Prescription Transfer Notice
Stepping up to the store entrance itself, we find this notice posted on the doors, stating that the Hernando Fred’s pharmacy closed on November 19th, 2018, and transferred to the Walgreens down the street the very next day. I visited here on a whim, having seen a handful of local Google reports pop up here and there about Fred’s pharmacies closing; that signaled to me that the Walgreens deal must finally be taking effect. And sure enough, it was! A shame for longtime Fred’s pharmacy customers, but at least here in Hernando, the Walgreens isn’t a far drive away.
And that takes me back to what I briefly alluded to earlier – that in some towns affected by this deal, sadly the Walgreens is not, in fact, down the street. Instead, in some instances, it’s a full city away. Now, logically, you would think that – if Walgreens was not interested in purchasing the entire portfolio of Fred’s pharmacies – then it would make sense for them only to purchase the ones located in towns where they, too, already have a store, so that the customers wouldn’t be inconvenienced. But nope… that’s not the case. Here's one example of a town left having to travel quite a ways to get to their new prescription holders.
That’s pretty lousy, in my opinion. I know a lot of you dislike Walgreens for a number of reasons already (mainly thanks to their handling of the Rite Aid situation), but personally, Walgreens has always been my favorite pharmacy chain (mainly thanks to the fact that they’re the major player around these parts). And in a sense, I do understand their recent surge of pharmacy purchases; they want to reinforce that major player status, and perhaps acquire it in other areas where they’ve been a secondary player. But knowingly purchasing Fred’s pharmacies in cities where there aren’t any existing Walgreens locations, just for the sake of gaining more customers that have no other alternatives on where to go, is a pretty cruel act. I’m disappointed.
(c) 2018 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)
Prescription Transfer Notice
Stepping up to the store entrance itself, we find this notice posted on the doors, stating that the Hernando Fred’s pharmacy closed on November 19th, 2018, and transferred to the Walgreens down the street the very next day. I visited here on a whim, having seen a handful of local Google reports pop up here and there about Fred’s pharmacies closing; that signaled to me that the Walgreens deal must finally be taking effect. And sure enough, it was! A shame for longtime Fred’s pharmacy customers, but at least here in Hernando, the Walgreens isn’t a far drive away.
And that takes me back to what I briefly alluded to earlier – that in some towns affected by this deal, sadly the Walgreens is not, in fact, down the street. Instead, in some instances, it’s a full city away. Now, logically, you would think that – if Walgreens was not interested in purchasing the entire portfolio of Fred’s pharmacies – then it would make sense for them only to purchase the ones located in towns where they, too, already have a store, so that the customers wouldn’t be inconvenienced. But nope… that’s not the case. Here's one example of a town left having to travel quite a ways to get to their new prescription holders.
That’s pretty lousy, in my opinion. I know a lot of you dislike Walgreens for a number of reasons already (mainly thanks to their handling of the Rite Aid situation), but personally, Walgreens has always been my favorite pharmacy chain (mainly thanks to the fact that they’re the major player around these parts). And in a sense, I do understand their recent surge of pharmacy purchases; they want to reinforce that major player status, and perhaps acquire it in other areas where they’ve been a secondary player. But knowingly purchasing Fred’s pharmacies in cities where there aren’t any existing Walgreens locations, just for the sake of gaining more customers that have no other alternatives on where to go, is a pretty cruel act. I’m disappointed.
(c) 2018 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)