Kroger returns eligibility for Express Scripts holders

[SamSpade]

Kroger family of stores will again be accepting "Express Scripts."
They stopped in 2022.

My employer plan used E.S. until this year. I already prefer the new provider, even with only needing one basic maintenance medication.

[storewanderer]

Kroger family of stores will again be accepting "Express Scripts."
They stopped in 2022.

My employer plan used E.S. until this year. I already prefer the new provider, even with only needing one basic maintenance medication.

A lot of people will be very happy about this who left Kroger Pharmacy against their will, due to the Express Scripts issue.

Kroger will need to increase staffing as they will get a lot of new customers, especially in some markets.

[Alpha8472]

Kroger family of stores will again be accepting "Express Scripts."
They stopped in 2022.

My employer plan used E.S. until this year. I already prefer the new provider, even with only needing one basic maintenance medication.

A lot of people will be very happy about this who left Kroger Pharmacy against their will, due to the Express Scripts issue.

Kroger will need to increase staffing as they will get a lot of new customers, especially in some markets.

This will impact Walgreens and CVS. Many customers want to leave those two chains due to terrible customer service due to understaffing. Kroger has always been about good customer service and better staffing. Customers are sick and tired of being herded like cattle at places like Walgreens or CVS.

[storewanderer]

Kroger family of stores will again be accepting "Express Scripts."
They stopped in 2022.

My employer plan used E.S. until this year. I already prefer the new provider, even with only needing one basic maintenance medication.

A lot of people will be very happy about this who left Kroger Pharmacy against their will, due to the Express Scripts issue.

Kroger will need to increase staffing as they will get a lot of new customers, especially in some markets.

This will impact Walgreens and CVS. Many customers want to leave those two chains due to terrible customer service due to understaffing. Kroger has always been about good customer service and better staffing. Customers are sick and tired of being herded like cattle at places like Walgreens or CVS.

I wonder if this is driving some of the store closure decisions Walgreens and CVS are making. They had to have known about this.

There are a couple Walgreens I am watching in my area that I am expecting to close. Both are in close proximity to Smiths. One closure makes sense (they can move the prescriptions to another Walgreens not too far away and the store doesn't do well and is older), the other closure would be a very dumb move (store doesn't do well, but is in a high growth area, and no other Walgreens close enough to move the prescriptions to).

[midwesterner]

A lot of people will be very happy about this who left Kroger Pharmacy against their will, due to the Express Scripts issue.

Kroger will need to increase staffing as they will get a lot of new customers, especially in some markets.

This will impact Walgreens and CVS. Many customers want to leave those two chains due to terrible customer service due to understaffing. Kroger has always been about good customer service and better staffing. Customers are sick and tired of being herded like cattle at places like Walgreens or CVS.

I wonder if this is driving some of the store closure decisions Walgreens and CVS are making. They had to have known about this.

There are a couple Walgreens I am watching in my area that I am expecting to close. Both are in close proximity to Smiths. One closure makes sense (they can move the prescriptions to another Walgreens not too far away and the store doesn't do well and is older), the other closure would be a very dumb move (store doesn't do well, but is in a high growth area, and no other Walgreens close enough to move the prescriptions to).

One of the challenges that Walgreens and CVS have is that they seem to be filling a higher percentage of "acute" prescriptions, at least in my neck of the woods, which tend to come from ER or Urgent Care visits. I think this has a lot to do with the hours that their pharmacies run. Kroger pharmacies don't have great weekend hours or stay open super late on weekdays. Acute prescriptions are money losers for a lot of pharmacies (think antibiotics and short courses of pain meds). I think with the closures of chain pharmacies a lot of hospitals will have to consider how to deal with prescriptions for patients at odd hours and consider their own limited retail operations. It's shocking how you had Walgreens and CVS both running numerous 24/7 pharmacies a couple decades ago in most markets and now how hard it is to find an actual 24/7 pharmacy, even in large cities.

[storewanderer]

This will impact Walgreens and CVS. Many customers want to leave those two chains due to terrible customer service due to understaffing. Kroger has always been about good customer service and better staffing. Customers are sick and tired of being herded like cattle at places like Walgreens or CVS.

I wonder if this is driving some of the store closure decisions Walgreens and CVS are making. They had to have known about this.

There are a couple Walgreens I am watching in my area that I am expecting to close. Both are in close proximity to Smiths. One closure makes sense (they can move the prescriptions to another Walgreens not too far away and the store doesn't do well and is older), the other closure would be a very dumb move (store doesn't do well, but is in a high growth area, and no other Walgreens close enough to move the prescriptions to).

One of the challenges that Walgreens and CVS have is that they seem to be filling a higher percentage of "acute" prescriptions, at least in my neck of the woods, which tend to come from ER or Urgent Care visits. I think this has a lot to do with the hours that their pharmacies run. Kroger pharmacies don't have great weekend hours or stay open super late on weekdays. Acute prescriptions are money losers for a lot of pharmacies (think antibiotics and short courses of pain meds). I think with the closures of chain pharmacies a lot of hospitals will have to consider how to deal with prescriptions for patients at odd hours and consider their own limited retail operations. It's shocking how you had Walgreens and CVS both running numerous 24/7 pharmacies a couple decades ago in most markets and now how hard it is to find an actual 24/7 pharmacy, even in large cities.

Walgreens and CVS close pharmacies quite early in my market. Especially CVS. Some CVS close as early as 6 PM on weeknights. Walgreens seems to try to stay open later.

Smiths and Safeway both keep pharmacy open until 8 PM on weeknights.

For instance right now here in Reno for CVS pharmacy closing today (Monday):

8005 S. Virginia St. (former Rite Aid) closed at 5 PM
Target, 3360 S. McCarran, 5019 S. McCarran, 1250 W. 7th, 1081 Steamboat, all close at 6 PM
1119 California, close at 7 PM
1695 Robb (RA), 299 E. Plumb, 170 Lemmon, 2890 Northtowne, close at 8 PM
55 Damonte Ranch, close at 9 PM (in intense competition with Walgreens across the street I suppose)

Not a lot of rhyme or reason to their hours. My suspicion is they want to consolidate business but 1081 Steamboat and 1119 California are actually two of their busiest stores here.

[HCal]

This will impact Walgreens and CVS. Many customers want to leave those two chains due to terrible customer service due to understaffing. Kroger has always been about good customer service and better staffing. Customers are sick and tired of being herded like cattle at places like Walgreens or CVS.

Does Kroger actually have better staffing, or just fewer customers?

I don't know about other divisions, but many Ralphs pharmacies seem to get just a trickle of customers. One employee can easily handle it.

[Alpha8472]

This will impact Walgreens and CVS. Many customers want to leave those two chains due to terrible customer service due to understaffing. Kroger has always been about good customer service and better staffing. Customers are sick and tired of being herded like cattle at places like Walgreens or CVS.

I wonder if this is driving some of the store closure decisions Walgreens and CVS are making. They had to have known about this.

There are a couple Walgreens I am watching in my area that I am expecting to close. Both are in close proximity to Smiths. One closure makes sense (they can move the prescriptions to another Walgreens not too far away and the store doesn't do well and is older), the other closure would be a very dumb move (store doesn't do well, but is in a high growth area, and no other Walgreens close enough to move the prescriptions to).

One of the challenges that Walgreens and CVS have is that they seem to be filling a higher percentage of "acute" prescriptions, at least in my neck of the woods, which tend to come from ER or Urgent Care visits. I think this has a lot to do with the hours that their pharmacies run. Kroger pharmacies don't have great weekend hours or stay open super late on weekdays. Acute prescriptions are money losers for a lot of pharmacies (think antibiotics and short courses of pain meds). I think with the closures of chain pharmacies a lot of hospitals will have to consider how to deal with prescriptions for patients at odd hours and consider their own limited retail operations. It's shocking how you had Walgreens and CVS both running numerous 24/7 pharmacies a couple decades ago in most markets and now how hard it is to find an actual 24/7 pharmacy, even in large cities.

Walgreens and CVS focuses on filling as many prescriptions as they can. What most people do not realize is that these cheap blood pressure and cheap diabetes medications are not very profitable. That is why Walmart has those $4 and $10 blood pressure and diabetes medications. You get cents in profits.

The real money is made on those several hundred dollar vaccinations. One vaccination is worth the profit of dozens of prescriptions.

Walgreens has 1 or 2 pharmacists at peak times. Then a single pharmacist early in the day and later in the day. "I'm too busy to do a vaccination. Wait 25 minutes." The customer leaves. That is a loss of a few vaccinations. That could be thousands of dollars in profit.

Meanwhile at Kroger, any of the 2 pharmacists are less busy and can give the vaccinations right away. Kroger spent a little more in labor, but made thousands in profit.

Meanwhile Walgreens is juggling hundreds of prescriptions and lines 20 minutes long. Kroger is better staffed, the phones are answered promptly, and profits are up. At Walgreens, you can get put on hold for an hour or more just to speak to someone at the pharmacy. Walgreens wants you to just use the Walgreens app or go into the pharmacy and wait in a long line to speak to a person.

Better customer service creates loyalty and return customers. Walgreens doesn't care about customers waiting a long time to talk to an employee or getting vaccinations.

[caleb737]

I am pleased that Kroger decided to resume accepting digital coupon programs. Having additional options is always appreciated although you currently are satisfied with your present choice.

[wyoretailman]

This affected many of its employees in Colorado at King Soppers and City Market. This was because the prescription coverage offered through their union UFCW7 was Express Scripts. These employees could still use their insurance at Safeway or Albertsons though. The union switched over to OptumRx a year or so after Krogger dropped Express Scripts.