What the hell happened to Walgreens, attempt two.

[Missourian]

I like Walgreens. They seem to have good prices. My local store is always clean and the employees are friendly and helpful.

So perhaps one of you who is more savvy than I am in the arena of corporate stock pricing will help me understand what is going on with Walgreens stock price collapse.

 

[odanny]

At that price I might have to purchase some shares, will be watching this.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

My cheerful opposite, a business culture expert, says that the Covid create a huge wasteland in lost quality customer care as they replaced so many staff boomers who just say, "It's over there."

 

[Harpy Eagle]

I like Walgreens. They seem to have good prices. My local store is always clean and the employees are friendly and helpful.

So perhaps one of you who is more savvy than I am in the arena of corporate stock pricing will help me understand what is going on with Walgreens stock price collapse.

Three words...mail order pharmacy.

I am not sure about your insurance, but mine requires we use Express Scripts for all but emergency prescriptions. I can get up to 2 via the local pharmacy and then they will no longer cover it. I have to get them via the mail.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

They also over extended, too many stores in the same area.

I literally have 6 WalGreens within a 15 mile radius of me

 

[Missourian]

Three words...mail order pharmacy.

I am not sure about your insurance, but mine requires we use Express Scripts for all but emergency prescriptions. I can get up to 2 via the local pharmacy and then they will no longer cover it. I have to get them via the mail.

That makes sense.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

That makes sense.

My son is a Type-1 diabetic. When he was first diagnosed we got everything from the local pharmacy. now we get nothing from them.

 

[odanny]

Walgreens missed their earnings in 2 of the last 4 qtrs, but that is kind of misleading, because both times they barely missed and one of the qtrs they crushed it and almost doubled the expectation.

I really think this is a great buy and hold, consider their stock price now and compare it to CVS at $59.

Clearly the upfront costs of closing down stores in shithole neighborhoods, to the amount of "shrinkage" they are experiencing, is having a terrible effect on earnings.

Walgreens will at least pull even to CVS in the future. I'll probably pick some up myself sometime soon.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Three words...mail order pharmacy.

I am not sure about your insurance, but mine requires we use Express Scripts for all but emergency prescriptions. I can get up to 2 via the local pharmacy and then they will no longer cover it. I have to get them via the mail.

Our insurance requires CVS. Well, they don't actually prohibit you from using CVS, but not doing so will cost you 20% more at least.
Walgreens here is absolutely horrible. Constantly understaffed.
When my wife had a different job, that insurance company required Walgreens.
It was a year of living hell.

 

[Care4all]

Walgreens was awesome, but since covid, it is very understaffed in the pharmacy, and they are the preferred pharmacy for my insurance, and there is not another pharmacy for 15 miles.... They can't get pharmacists...our pharmacy is now only opened Monday thru Friday 10am to 6pm, and closed Saturday and Sunday, closed between 1 pm and 2pm for lunch on week days that are open....

It's terrible now.... I'm guessing that there are no pharmacists wanting to live the laid back country life around here??

It's still a nice and clean store....

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Walgreens was awesome, but since covid, it is very understaffed in the pharmacy, and they are the preferred pharmacy for my insurance, and there is not another pharmacy for 15 miles.... They can't get pharmacists...our pharmacy is now only opened Monday thru Friday 10am to 6pm, and closed Saturday and Sunday, closed between 1 pm and 2pm for lunch on week days that are open....

It's terrible now.... I'm guessing that there are no pharmacists wanting to live the laid back country life around here??

It's still a nice and clean store....

That pretty much sums it up here as well.
CVS right across the street, the pharmacy is well staffed and the pharmacy is open 7 days a week from 7am - 10pm.
The Walgreens here, pharmacy has the same hours as yours. But may be closed anyway if they have no one to staff it. It is absolutely terrible. We were very happy when our insurance switched from them to CVS.

 

[odanny]

Walgreens here is absolutely horrible. Constantly understaffed.

My Walgreens pharmacy was closing unexpectedly and has now changed their hours to closing at 6:00 PM and is also closed weekends because they can't find people to staff it 7 days a week. It's likely a nationwide problem.

Edit: I see the same thing is happening in Maine.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Albertons, Kroger's, Smith's, Wal-Mart don't have that problem.,

 

[Missourian]

Walgreens missed their earnings in 2 of the last 4 qtrs, but that is kind of misleading, because both times they barely missed and one of the qtrs they crushed it and almost doubled the expectation.

I really think this is a great buy and hold, consider their stock price now and compare it to CVS at $59.

Clearly the upfront costs of closing down stores in shithole neighborhoods, to the amount of "shrinkage" they are experiencing, is having a terrible effect on earnings.

Walgreens will at least pull even to CVS in the future. I'll probably pick some up myself sometime soon.

Thanks for the insights, Danny.

 

[Missourian]

Walgreens was awesome, but since covid, it is very understaffed in the pharmacy, and they are the preferred pharmacy for my insurance, and there is not another pharmacy for 15 miles.... They can't get pharmacists...our pharmacy is now only opened Monday thru Friday 10am to 6pm, and closed Saturday and Sunday, closed between 1 pm and 2pm for lunch on week days that are open....

It's terrible now.... I'm guessing that there are no pharmacists wanting to live the laid back country life around here??

It's still a nice and clean store....

That's so weird. Our little town has six pharmacies plus Walmart.

Can't believe you can't get pharmacists up there.

The only bad thing about Maine IMO is you have to drive through the rest of New England to get there.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

My Walgreens pharmacy was closing unexpectedly and has now changed their hours to closing at 6:00 PM and is also closed weekends because they can't find people to staff it 7 days a week. It's likely a nationwide problem.

Edit: I see the same thing is happening in Maine.

But why just Walgreens?
CVS here as well as a two other brands and a couple privately owned pharmacies are not having this problem. It has to be something to do with Walgreens.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

The quality customer care is absent, so it is a management issue.

 

[odanny]

But why just Walgreens?
CVS here as well as a two other brands and a couple privately owned pharmacies are not having this problem. It has to be something to do with Walgreens.

I don't trust Walgreens corporate, do you remember Theranos? It was the giant Ponzi scheme of blood testing, and Walgreens got taken by them before they had even verified their blood testing worked, which it never did and never would.

I'm still banking on them righting their ship when the share price is around $12.

 

[Care4all]

That's so weird. Our little town has six pharmacies plus Walmart.

Can't believe you can't get pharmacists up there.

The only bad thing about Maine IMO is you have to drive through the rest of New England to get there.

My town has 2000 people in the summer, over a huge area of land and only around 780 in the winter. I'm grateful to have a Walgreens, small grocery store, a McDonalds, and a Chinese restaurant the town over...oh and a Duncan Donuts....we had a Subway but it closed. The only reason we have any of those is because US 1 Passes thru the town boundaries, and they are all on U.S. 1...hoping to catch visitors/vacationers in the summer... passing thru on their destination way. There is a small town about 15 miles away...about 7500 people, that has a walmart, two big grocers, wendys, McDonald's, KFC, Home Depot, and a few other biggies....cvs, walgreens, grocery store pharmacies etc.... But the main city, about 30,000 people about 35 miles from here in the other direction of the small town, has every thing...every store, and restaurant, and hospital and doctor anyone needs, just not a lot of them....

I guess I could go the way of meds by mail if Walgreens continues to be short handed...

Funny you say that about Maine and her surrounding states...

The welcome sign when entering the State says,

Welcome to Maine, the way life should be!

but honestly, the other surrounding New England states are truly beautiful as well...shortly outside of the coastal cities and other big cities it is stunning! A small town living, with an abundance of trees and small family farms, land not built on, thousands of lakes and preserved lands....And Vermont is really beautiful too with gorgeous mountains, great skiing, with a very small town,rural vibe living too but it is land locked, Maine has its beautiful coast!

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

I have a cous who lives on the shores of Lake Champaign.

Oh, my!