Walgreens Layoffs

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
P

PharmacistVoice

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2009
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Members don't see this ad.
First of all I am new to this message board, glad I found it as I am a pharmacist x20 years and this looks pretty informative.

My question is in regards to Walgreens. I heard this weekend that Walgreens had a lay-off of several hundred pharmacists in the northeasterm part of the country.

Can anyone verify number one if this is true and number two if it is why did this occur?

Again, I am new so this may have already been discussed and I certainly would appreciate an update.

I am not a retail pharmacist but obviously anything this major would impact all pharmacists dependent upon the reasons it happened.

Thank you.
 
I don't think they've laid off that many pharmacists. Here's an article, from today coincidentally, that says they're making up lost financial grand by implementing 1,000 layoffs. However, it says these layoffs are corporate-level, so this shouldn't affect the Pharmacists.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/higher-costs-hurt-walgreens-profit

Chief Executive Greg Wasson, who was promoted from president this year, is reorganizing the company's business to help reinvigorate sales and save $1 billion a year by 2011. The company is slowing new store openings and reducing costs through 1,000 corporate-level job cuts.
Click to expand...

Walgreen shares have gained 20% in value this year. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index has declined 1%.
Click to expand...

The fact remains... the only way Walgreens can get rid of Pharmacists is to close the Pharmacy.
 
Walgreens has been laying off people at the corporate level, not at the store level. At the store level, they have been cutting hours for techs, cashiers, and the like.
 
Found another good article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iALIvMyeKvmu00D7fzZjTTK8TsWwD98VV4C80

Walgreen has announced it will open fewer new stores in the coming years, slowing down to growth of 2.5 percent to 3 percent in fiscal 2011. During the third quarter, Walgreen opened or bought 162 stores, which gave it a total of 6,857. It also has about 500 worksite health and wellness centers, along with specialty, institutional, and mail-order pharmacies. The company opened 122 stores in the third quarter of 2008.


The fourth quarter is typically Walgreen's busiest in terms of store openings because it wants the stores to be operational during the holiday shopping season. The company opened 199 stores in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, and expects a slightly lower number in the last quarter of fiscal 2009. That translates to growth of about 9 percent.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like the plan is to cut corporate level positions (this article even says management.. wonder what that means) and then slow the creation of new stores/new jobs.

It doesn't seem to me that anyone is in fear of layoffs from a Pharmacist position... not to say that couldn't change.
 
CopToPharm said:
Found another good article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iALIvMyeKvmu00D7fzZjTTK8TsWwD98VV4C80



Sounds to me like the plan is to cut corporate level positions (this article even says management.. wonder what that means) and then slow the creation of new stores/new jobs.

It doesn't seem to me that anyone is in fear of layoffs from a Pharmacist position... not to say that couldn't change.
Click to expand...

Cutting corporate level position has already occurred. If you are interested in Walgreens' plans for the upcoming future you can listen to their conference call which aired today. They did not speak much of POWER but instead talked about CCR which is a new approach to cutting back on SKUs and creating a new retail experience.
 
TTUMike said:
Cutting corporate level position has already occurred. If you are interested in Walgreens' plans for the upcoming future you can listen to their conference call which aired today. They did not speak much of POWER but instead talked about CCR which is a new approach to cutting back on SKUs and creating a new retail experience.
Click to expand...

Yea, looks like they're moving from a lot of brand named products plus walgreens brand products to a smaller amount of each. Focused retailing is the wave of the future.. it's not all about choice anymore.
 
I can't speak to the layoffs of pharmacists in the north east; however, I can tell you Walgreens will be laying off approximately 10,000 pharmacy technicians starting next week. Also, they will be laying off at least one assistant manager from each store. How do I know this? I am one of the techs losing a job since I recently got into pharmacy school. I was needing to transfer to another Walgreens out of state and was denied a transfer in spite of the layoffs. Walgreens may look solid from the outside; however, something is seriously wrong with the company when they have never had company-wide layoffs.
 
rjpharmstud said:
I can't speak to the layoffs of pharmacists in the north east; however, I can tell you Walgreens will be laying off approximately 10,000 pharmacy technicians starting next week. Also, they will be laying off at least one assistant manager from each store. How do I know this? I am one of the techs losing a job since I recently got into pharmacy school. I was needing to transfer to another Walgreens out of state and was denied a transfer in spite of the layoffs. Walgreens may look solid from the outside; however, something is seriously wrong with the company when they have never had company-wide layoffs.
Click to expand...
Where do you get your 10K from? I'm an intern and know about 4 dozen techs at wags, about a dozen or so rphs, two rxms, and a regional rph supervisor, and have heard no such thing. Not saying you're wrong, just want to know where you got your info.
 
My Walgreens went from 120 tech hours to 40 with the recent budget cuts, not sure how we're going to cope especially with flu season right around the corner.
 
deacrx said:
My Walgreens went from 120 tech hours to 40 with the recent budget cuts, not sure how we're going to cope especially with flu season right around the corner.
Click to expand...
Hours are supposedly coming back as soon as flu season hits. I'm hoping that my ability to give immunizations in the very near future will give me some job stability. Something you might check up on depending on your state for all you interns out there. Then harp on it with your rphs.
 
joetrisman said:
Where do you get your 10K from? I'm an intern and know about 4 dozen techs at wags, about a dozen or so rphs, two rxms, and a regional rph supervisor, and have heard no such thing. Not saying you're wrong, just want to know where you got your info.
Click to expand...

Then they are not giving you any information because most pharmacy supervisors know that next week is when they will be laying off technicians. I have not heard any specific numbers but am certain that it will occur.

By the way, I am in northern Texas.
 
Same is happening here in Phoenix. They are going to lay off some people. I just talked to one of our pharmacists this morning about it...she works here full-time but picks up shifts here and there at Wags. She said it is not going to be good for retail...
 
DYSF777 said:
Then they are not giving you any information because most pharmacy supervisors know that next week is when they will be laying off technicians. I have not heard any specific numbers but am certain that it will occur.

By the way, I am in northern Texas.
Click to expand...

rxlea said:
Same is happening here in Phoenix. They are going to lay off some people. I just talked to one of our pharmacists this morning about it...she works here full-time but picks up shifts here and there at Wags. She said it is not going to be good for retail...
Click to expand...

Is this in markets that have already cut hours? We cut like 80 hrs from our tech time within the last few weeks. I'll LOL if they think they can manage our store on any less tech hours than we currently have.
 
walgreens doesnt care. they only care about the short term profits from salary cuts.
 
Yea, pharm techs have been laid off here in Orlando, as well as many more seeing their hours cut. As for pharmacists, we have had district/corporate people come in to "monitor" our pharmacies and take notes. Basically they were looking at how our pharmacies are operating(volume, staff, etc) and are most likely using that info to make decisions about further downsizing and so forth. As of right now things don't look so stellar, but I still have some hope that things will rebound/improve. But, retail is changing and it may never be the same.
 
joetrisman said:
Is this in markets that have already cut hours? We cut like 80 hrs from our tech time within the last few weeks. I'll LOL if they think they can manage our store on any less tech hours than we currently have.
Click to expand...

Yeah, budget cuts happened a couple of weeks ago. In fact, most techs have to take 1 hour lunches. I looked at my schedule for next week and I am working four hour shifts for four days. That sucks but at least I still have a job as an intern.
 
It is sad when most of the job market for pharmacists is determined by a few major companies... While they downsize, more and more schools are still opening. Unfortunately all the schools started opening up right before the bubble burst in the economy.
 
FruitFly said:
It is sad when most of the job market for pharmacists is determined by a few major companies... While they downsize, more and more schools are still opening. Unfortunately all the schools started opening up right before the bubble burst in the economy.
Click to expand...
That's a problem for the students attending those schools and the families supporting them.

The schools have nothing to worry about. The students will keep paying, because they're at the 'point of no return', the lenders will keep loaning, and the employment companies will keep benefiting from a surplus.

So... lets have a Kumbaya for the students! +pity+
 
FruitFly said:
It is sad when most of the job market for pharmacists is determined by a few major companies... While they downsize, more and more schools are still opening. Unfortunately all the schools started opening up right before the bubble burst in the economy.
Click to expand...

Forget downsizing... lets talk about mergers.. CVS + Longs, Walgreens + Duane Reade, Eckers... etc.

In the city where Duane Reade was a major employer, Walgreen taking over Duane Reade was a diaster for the job market. I see new graduates begging for jobs now..
 
Aznfarmerboi said:
Forget downsizing... lets talk about mergers.. CVS + Longs, Walgreens + Duane Reade, Eckers... etc.

In the city where Duane Reade was a major employer, Walgreen taking over Duane Reade was a diaster for the job market. I see new graduates begging for jobs now..
Click to expand...

Yep. I can't believe Duane Reade got taken over. 🙁
 
IrishHammer said:
The greatest band ever to never have a number one hit.
Click to expand...

No, that band is REM if you're referring to the singles chart. :laugh:

I have never worked at Walgreens, and I would go to work at McDonald's before I chose either "W" monster (the other one being Walmart, if you couldn't figure that out).
 
My store will undergo its CCR conversion in mid-August. It is going to be interesting. We're one of the first for our market.
 
MountainPharmD said:
CCR = Make the store look more like CVS. I am not kidding. Once a Walgreens has gone to CCR you will not be able to tell the difference between the two.
Click to expand...

That was what everyone around here kept saying prior to our conversion, but I have to say that I don't think our store looks much like CVS now. I walked through a couple CVS stores around here just to compare, and they are quite different from ours. We were all expecting such a dramatic change, but the change was far less extreme than we expected.
 
Pharfalle said:
That was what everyone around here kept saying prior to our conversion, but I have to say that I don't think our store looks much like CVS now. I walked through a couple CVS stores around here just to compare, and they are quite different from ours. We were all expecting such a dramatic change, but the change was far less extreme than we expected.
Click to expand...

Wait and see. Walgreens hired people away from CVS to revamp their operation. The over all look is very CVS. Low shelving, better lighting, clearer signage. As you know they are also cutting down on the number of iems they carry. Something like 50,000 down to 15,000. The idea is to make every single Walgreens store look exactly the same to include the same itmes on the same shelf. Which is exactly how CVS is set up. I am not saying there is anything wrong with it.
 
mmm... hate to break it to y'all....but for rest of the world, CVS, RiteAid, and Wags all kinda look the same inside out.. it certainly look the same to me...in fact I don't even see those stores as Wags, CVS, RiteAid...I just see them as pharmacy....
 
Its Z said:
mmm... hate to break it to y'all....but for rest of the world, CVS, RiteAid, and Wags all kinda look the same inside out.. it certainly look the same to me...in fact I don't even see those stores as Wags, CVS, RiteAid...I just see them as pharmacy....
Click to expand...

I agree with you. There may be differences in layout that only employees or very regular shoppers will notice for the most part. I am actively seeking to get out of retail, and hopefully all retail stores will look the same to me too in the near future. I won't be shopping at any of them if I can somehow break free.
 
Its Z said:
mmm... hate to break it to y'all....but for rest of the world, CVS, RiteAid, and Wags all kinda look the same inside out.. it certainly look the same to me...in fact I don't even see those stores as Wags, CVS, RiteAid...I just see them as pharmacy....
Click to expand...

^This is the same guy who thought the Big 12 was a legitimate football conference. His opinions are suspect. :meanie:
 
are u freakin kidding me!!!!!! u deserve a 3 year ban !!!

Im an Aggie and we suck at football!
 
Its Z said:
mmm... hate to break it to y'all....but for rest of the world, CVS, RiteAid, and Wags all kinda look the same inside out.. it certainly look the same to me...in fact I don't even see those stores as Wags, CVS, RiteAid...I just see them as pharmacy....
Click to expand...

Are you crazy? CVS is by far the "classiest" looking with nearly zero diversity of items... Walgreens has crap piled to the ceiling on the shelves with random hanging t-shirts/etc. junking up the place, making the aisles look like tunnels, while Rite Aid varies from location to location but generally does a superb job of making sure they have nothing you are looking for, at all. It's like comparing D&B to Applebees to Hardees b/c they all serve food.
 
StevePerry said:
Are you crazy? CVS is by far the "classiest" looking with nearly zero diversity of items... Walgreens has crap piled to the ceiling on the shelves with random hanging t-shirts/etc. junking up the place, making the aisles look like tunnels, while Rite Aid varies from location to location but generally does a superb job of making sure they have nothing you are looking for, at all. It's like comparing D&B to Applebees to Hardees b/c they all serve food.
Click to expand...


Dude..

c'mon..
 
StevePerry said:
Are you crazy? CVS is by far the "classiest" looking with nearly zero diversity of items... Walgreens has crap piled to the ceiling on the shelves with random hanging t-shirts/etc. junking up the place, making the aisles look like tunnels, while Rite Aid varies from location to location but generally does a superb job of making sure they have nothing you are looking for, at all. It's like comparing D&B to Applebees to Hardees b/c they all serve food.
Click to expand...


When I worked for a grocery store we did a MAJOR remodel. I mean all the depts (meat, deli, etc) moved around, grocery shelving was changed, signage was changed, registers changed, lighting was changed, new floors, etc. For a few weeks all our regulars would compliment the new look. You wouldn't believe the number of people when asked if they liked the new look they would respond with something like, "What, did you change something?" :laugh:

My point is except for industry insiders and some very regular customers, most people don't notice as much as we think they do. I mean, don't all gas stations look the same?
 
aboveliquidice said:
Analogies aren't the problem... Drinking the koolAid is - Just sayin'
Click to expand...

Referring to your Kool Aid remark, did you get the impression that I favored one of the "Big 3"? I thought I pointed out a flaw with each of them which leaves me perplexed as to which store's Kool Aid I've been drinking. My only point was it doesn't take an astute observer to tell major differences between the 3 as obviously each is meant to appeal to a different demographic.
 
Last edited:
owlegrad said:
When I worked for a grocery store we did a MAJOR remodel. I mean all the depts (meat, deli, etc) moved around, grocery shelving was changed, signage was changed, registers changed, lighting was changed, new floors, etc. For a few weeks all our regulars would compliment the new look. You wouldn't believe the number of people when asked if they liked the new look they would respond with something like, "What, did you change something?" :laugh:

My point is except for industry insiders and some very regular customers, most people don't notice as much as we think they do. I mean, don't all gas stations look the same?
Click to expand...

I disagree, with gas stations, I can tell the difference between a new one that has good food and product selection inside versus a sh---- old exxon station from the 70s with nothing but outdated candy bars and rubbers housed behind bulletproof glass. Same goes for grocery stores, I hate the ones that appeal to cheap people, but offer no selection and look run down. Apparently I'm the only picky prick on here compared to the rest of you.
 
StevePerry said:
Referring to your Kool Aid remark, did you get the impression that I favored one of the "Big 3"? I thought I pointed out a flaw with each of them which leaves me perplexed as to which store's Kool Aid I've been drinking. My only point was it doesn't take an astute observer to tell major differences between the 3 as obviously each is meant to appeal to a different demographic.
Click to expand...

It does take an astute observer though. You think an average joe can walk into a store and tell the difference between the "Big 3"? You are giving them to much credit. They are all basically the same.

As for gas stations what I meant was, can you tell the difference between say Racetrack and Mobil? I can't. They all look the same to me. Of course some are cleaner, nicer, etc. But I am referring to being able to tell the difference in company just by layout/presentation/etc. I can't, but I am sure gas station owners think there is a big difference between various stations.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

CetiAlphaFive
Walgreens CEO behind Walgreens cooler door SNAFU
Replies
4
Views
1K
CetiAlphaFive
CetiAlphaFive
P
CVS Layoffs
Replies
5
Views
3K
RxPreceptor
RxPreceptor
P
Walgreens Selling to Private Equity
Replies
5
Views
3K
projektreverb
P
P
Walgreens rxom
Replies
13
Views
4K
CetiAlphaFive
CetiAlphaFive
Lexington2012
Walgreens buying Rite Aid
Replies
1
Views
1K
WorthlessOxygen
WorthlessOxygen
Top