Just wondering if any other employees that work for Walgreens received a letter sent from a pharmacist to the CEO. She sent a copy to everyone in my district blasting him for there horrible work structure lol. If anyone wants a copy pm with your email address 😛 that took a lot of balls but of course he/she didn't sign their name
Walgreens Letter
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Yea i read that email. It was from a few weeks ago. Of course, corporate deleted it a couple hours later. There was a name attached to it if you check the sender's email. I'm sure they would be able to track it down. She nails everything though and she structured all her points intelligently without resorting to profanity. I respect that. I'm sure everyone at Walgreens shares the same opinion of the company right now.
Jim Plagakis posted a copy of the letter on his website a few weeks back. The formatting of the letter on the site is kind of weird, but it starts about half-way down with the Mr Wasson part.
http://www.jimplagakis.com/?p=5480
This lady is my hero. If I ever become disgruntled enough, I am definitely sending a letter like this trashing corporate to as many pharmacists in my company as possible.
http://www.jimplagakis.com/?p=5480
This lady is my hero. If I ever become disgruntled enough, I am definitely sending a letter like this trashing corporate to as many pharmacists in my company as possible.
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Yea, this needs to be posted:
This was sent to a lot of Walgreens email accounts today.
It addressed to the CEO. It is hitting the fan.
Mr. Wasson,
As one of your fellow pharmacists, a customer, and a shareholder, I am horrified by the direction Walgreens has taken under your poor leadership.
When he opened his first store, Charles Walgreen announced,""We believe in working, not waiting; in laughing, not weeping; in boosting, not knocking and in the pleasure of selling products."
That is no longer your philosophy. A good retail leader looks at both employees and customers and tries to make the partnership workable and profitable. Under your leadership, things have become progressively worse and there aredisturbing internal issues threatening the integrity of my company.
Your patients are not safe in your pharmacies. A five-year-old in Nashville was given the wrong medication in spite of the pharmacy manager earlier asking for more staffing to address the stress levels. Under your leadership, medication errors have killed four patients and cost shareholders more than $61,000,000 in verdicts against you.
Throughout it all, your staff is burned out and stretched to the limit except you and your board, sitting in comfortable chairs, calculating how many employees they can afford to lose or how many patients can leave or die before things get "serious."
Let me assure you that we cannot consistently, efficiently and effectively deliver prescriptions medications SAFELY under current conditions. And while your latest victim was curled on the floor of his shower, dying from a medication error, you rewarded yourself with a 36% raise.
That 36% raise also comes on top of Walgreens losing Express Scripts, Anthem, Caremark, and soon Medco, and others, costing shareholders over $6,000,000,000 in business. You are sadly willing to kiss off over billions of dollars because other companies will not cater to you. What arrogance!
In front of the cameras, you tell pharmacists that there is no quota, there is no pressure to rush through a prescription, but when the press leaves, the pressure comes out to up the volume. Dollars cannot get into the cashregister fast enough to suit you, and there is absolutely no thought to staffing needs, employee hours, or patient safety. Medication decisions are not being made by pharmacists, they are being made by non-pharmacist financial bean-counters. They take raw data and decide that two minutes is a safe amount of time to fill a prescription from data entry to pulling the correct medication and counting the pills to pharmacist checking and counseling the patient.
You are a pharmacist. Can you even pretend that two minutes is adequate time? When was the last time you actually set foot in a pharmacy, let alone worked in one? You have traded in your lab coat for a three-piece suit, wiped the dust off your feet, and never looked back to see how the company functions – or fails to function. Who are you serving? Are you serving the shareholders, who have suffered billions in lost business and wrongful death lawsuits?
Are you serving the staff, who are burned out beyond functioning?
Are you serving your customers, many who have survived medication errors – and some who have not? I met you once – and I am sure you have no recollection of that meeting. I was totally unimpressed with your lack of leadership. I asked a simple question and you responded that you would have to get back to me. The same is true for company meetings. You insist upon questions beyond provided in writing ahead of time. Has anyone ever gotten a straight answer from you without your handlers cuing the teleprompter? And how does someone run a company with absolutely no knowledge of it?
Please do not try to pass this off with some pre-worded answer about rewiring for growth. Anyone in business knows that successful growth means more customers and more employees, not round after round of employee cuts and customers taking their no-longer-accepted insurance plans to your competition. The Pharmacy That America Trusts is quickly turning into The Pharmacy That America Avoids.
You have brought the Walgreen family name down and have a moral obligation to resign. You have cost people their jobs, and you have put customers at risk. Let someone lead the company who can bring employee morale to higher levels, provide courteous service to customers, and grow the business as Mr. Walgreen intended, treating customers with decency and fairness, not passing off a cut-rate job, and treating employees the way you would want to be treated.
Sincerely,
Someone Who Cares
This was sent to a lot of Walgreens email accounts today.
It addressed to the CEO. It is hitting the fan.
Mr. Wasson,
As one of your fellow pharmacists, a customer, and a shareholder, I am horrified by the direction Walgreens has taken under your poor leadership.
When he opened his first store, Charles Walgreen announced,""We believe in working, not waiting; in laughing, not weeping; in boosting, not knocking and in the pleasure of selling products."
That is no longer your philosophy. A good retail leader looks at both employees and customers and tries to make the partnership workable and profitable. Under your leadership, things have become progressively worse and there aredisturbing internal issues threatening the integrity of my company.
Your patients are not safe in your pharmacies. A five-year-old in Nashville was given the wrong medication in spite of the pharmacy manager earlier asking for more staffing to address the stress levels. Under your leadership, medication errors have killed four patients and cost shareholders more than $61,000,000 in verdicts against you.
Throughout it all, your staff is burned out and stretched to the limit except you and your board, sitting in comfortable chairs, calculating how many employees they can afford to lose or how many patients can leave or die before things get "serious."
Let me assure you that we cannot consistently, efficiently and effectively deliver prescriptions medications SAFELY under current conditions. And while your latest victim was curled on the floor of his shower, dying from a medication error, you rewarded yourself with a 36% raise.
That 36% raise also comes on top of Walgreens losing Express Scripts, Anthem, Caremark, and soon Medco, and others, costing shareholders over $6,000,000,000 in business. You are sadly willing to kiss off over billions of dollars because other companies will not cater to you. What arrogance!
In front of the cameras, you tell pharmacists that there is no quota, there is no pressure to rush through a prescription, but when the press leaves, the pressure comes out to up the volume. Dollars cannot get into the cashregister fast enough to suit you, and there is absolutely no thought to staffing needs, employee hours, or patient safety. Medication decisions are not being made by pharmacists, they are being made by non-pharmacist financial bean-counters. They take raw data and decide that two minutes is a safe amount of time to fill a prescription from data entry to pulling the correct medication and counting the pills to pharmacist checking and counseling the patient.
You are a pharmacist. Can you even pretend that two minutes is adequate time? When was the last time you actually set foot in a pharmacy, let alone worked in one? You have traded in your lab coat for a three-piece suit, wiped the dust off your feet, and never looked back to see how the company functions – or fails to function. Who are you serving? Are you serving the shareholders, who have suffered billions in lost business and wrongful death lawsuits?
Are you serving the staff, who are burned out beyond functioning?
Are you serving your customers, many who have survived medication errors – and some who have not? I met you once – and I am sure you have no recollection of that meeting. I was totally unimpressed with your lack of leadership. I asked a simple question and you responded that you would have to get back to me. The same is true for company meetings. You insist upon questions beyond provided in writing ahead of time. Has anyone ever gotten a straight answer from you without your handlers cuing the teleprompter? And how does someone run a company with absolutely no knowledge of it?
Please do not try to pass this off with some pre-worded answer about rewiring for growth. Anyone in business knows that successful growth means more customers and more employees, not round after round of employee cuts and customers taking their no-longer-accepted insurance plans to your competition. The Pharmacy That America Trusts is quickly turning into The Pharmacy That America Avoids.
You have brought the Walgreen family name down and have a moral obligation to resign. You have cost people their jobs, and you have put customers at risk. Let someone lead the company who can bring employee morale to higher levels, provide courteous service to customers, and grow the business as Mr. Walgreen intended, treating customers with decency and fairness, not passing off a cut-rate job, and treating employees the way you would want to be treated.
Sincerely,
Someone Who Cares
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Awesome
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Ive said many times, cut my salary 25% and use it to hire more and better trained help. We could be significantly more productive and less stressed.
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I would think the majority of your colleagues would not say the same.
Though i agree with the idea of cutting salary to increase tech hours, i think 25 percent is too much. An 8 percent or 10 percent would make much sense .
How about cutting a tech and employing two pharmacists on double cover, say on a 9-6 shift for example one pharmacist could work 9-5 the other 10-6 and each have an unpaid lunch hour, that would be each pharmacist working 7 hours thus 14 in total over 9 as solo, therefore double cover for an increase of only five hours. Less stress, proper lunch hour, less errors, pharmacist always available as lunch hours staggered, more time to do the metrics, flu injections, better customer service etc
I would love to work these less hours, hell I'd even take a couple of bucks less an hour to have a less stressful environment. It wouldn't cost the companies that much to do if we got rid of a tech too.
Am I being stupid or am I being sensible 🙁
I would love to work these less hours, hell I'd even take a couple of bucks less an hour to have a less stressful environment. It wouldn't cost the companies that much to do if we got rid of a tech too.
Am I being stupid or am I being sensible 🙁
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Most chain stores don't have the volume to support two pharmacists for a 9-6 shift, typically a Saturday. An extra tech most days is what's mainly needed. A lot of times pharmacists are doing non-RPh tasks. If corporate wants us to do all these other value added services like immunizatuons, MTM, health testing, etc we need the support staff to step out and perform them. Otherwise, you just go back and you're even further behind. Keep in mind the one tech you probably do have is dealing with phones, drivethru, outwindow and typing. (Typically I'm filling in between counseling and verifying.) If I get tired of filling, I switch spots with the tech and make him fill while I cover the front. FWIW, we probably do about 125 to 150 on Saturdays. If you happen to have 2 techs, you're probably doing over 200+. If you have 3 techs, you're probably at a 24 hour store cranking out 350-400. Everything is relative. We all bust our humps, regardless of the volume.
When you say "tech," are you including someone running the register too? For a 9 hour shift, having only one pharmacist and one tech to do 150+ is very busy. Especially since the tech is a non-exempt employee and will need to take a lunch break for working 9 hours, meaning the pharmacist works alone for a while.
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That would be correct. Change the sign on the door and it's probably the same everywhere else.
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Try to send tech when it "slows" down. However, **** can hit the fan real quick if probs persist. If people are dropping of new ones, I try to tell them default wait time (hour and a half) , unless it's for a crying baby someone from ER who is obviously in pain. I try to get those out pretty quick even if by myself. If there's a problem with insurance and a phone call needs to be made, I apologize and politely tell pt that I currently have no one to call and if we can get their number and can call back when resolved. Almost all are very understanding when they see I'm literally by myself.We have good support from store management to come back and help run register if we get in a pickle. I also try to let work load balancing help me out (I'll type and hope another store data reviews, if not I'll get to it when tech gets back from lunch for nonwaiters). If i have to do an immunization by myself, I "stall" so to speak to get them to fill out paperwork, etc in hopes that my tech will be back from lunch shortly. Otherwise, I page management to come back to "cover" the pharmacy while I provide immunization (usually just a minute since I prescreen VAR and draw up syringe before I administer). It's not fun, but unfortunately the reality. No, I don't rush anything. I've been a pharmacist for 16 years, so I've become quite efficient.
i don't think you get it, I'm saying double cover won't cost double the money, both pharmacists will get adequate breaks, time to do metrics, better customer service, less stress etc etc I'm saying you can get double cover on a nine hour shift for the addition of only five hours. Get rid of the tech and it almost cost neutral and lets face it the pharmacist does most of the tech work these days anyway. Having to pairs of pharmacists eyes and hands is going to make things a whole less stressful and have a relaxing 1 hour break.
Or maybe you are just a sadist and like running around busting yourself all day and putting yourself at risk of making a major dispensing error!!!!
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Show us the math again how this is close to cost neutral when pharmacist hourly pay rate is approximately 4x pharmacy techs?
Yeah your right, dunno where I got my figures lol. Still wouldn't cost anywhere near double to employ two pharmacists and you would get a continuous, seamless service to customers. They could also knock a few bucks off the hourly rate too.
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Yeah cuz only Walgreens does this. Other retail chains are so much better. Replace walgreens with any other pharmacy chain and this letter will still be applicable (minus the specifics).
Okay, so 80 hour/wk store, 12hr M-F, 10hr on weekends. Two pharmacists, 40 hours each, 80 pharmacist hours.
Your new idea: rph1 works 9-5, rph 2 1-9. 12 hours in the day, 16 pharmacist hours used, x5 days, 80 pharmacist hours. We haven't hit the weekend yet, and we've already consumed our 80 hours. We need at minimum 20 hours of single coverage, and even more for your proposed overlap. Oh, and this schedule also has pharmacists working 7 days a week, no days off
Okay, so 80 hour/wk store, 12hr M-F, 10hr on weekends. Two pharmacists, 40 hours each, 80 pharmacist hours.
Your new idea: rph1 works 9-5, rph 2 1-9. 12 hours in the day, 16 pharmacist hours used, x5 days, 80 pharmacist hours. We haven't hit the weekend yet, and we've already consumed our 80 hours. We need at minimum 20 hours of single coverage, and even more for your proposed overlap. Oh, and this schedule also has pharmacists working 7 days a week, no days off
For 80hrs a week store you would need to pharmacists anyway *******. Make it' at least three or 3.5 with overlap for breaks, knock a few $$$$'s off an hour and dump a tech, then we have a ballpark figure
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I can only see it working by drastically cutting the pharmacist rate:For 80hrs a week store you would need to pharmacists anyway *******. Make it' at least three or 3.5 with overlap for breaks, knock a few $$$$'s off an hour and dump a tech, then we have a ballpark figure
2 RPh x 40 x $55 = $4400
2 Techs x 40 x $12 = $960
= $5360
3 RPh x 40 x $41 = $4920
1 Tech x 40 x $12 = $480
= $5400
😕
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A pharmacist does most of the tech work? In what world do you live in?
Unfortunately it is true. A pharmacist at walgreens has to do most of the tech work. when you only have one tech with 31 hours every week and you do about 150 scripts a day, you have to do tech hours. I do smart count, post cardinal, delete, 7 days call list, cashier, tpr, and wcb. so it is true nowaday a pharmacist does lot of tech work.
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150 scripts per day with 31 tech hours per week?!
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150 scripts a day should get you around 70+ tech hours. The store I'm at now does about 170/day and have 80 tech hours to spread around.
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Never seen that at any of the WAG stores I've worked at in this area. The tech hours are low, but not that low.
The store where I work is like this. During the week we have a tech for about 8 hours out of 12, and on the weekend we only have help for 4 hours on Saturday and none on Sunday. The pharmacist is expected to do it all. I am used it by now and have no problem with it. I love my job and my customers love me.
On one of my long day, my only tech called off. I had to do everything by myself, and it was a warehouse day. had to put all drugs away , post cardinal , delete, and so on. i did about 140 that day
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Unfortunately this is reality, many of the WAG stores in South Florida are running below bare bone tech hours per week and still averaging 150+ a day script counts. God forbid a tech/Intern calls out, the RPh is completely screwed trying to do ALL the work plus playing cashier and drive-thru slave. I've covered shifts in stores where I have left feeling like I went 12 rounds with Mayweather. It's crazy.
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Why in the world don't you guys try finding a smaller volume environment to work for....like Target, Meijer, or Kroger. I work for Kroger and I get ~ 50 tech hours for an average volume of 500 - 550 scripts per week, and I could probably actually schedule around 53. I schedule the tech during the busiest times and let the RPh work alone at night when it's dead and on Sundays. Works out pretty well.
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I reckon we gots some fuzzzzzy math goin' on down here.
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That's crazy, the WAGs around here that average that volume have at least 20-25 more tech hours a week than that.
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+1
All our stores in this area that I've worked at recently are running on skeleton crews making it your worst shift ever, every shift.
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I called a Wags on a Monday morning for a copy and the pharmacist got smart with me. I snapped back (which I usually don't, seriously) and he apologized and said he was working by himself with no tech.
Same thing in my district and my store. Our average is 140/day and we only have 31 tech hours. It's hell when tech calls out 🙁. They keep adding crap for us to do such as pt adherence calls, daily delete calls list, md detailing, mtm, and vaccines. Every store in the district is an immunization center. When we answer the phone, we have to say: Thank you for calling wags and immunization center, how can I help you?
I will be honest with you, if my tech calls out, I do what I can, but im not going to kill myself to get every last thing done. If your help calls out, you do what you can. If you cant finish, then big deal. They cant expect you to do everything solo.
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Long time, no posts. Pharmacy school, heh 😀
I'm glad this is my 1st one back. I'm glad to see that someone leaked this email out (although it was fair game, since there were no copyright remarks underneath the email.) It really carried the emotion of those employees who share the same sentiments as the sender, and there are quite a few of us who do want to see Walgreens do well. I've been an WAG employee since 2004. There are parts of it I love; on the contrary, there are parts I would like to see fixed, but of course, things that need fixing cost money (even cutting store inventory initially costs money.)
Imagine my surprise when a couple pharmacists at different stores showed me this email about an article, sent to all the districts after 6/29, countering the email pleading to Mr. Wasson (previously posted, on the subject to give a damn about this company or leave.) I'm sure those who are WAG employees might have seen this already, but for our fellow men and women in pharmacy.
The article is at this website:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/06/29/this-is-1-incredible-ceo.aspx
However, I will copy+paste the article below (if the link is removed):
This Is 1 Incredible CEO
Sean Williams
June 29, 2012
The Motley Fool readers have spoken, and I have heeded your cries. After months of pointing out CEO gaffes and faux pas, I've decided to make it a weekly tradition to also point out corporate leaders who are putting shareholder interests and those of the public first and are generally deserving of kudos from investors. For reference, here is last week's selection.
This week, we'll take a closer look at how CEO Gregory Wasson of Walgreen (NYSE: WAG ) has waded through a sea of bad news yet still continues to deliver for both shareholders and the American workforce.
Kudos to you, Mr. Wasson
Go ahead and scratch your head, because that's going to be the initial reaction for most investors who are familiar with Walgreen and its recently ended spat with pharmacy-benefit-management services company Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX ) .
Express Scripts sued Walgreen over breach of contract last year for purportedly disparaging the company and attempting to lessen the amount of new enrollees in Express Scripts' network. Although Express Scripts dropped the suit in early June, the damage has been done. Millions of consumers within Express Scripts' network have been forced to find new prescription homes with CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS ) and Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD ) , both of which have recently noted pharmacy growth thanks to the Walgreen-Express Scripts dispute.
Despite all of this, Walgreen still has a solid plan to grow its business, a plan to reward shareholders for the patience, and a way to get America moving again.
Walgreen's plan to boost growth once again was outlined last week when it formed a strategic partnership with Alliance Boots to become the world's first pharmacy-driven health and well-being retailer, as well as a large purchaser of prescription medicines. Wall Street might be iffy about this deal's prospects, but given managements' insistence that cost synergies would run $100 million-$150 million and earnings would be accretive by $0.23-$0.27 within the first year, I'd say I'm sold on its success. This deal has the potential to invigorate growth beyond what it lost from Express Scripts with promises of $1 billion in cost synergies by 2016.
A step above his peers
But I'm not done! Not only does Mr. Wasson have a plan to get Walgreen back on track, but he plans to boost shareholder morale by putting more money in their pockets yet again. Considering the exodus of Express Scripts customers, Walgreen could very easily have maintained its dividend and conserved its cash. Instead, Walgreen raised its dividend by 22% to $0.275 quarterly, marking the fourth major dividend increase in just the past three years. Just take a look at this nearly exponential dividend growth in recent years:
Source: Dividata. *Estimated payments assuming $0.275 quarterly payout.
Houston, we are go for rewarding our shareholders! Walgreen has now raised its dividend for 37 consecutive years and has made it evident that rewarding shareholders with a payout ratio of 30% to 35% of its earnings is part of its growth plans. Walgreen's new yield of 3.7% absolutely trounces its peers'. CVS yields only 1.4%, Rite Aid is too busy trying to dig its way out of nearly $6 billion in net debt to worry about rewarding its shareholders with a dividend, and even consumer do-it-all Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) , whose low-cost pharmacy business is a primary stop for low-to-moderate income families, only offers a yield of 2.4%.
Two thumbs-up
Finally, with unemployment figures running above 8% and employment growth slowing, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Walgreen reducing its staff to conserve money. Oh how wrong I would have been. Although Walgreen has seen sporadic layoffs in Florida, its new store additions in Chicago that added 600 jobs in 2011 more than offset the jobs it has jettisoned recently. Add Walgreen to the list of employers helping to put America back to work.
Wasson may be unpopular given that Walgreen's stock is near a new 52-week low, but he has a plan to get Walgreen growing again, has more than enough cash to reward shareholders for sticking around, and is putting Americans back to work. I'd call that a resounding two thumbs-up to you Mr. Wasson.
Do you have a CEO you'd like to nominate for this prestigious weekly honor? Shoot me an email and a one- or two-sentence description of why your choice deserves next week's nomination, and you just might see your nominee in the spotlight.
Here at the Fool, we love management teams that have strong track records of rewarding their shareholders, which is why I invite you to download a copy of our latest special report, "Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks." This report contains a wide array of companies and sectors that are likely to keep your best interests in mind, just like Walgreen, whether the market is up or down. Best of all, it's completely free for a limited time, so don't miss out!
I'm glad this is my 1st one back. I'm glad to see that someone leaked this email out (although it was fair game, since there were no copyright remarks underneath the email.) It really carried the emotion of those employees who share the same sentiments as the sender, and there are quite a few of us who do want to see Walgreens do well. I've been an WAG employee since 2004. There are parts of it I love; on the contrary, there are parts I would like to see fixed, but of course, things that need fixing cost money (even cutting store inventory initially costs money.)
Imagine my surprise when a couple pharmacists at different stores showed me this email about an article, sent to all the districts after 6/29, countering the email pleading to Mr. Wasson (previously posted, on the subject to give a damn about this company or leave.) I'm sure those who are WAG employees might have seen this already, but for our fellow men and women in pharmacy.
The article is at this website:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/06/29/this-is-1-incredible-ceo.aspx
However, I will copy+paste the article below (if the link is removed):
This Is 1 Incredible CEO
Sean Williams
June 29, 2012
The Motley Fool readers have spoken, and I have heeded your cries. After months of pointing out CEO gaffes and faux pas, I've decided to make it a weekly tradition to also point out corporate leaders who are putting shareholder interests and those of the public first and are generally deserving of kudos from investors. For reference, here is last week's selection.
This week, we'll take a closer look at how CEO Gregory Wasson of Walgreen (NYSE: WAG ) has waded through a sea of bad news yet still continues to deliver for both shareholders and the American workforce.
Kudos to you, Mr. Wasson
Go ahead and scratch your head, because that's going to be the initial reaction for most investors who are familiar with Walgreen and its recently ended spat with pharmacy-benefit-management services company Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX ) .
Express Scripts sued Walgreen over breach of contract last year for purportedly disparaging the company and attempting to lessen the amount of new enrollees in Express Scripts' network. Although Express Scripts dropped the suit in early June, the damage has been done. Millions of consumers within Express Scripts' network have been forced to find new prescription homes with CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS ) and Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD ) , both of which have recently noted pharmacy growth thanks to the Walgreen-Express Scripts dispute.
Despite all of this, Walgreen still has a solid plan to grow its business, a plan to reward shareholders for the patience, and a way to get America moving again.
Walgreen's plan to boost growth once again was outlined last week when it formed a strategic partnership with Alliance Boots to become the world's first pharmacy-driven health and well-being retailer, as well as a large purchaser of prescription medicines. Wall Street might be iffy about this deal's prospects, but given managements' insistence that cost synergies would run $100 million-$150 million and earnings would be accretive by $0.23-$0.27 within the first year, I'd say I'm sold on its success. This deal has the potential to invigorate growth beyond what it lost from Express Scripts with promises of $1 billion in cost synergies by 2016.
A step above his peers
But I'm not done! Not only does Mr. Wasson have a plan to get Walgreen back on track, but he plans to boost shareholder morale by putting more money in their pockets yet again. Considering the exodus of Express Scripts customers, Walgreen could very easily have maintained its dividend and conserved its cash. Instead, Walgreen raised its dividend by 22% to $0.275 quarterly, marking the fourth major dividend increase in just the past three years. Just take a look at this nearly exponential dividend growth in recent years:
Source: Dividata. *Estimated payments assuming $0.275 quarterly payout.
Houston, we are go for rewarding our shareholders! Walgreen has now raised its dividend for 37 consecutive years and has made it evident that rewarding shareholders with a payout ratio of 30% to 35% of its earnings is part of its growth plans. Walgreen's new yield of 3.7% absolutely trounces its peers'. CVS yields only 1.4%, Rite Aid is too busy trying to dig its way out of nearly $6 billion in net debt to worry about rewarding its shareholders with a dividend, and even consumer do-it-all Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) , whose low-cost pharmacy business is a primary stop for low-to-moderate income families, only offers a yield of 2.4%.
Two thumbs-up
Finally, with unemployment figures running above 8% and employment growth slowing, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Walgreen reducing its staff to conserve money. Oh how wrong I would have been. Although Walgreen has seen sporadic layoffs in Florida, its new store additions in Chicago that added 600 jobs in 2011 more than offset the jobs it has jettisoned recently. Add Walgreen to the list of employers helping to put America back to work.
Wasson may be unpopular given that Walgreen's stock is near a new 52-week low, but he has a plan to get Walgreen growing again, has more than enough cash to reward shareholders for sticking around, and is putting Americans back to work. I'd call that a resounding two thumbs-up to you Mr. Wasson.
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- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Messages
- 350
- Reaction score
- 205
TPS report is from Office Space. If you haven't seen it, it's a must see!
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Messages
- 350
- Reaction score
- 205
No, we are not a power store... I used to float in a different district and I noticed that too. When we asked for more tech hours, they said it's impossible and blah blah blah....
Are you serious...a 30% decrease in share price doesn't get offset by a few cents in dividend increase. How about you give me 100$...I'll give you 70$ back...and I promise to increase your allowance(that you've been getting since before Wasson) by 20cents this year so you can go brag to your friends that you got 20 more cents...
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2011
- Messages
- 54
- Reaction score
- 0
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2011
- Messages
- 2,892
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Where's my pitchfork at? Man, just when I need it...
