town I live in does not have a 24 hour pharmacy and the closest is 30 miles away. He told me that generally going 24 hours actually loses a large amount of profit, and that it is only done to promote goodwill. The reason that adding a night shift loses money is because the only real gain you have in terms of scripts are ER discharges and these typically don't bring a lot of profit because the majority are for small qty/cheap meds. It is true that you will fill normal scripts in the night hours, but this is only a shift in the time a script is filled, not total number.
To have a store covered for 24 hours, you have to add the equivalent of about 1.5 FTEs, these positions will cost the company $75+/hr in salary/benefits to make true script profit of about $10/hr. Now it is difficult to determine the value the goodwill from having a 24 hour pharmacy provides, but in most cases it just is not worth it. Apparently, and this I am not sure about, the concept of a 24 hour retail pharmacy was initiated by Walgreens as mainly a marketing tactic. Today very few pharmacies are opened as or converted to, 24 hours, it simply seems another failed ploy such a $4 generics and free antibiotics.
