cvs store hours of operation change in 2020 ?

[ancienbon]

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My pic received an email from his district leader stating that his store is among a few whose hours of operation will change in 2020. He did not specify. We re currently open from 9 to 9 and 10 to 6 on weekends. we do about 1600 every week.
Has anyone heard about this upcoming change?

 

[zelman]

Walmart did this a few years ago. My guess: You’re gonna lose hours on paper, and most RPhs will stay just as late for free to catch up.

 

[mentos]

Wouldn't surprise me if they made it 9a-8p or 9a-7p. Nothing new, they've been shortening store hours for the past few years.

 

[StallionRx]

Im going to take the other side of the bet and say your store increases hours.

Did your store used to be a 8-9 M-F? 9-6 weekend store?

At that volume you're probably a sending store. One thing I think corporate noticed is the sending stores are WAY over burdened and can't complete everything with the shortened schedule. They need more time. Either keep the store open longer and allow for an earlier start or put in more tech hours. I think they know having an Rph there checking early gets ALL the queue's moving faster.

Also- Most walgreens/walmarts are open around the same time. No one is closing at 8 or 7.

Personally would be surprised if they shortened it, but who knows.

Keep us posted.

 

[ancienbon]

Im going to take the other side of the bet and say your store increases hours.

Did your store used to be a 8-9 M-F? 9-6 weekend store?

At that volume you're probably a sending store. One thing I think corporate noticed is the sending stores are WAY over burdened and can't complete everything with the shortened schedule. They need more time. Either keep the store open longer and allow for an earlier start or put in more tech hours. I think they know having an Rph there checking early gets ALL the queue's moving faster.

Also- Most walgreens/walmarts are open around the same time. No one is closing at 8 or 7.

Personally would be surprised if they shortened it, but who knows.

Keep us posted.

That is very unlikely. I doubt cvs will increase operating hours! The walgreens next door open 8 to 8.

 

[angelsplight]

Im going to take the other side of the bet and say your store increases hours.

Did your store used to be a 8-9 M-F? 9-6 weekend store?

At that volume you're probably a sending store. One thing I think corporate noticed is the sending stores are WAY over burdened and can't complete everything with the shortened schedule. They need more time. Either keep the store open longer and allow for an earlier start or put in more tech hours. I think they know having an Rph there checking early gets ALL the queue's moving faster.

Also- Most walgreens/walmarts are open around the same time. No one is closing at 8 or 7.

Personally would be surprised if they shortened it, but who knows.

Keep us posted.

I'm in the doubt also. They will more than likely decrease hours if they see that the store starts to slow down during nighttime. My previous Walgreens increased in scripts from around 350~ daily to 500+ daily over the years and guess what they did, they cut the hours. They saw that during 8pm+, the amount of scripts coming slowly dramatically due to local offices closing so we had some time to catch up during 8-10pm. They removed that 8-10 so the pharmacist ended up having to stay for free non-paid hours just so they could stay and catch up the queue on his own. On top of that, pharmacy staff hours got cut too because pharmacist overlap hours were completely removed so vaccinations had to be done while there were lines, technician hours were cut so during the whole day there would only be 1 technician or intern and 4~ hours of someone from the front assisting the back only counting.

 

[Pharmd_rxrx]

My pic received an email from his district leader stating that his store is among a few whose hours of operation will change in 2020. He did not specify. We re currently open from 9 to 9 and 10 to 6 on weekends. we do about 1600 every week.
Has anyone heard about this upcoming change?

Was told about hour cuts from a higher up. This must be what he was talking about.

 

[ancienbon]

It is going to be more cahotic !If it is hard now to complete the job in 12 hours, imagine how bad it will be to complete it 11 hours. they ll expect rph to work off the clock to clear the queue. so we are the one who lose...

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

And yet good ol Larry got paid dismal $20 mil. Come on yall, you need to work even harder to get this man mo money. How is he gonna pay for his mustache care?!

 

[Sine Cura]

When the store I "managed" went from 8-10 to 8-9 it was actually easier because of more tech overlap (tech hrs weren't cut at the time)

 

[UCSF2021]

i am also going to bet your store increases hours also, my store is going from 9-9 from 9-7 and we do less than you

 

[UCSF2021]

our store is also growing 20-30% year over year, what is yours?

 

[mentos]

Im going to take the other side of the bet and say your store increases hours.

Did your store used to be a 8-9 M-F? 9-6 weekend store?

At that volume you're probably a sending store. One thing I think corporate noticed is the sending stores are WAY over burdened and can't complete everything with the shortened schedule. They need more time. Either keep the store open longer and allow for an earlier start or put in more tech hours. I think they know having an Rph there checking early gets ALL the queue's moving faster.

Also- Most walgreens/walmarts are open around the same time. No one is closing at 8 or 7.

Personally would be surprised if they shortened it, but who knows.

Keep us posted.

That doesn't make sense. If there stores are falling behind then they should give more tech hours back, not add extra pharmacist hours. One Rph hour is like 4-6 tech hours.

 

[ancienbon]

update. new store hrs 9 to 8 and weekend 10 to 6. and pic will work more hrs. 38 for pic and 33 for staff.

 

[StallionRx]

That doesn't make sense. If there stores are falling behind then they should give more tech hours back, not add extra pharmacist hours. One Rph hour is like 4-6 tech hours.

Techs can’t verify.

Volume from shared rx program is tremendous.

 

[mentos]

Techs can’t verify.

Volume from shared rx program is tremendous.

Verifying is the easy part. Production is what takes the most time and work.

 

[ancienbon]

so as it stands this is time for change! I cant live with 33 hours ..it is going to be a significant pay cut for me.

 

[footfairy]

I'm in the doubt also. They will more than likely decrease hours if they see that the store starts to slow down during nighttime. My previous Walgreens increased in scripts from around 350~ daily to 500+ daily over the years and guess what they did, they cut the hours. They saw that during 8pm+, the amount of scripts coming slowly dramatically due to local offices closing so we had some time to catch up during 8-10pm. They removed that 8-10 so the pharmacist ended up having to stay for free non-paid hours just so they could stay and catch up the queue on his own. On top of that, pharmacy staff hours got cut too because pharmacist overlap hours were completely removed so vaccinations had to be done while there were lines, technician hours were cut so during the whole day there would only be 1 technician or intern and 4~ hours of someone from the front assisting the back only counting.

Your store does 500 a day with one technician? Not sure why people feel the need to make up these tall tales when reality is already rough enough.

 

[owlegrad]

Verifying is the easy part. Production is what takes the most time and work.

I always thought production was the easiest station. No customers to interact with like pickup or drive through and doesn’t require extensive knowledge to do well, like order entry.

I do think there are a huge number of techs that make production hard but that is a totally separate issue. Production is fun and easy imo. Truthfully a good production tech can have a drug pulled from the shelf and begin counting while they wait for the label to be done printing.

 

[angelsplight]

Your store does 500 a day with one technician? Not sure why people feel the need to make up these tall tales when reality is already rough enough.

As I said, we steal staff from up front by calling the backup needed code on speaker over and over. It gets bad enough on weekdays we have 2 people from front store filling in the back. Unfortunately the front store people aren't trained for the pharmacy so they literally do nothing but fill. Then we get the DM yelling at us on a weekly basis saying "why aren't the patient care calls done on time and daily? why isn't bin rec done weekly? why isn't delete list done daily? why aren't you guys doing _ amount of vaccinations daily/weekly?" I wonder why. More than half of the entering was done by central for us too but that wasn't enough.

That being said, we were also in the dilemma we were in because we were allowed to hire a 2nd tech but no one wants to apply. New technicians find it so stressful that they leave within 2~ weeks. Literally no one wants to work as a technician at walgreens and have to be technician certified for $15 an hour when hospitals are also desperately looking for certified technicians at $18 an hour and easier job. We actually lost 2/3 of our veteran technicians to local hospitals so the store was crashing.

 

[mentos]

I always thought production was the easiest station. No customers to interact with like pickup or drive through and doesn’t require extensive knowledge to do well, like order entry.

I do think there are a huge number of techs that make production hard but that is a totally separate issue. Production is fun and easy imo. Truthfully a good production tech can have a drug pulled from the shelf and begin counting while they wait for the label to be done printing.

I'm talking timewise it takes way longer to print, pull, count 30 tabs and put bottle back on shelf than to verify it in 15 seconds or less. Plus in many stores the production tech is helping with dropoff and gets interrupted every 30 seconds with a phone call.

I used to work overnight at CVS and it took me all night to finish the 12-13 pages of readyfill alone. If they were ever delayed, the dayshift would bust them out in a couple of hours with the help of a tech or two. Imagine 4-6 more tech hours vs one extra pharmacist to verify, much efficient with more tech hours.

 

[StallionRx]

I'm talking timewise it takes way longer to print, pull, count 30 tabs and put bottle back on shelf than to verify it in 15 seconds or less. Plus in many stores the production tech is helping with dropoff and gets interrupted every 30 seconds with a phone call.

I used to work overnight at CVS and it took me all night to finish the 12-13 pages of readyfill alone. If they were ever delayed, the dayshift would bust them out in a couple of hours with the help of a tech or two. Imagine 4-6 more tech hours vs one extra pharmacist to verify, much efficient with more tech hours.

Cutting the sending store hours back also means all receiving stores will be losing help as well.

There are many stores where Rphs are REFUSING to check for other stores and the other stores subsequently get destroyed because they dont have the remote Rph helping to move the load. Hours are low across the board. Ive heard of Rphs not keeping pace in their own stores and figure why bother checking for others if I can't even do my own.

 

[pencilandpen]

so as it stands this is time for change! I cant live with 33 hours ..it is going to be a significant pay cut for me.

so with 33 hrs youre still pulling in something like 85 to 95k a year, i can see how its a huge paycut from 40hrs per week, but 85k is still a very livable wage?

 

[ancienbon]

so with 33 hrs youre still pulling in something like 85 to 95k a year, i can see how its a huge paycut from 40hrs per week, but 85k is still a very livable wage?

i will be in the low six figures for me. it is a livable wage,of course. i have no choice but to adapt until i find something better. my biggest expense now is my mortgage.

 

[mentos]

so as it stands this is time for change! I cant live with 33 hours ..it is going to be a significant pay cut for me.

Sure you can. The average household makes half your salary.

 

[projektreverb]

Sure you can. The average household makes half your salary.

most of us forget that. Median wage per capita is in the low 48k. Median household income is 61k in my state.

 

[josh6718]

Sure you can. The average household makes half your salary.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average household income was $73,298 in 2014.
Source: Is the Average American Earnings Enough? – Artists Business Management Group

The 2018 real median household income for the US was $61,937. For what its worth, just over 1 in 4 states (13 total) have a median household income of greater than $70,000 as of 2018. Source: U.S. Median Household Income Up in 2018 From 2017

Setting the above aside for a minute, with the cost of 6 years of pharmacy tuition upwards of $200k tacked with a subsidized 4% interest rate, if you were to graduate and make 85k/year, it still may be a 'livable' wage, but becomes a rather unattractive return on investment if you are considering pharmacy school.

 

[nextyearrx]

lot of stores will be non-24 hours from 24 hrs !!!

and some will be 9-8 weekdays from 9-9 currently

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I'm still 24hr. So i got that going for me.

 

[RxPreceptor]

I just wish the overnight differential would include the ENTIRE overnight shift...mainly because those PM hours 8pm-11pm are often the most chaotic/stressful vs. the hours that count as differential here at least (12am-7am...aware this might be different regionally). Meh, it is what it is...overnight @ a 24 hour store has been good in terms of overall stability (no drastic hour changes or cuts; can't complain really)

 

[Rxgirl87]

my DL told me we would most likely be closing at 8 next year but wasn't official yet

 

[nextyearrx]

no hours= no money... !!!

 

[radio frequency]

Sure you can. The average household makes half your salary.

That doesn’t make sense. Most people make decisions about how much debt to take on or how many kids to have (they’re expensive) based on projected income. If one’s salary is cut back, it throws a wrench in their plans, regardless of current income. They may need to sell their house (an expensive transaction that usually lowers your net worth) or make other cuts, such as stop contributing to their retirement accounts.

It doesn’t make sense for most people to change these plans and some of them are not easy to change, so the better option will be to try to find extra hours or a side gig. Even if they make more than the average wage earner.

 

[mentos]

That doesn’t make sense. Most people make decisions about how much debt to take on or how many kids to have (they’re expensive) based on projected income. If one’s salary is cut back, it throws a wrench in their plans, regardless of current income. They may need to sell their house (an expensive transaction that usually lowers your net worth) or make other cuts, such as stop contributing to their retirement accounts.

It doesn’t make sense for most people to change these plans and some of them are not easy to change, so the better option will be to try to find extra hours or a side gig. Even if they make more than the average wage earner.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Don't spend money you don't have.

 

[radio frequency]

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Don't spend money you don't have.

If everyone waited to have kids until they had enough money to retire or waited until they had the cash to buy a house outright we would live in a very different world than we live in. Your response is unrealistic for the large majority of people. I’m very conservative with debt and even I would find cutting my budget an unpleasant challenge and I would look for other work rather than change large parts of my life.

 

[Sine Cura]

The large majority of people are idiots carried by the few that actually contribute anything of lasting value to civilization (and then a sizable portion that keep the gears moving)

Don't count chickens is not helpful advice for most but presumably pharmacists should plan a little better than your hoi polloi

 

[DrVader]

The large majority of people are idiots carried by the few that actually contribute anything of lasting value to civilization (and then a sizable portion that keep the gears moving)

Don't count chickens is not helpful advice for most but presumably pharmacists should plan a little better than your hoi polloi

It has been that way since the dawn of time. We remember Kings not peasants.

 

[mentos]

That doesn’t make sense. Most people make decisions about how much debt to take on or how many kids to have (they’re expensive) based on projected income. If one’s salary is cut back, it throws a wrench in their plans, regardless of current income. They may need to sell their house (an expensive transaction that usually lowers your net worth) or make other cuts, such as stop contributing to their retirement accounts.

It doesn’t make sense for most people to change these plans and some of them are not easy to change, so the better option will be to try to find extra hours or a side gig. Even if they make more than the average wage earner.

A pharmacist should be able to take out a 15 year mortgage easily. If their pay went down to 50k then they can refinance to a 30 year. If you can't afford your mortgage on a 50k salary to the point of needing to sell, then you bought more house than you could afford. Or you spend your money on stuff that you don't need.

 

[SKRATCH]

Techs can’t verify.

Volume from shared rx program is tremendous.

i stopped doing them months ago. just let them fall off. i'm sure there is a report, and I'm sure I am last, but I don't care anymore. I'm not going to stay 3 hours late every night to verify someone else's prescriptions.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

8-10PM at my 24 hr is now a complete hellscape. I did 39 scripts between 8-9pm the other night. I hate you all now.

 

[footfairy]

8-10PM at my 24 hr is now a complete hellscape. I did 39 scripts between 8-9pm the other night. I hate you all now.

This is every weekend at my store now The closest Walgreens to me is 9a-3p on Sundays and all the CVS/RA have weird 9a-5p or 10a-5p alternating Saturday and Sunday schedules. Plus the two grocery store chains close at 3pm on weekends too.

The last weekend I worked I had 20+ new scripts filled during the 5pm to 6pm hour and I'd say about half of them were new patients. Between everyone's new hours and people's constant need to be at the local ER or Urgent Cares every time they fart funny it's getting super difficult to leave on time.

I guess I shouldn't complain it's kept my stores hours from being cut this far.

 

[mentos]

This is every weekend at my store now The closest Walgreens to me is 9a-3p on Sundays and all the CVS/RA have weird 9a-5p or 10a-5p alternating Saturday and Sunday schedules. Plus the two grocery store chains close at 3pm on weekends too.

The last weekend I worked I had 20+ new scripts filled during the 5pm to 6pm hour and I'd say about half of them were new patients. Between everyone's new hours and people's constant need to be at the local ER or Urgent Cares every time they fart funny it's getting super difficult to leave on time.

I guess I shouldn't complain it's kept my stores hours from being cut this far.

Urgent cares are popping up like daisies. Reminds me of the pharmacy expansion 15 years ago.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Urgent cares are popping up like daisies. Reminds me of the pharmacy expansion 15 years ago.

And yet they are constantly filled with people.

 

[Dred Pirate]

I just wish the overnight differential would include the ENTIRE overnight shift...mainly because those PM hours 8pm-11pm are often the most chaotic/stressful vs. the hours that count as differential here at least (12am-7am...aware this might be different regionally). Meh, it is what it is...overnight @ a 24 hour store has been good in terms of overall stability (no drastic hour changes or cuts; can't complain really)

when I did retail overnight there was no differential - just the work 70 get paid for 80 - do you have differential on top of that?

 

[TerryTerry]

That doesn’t make sense. Most people make decisions about how much debt to take on or how many kids to have (they’re expensive) based on projected income. If one’s salary is cut back, it throws a wrench in their plans, regardless of current income. They may need to sell their house (an expensive transaction that usually lowers your net worth) or make other cuts, such as stop contributing to their retirement accounts.

It doesn’t make sense for most people to change these plans and some of them are not easy to change, so the better option will be to try to find extra hours or a side gig. Even if they make more than the average wage earner.

You really think most people in the U.S think about how many kids they should have based on the income?
Oh my

 

[BMBiology]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average household income was $73,298 in 2014.
Source: Is the Average American Earnings Enough? – Artists Business Management Group

The 2018 real median household income for the US was $61,937. For what its worth, just over 1 in 4 states (13 total) have a median household income of greater than $70,000 as of 2018. Source: U.S. Median Household Income Up in 2018 From 2017

Setting the above aside for a minute, with the cost of 6 years of pharmacy tuition upwards of $200k tacked with a subsidized 4% interest rate, if you were to graduate and make 85k/year, it still may be a 'livable' wage, but becomes a rather unattractive return on investment if you are considering pharmacy school.

Household income usually means two income earners nowadays.

I still don’t know why pharmacists who have been working for the last 20 years are financially struggling when their hours get cut. You graduated with little debt and you worked during the golden age of pharmacy. Did you really think you were not dispensable? Did you think it would last forever?

All good things will eventually come to an end. The sooner you realize that, the better you will be.