Question for Americans

[Spot's Meow]

Calling such stores pharmacies is really a misnomer. The pharmacy section is usually only a small section of the entire store, like the one hour photo section (when those were still around...). I've been to such stores many times but never even been to the pharmacy section. I'm really not sure why the whole store is referred to as a pharmacy, probably for some marketing purposes. Really they are convenience stores, selling many different household items and often food items, that just happen to have a place to pick up your prescription as well.

Here's a photo of an interior which happens to show off their liquor and junk food. As you can see the pharmacy section is the blue area in the back corner:

 

[gturner]

I remember when my local mom and pop pharmacy still had a soda fountain.

 

[urbandefault]

I remember when my local mom and pop pharmacy still had a soda fountain.

Mine too. Pretty much all small town "drugstores" used to be just like CVS and Walgreens are now. One stop shopping, plus grab a burger and shake while you're there.

One exception was my grandfather's pharmacy. It was so small there was barely room for the customer inside. But he was adjacent to a doctor's office so he had a built in clientele.

 

[Velocity]

CVS is not a pharmacy, it is a store that has a little pharmacy in it. An actual pharmacy, in my experience, does not sell cigarettes. I used to go to a CVS for my meds, but the service was so crappy that I stopped going there. I now go to a little local pharmacy that is not part of a national chain. They sell meds and health related items like bandages and diabetic supplies. No cigarettes.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Calling such stores pharmacies is really a misnomer. The pharmacy section is usually only a small section of the entire store, like the one hour photo section (when those were still around...). I've been to such stores many times but never even been to the pharmacy section. I'm really not sure why the whole store is referred to as a pharmacy, probably for some marketing purposes. Really they are convenience stores, selling many different household items and often food items, that just happen to have a place to pick up your prescription as well.

Here's a photo of an interior which happens to show off their liquor and junk food. As you can see the pharmacy section is the blue area in the back corner:

Thanks for the photo. Now I understand exactly what these 'pharmacies' look like.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Coincidentally, Blue Cross's contract with Express Scripts is coming up for renewal-- and the beginning of 2014 was a disaster thanks to ESI's software "upgrade." I wonder how aggressively Caremark will jump on that.

 

[urbandefault]

The signage on the stores says "CVS / pharmacy." Wikipedia explains ...

CVS Pharmacy used to be a subsidiary of Melville Corporation, where its full name was initially Consumer Value Stores. Melville later changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996[9][10] after Melville sold off many of its non-pharmacy stores.[11] The last of its non-drugstore operations were sold in 1997.[9]
Former CEO Tom Ryan has said he now considers "CVS" to stand for "Customer, Value, and Service".[12]
During the company's days as a regional chain in the Northeast, many CVS stores did not include pharmacies. Today the company seldom builds new stores without pharmacies and outside of New England is gradually phasing out any such shops. Any new non-pharmacy store is usually built in a more urban setting where another CVS with a pharmacy exists within walking distance such as downtown Boston or Providence. These stores usually lack a pharmacy and a photo center but carry most of the general merchandise items that a normal CVS Pharmacy carries such as health and beauty items, sundries, and food items.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

For comparison's sake what a pharmacy looks like in Europe and Germany in particular.
The decor can be quite different but the thought of them selling cigarettes is laughable here.

 

[E-DUB]

Haven't seen a cig vending machine in ages. Don't know if they've been "outlawed", per se, but it would be darned hard to enforce age restrictions with them.

 

[RoJoHen]

Haven't seen a cig vending machine in ages. Don't know if they've been "outlawed", per se, but it would be darned hard to enforce age restrictions with them.

The only ones that I know about are in bars, and you have to be 21 to be in those establishments in the first place.

 

[Sector 7]

Just an opinion.

Definitely. Obama is a nicotine addict, BTW.

If one were inclined to do so, it could be taken as a "do as I say, not as I do" scenario. If one were inclined.

"Inclinations" aside, PRESIDENT Obama quit the nasty habit. Most intelligent people do, eventually.

Calling such stores pharmacies is really a misnomer. The pharmacy section is usually only a small section of the entire store, like the one hour photo section (when those were still around...). I've been to such stores many times but never even been to the pharmacy section. I'm really not sure why the whole store is referred to as a pharmacy, probably for some marketing purposes. Really they are convenience stores, selling many different household items and often food items, that just happen to have a place to pick up your prescription as well.

Here's a photo of an interior which happens to show off their liquor and junk food. As you can see the pharmacy section is the blue area in the back corner:

CVS is not a pharmacy, it is a store that has a little pharmacy in it. An actual pharmacy, in my experience, does not sell cigarettes. I used to go to a CVS for my meds, but the service was so crappy that I stopped going there. I now go to a little local pharmacy that is not part of a national chain. They sell meds and health related items like bandages and diabetic supplies. No cigarettes.

While you may think of the pharmacy as "little", it actually accounts for the vast majority of sales and profits for any such store. Pharmacies are big business in America.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Pharmacies are indeed big business, but I think people overestimate just how profitable individual pharmacies are. There are thousands of independent pharmacies in the US, and they often struggle to survive thanks to regulatory changes, expensive and complex software systems, insurance rates, and drug prices. It's the sort of business where most factors affecting it are outside the business' control, so it can be pretty tough to make it.

That's not to say nobody's making good money at it, but doing so is hard. Few people get rich running a pharmacy. Doing pharmacy benefit management, as Caremark does, is usually more profitable.

 

[lurok]

All those years going into CVS, Walgreens, Rexall....and I genuinely never noticed they sold cigarettes. As others mentioned earlier, it's just something doesn't happen in UK. Though I have noticed some stores like Superdrug sell e-cigarettes.

 

[Sector 7]

Pharmacies are indeed big business, but I think people overestimate just how profitable individual pharmacies are. There are thousands of independent pharmacies in the US, and they often struggle to survive thanks to regulatory changes, expensive and complex software systems, insurance rates, and drug prices. It's the sort of business where most factors affecting it are outside the business' control, so it can be pretty tough to make it.

That's not to say nobody's making good money at it, but doing so is hard. Few people get rich running a pharmacy. Doing pharmacy benefit management, as Caremark does, is usually more profitable.

Even the "Mom and Pop" pharmacies around here belong to co-operative organizations [i.e.- Mutual Drug] which offset such costs. I haven't seen a truly independent pharmacy in many years.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Pharmacies are indeed big business, but I think people overestimate just how profitable individual pharmacies are. There are thousands of independent pharmacies in the US, and they often struggle to survive thanks to regulatory changes, expensive and complex software systems, insurance rates, and drug prices. It's the sort of business where most factors affecting it are outside the business' control, so it can be pretty tough to make it.

That's not to say nobody's making good money at it, but doing so is hard. Few people get rich running a pharmacy. Doing pharmacy benefit management, as Caremark does, is usually more profitable.

Even the "Mom and Pop" pharmacies around here belong to co-operative organizations [i.e.- Mutual Drug] which offset such costs. I haven't seen a truly independent pharmacy in many years.

There are plenty of them around here (NY/NJ area.)

 

[Data Holmes]

CVS is looking to start a new business model, IMHO. It's estimated that a side effect of ObamaCare will be the loss of anywhere from 30% to 60% of private pratice GP offices. While most political types in favor of it either dismiss/ignore the forcast, and those opposed to it use it as fuel to attack the new law saying it will not only cause many pratices to close, doctors to retire, and overload the hospital networks.

I think CVS looks to add a GP office in back, as an expansion of its clinic program. A franchised doctors office, pharmacy, and convince stoor all under one roof. One stop shopping. The McD's of GP, the "doc in a box" you hit up for a note when you get a cold, the kids get an ear infection, strep throat, or pink eye.

It's actually an ingenious idea, even if it looses the personal connection of the traditional GP office.

Pharmacies are indeed big business, but I think people overestimate just how profitable individual pharmacies are. There are thousands of independent pharmacies in the US, and they often struggle to survive thanks to regulatory changes, expensive and complex software systems, insurance rates, and drug prices. It's the sort of business where most factors affecting it are outside the business' control, so it can be pretty tough to make it.

That's not to say nobody's making good money at it, but doing so is hard. Few people get rich running a pharmacy. Doing pharmacy benefit management, as Caremark does, is usually more profitable.

Even the "Mom and Pop" pharmacies around here belong to co-operative organizations [i.e.- Mutual Drug] which offset such costs. I haven't seen a truly independent pharmacy in many years.

There are plenty of them around here (NY/NJ area.)

Indeed.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It's estimated that a side effect of ObamaCare will be the loss of anywhere from 30% to 60% of private pratice GP offices. While most political types in favor of it either dismiss/ignore the forcast, and those opposed to it use it as fuel to attack the new law saying it will not only cause many pratices to close, doctors to retire, and overload the hospital networks.

Please provide your source(s) from now on so people can verify or rebut that information.

 

[Data Holmes]

It's estimated that a side effect of ObamaCare will be the loss of anywhere from 30% to 60% of private pratice GP offices. While most political types in favor of it either dismiss/ignore the forcast, and those opposed to it use it as fuel to attack the new law saying it will not only cause many pratices to close, doctors to retire, and overload the hospital networks.

Please provide your source(s) from now on so people can verify or rebut that information.

Outside of personal sources, which I will admit is NJ/NYC area focused (my mother works in both a private pratice that is being forced to merge with several other pratices, cut staff, and has informed the staff staying that there will be no raises or bonuses for the foreseeable future in order to survive, as well as at a hospital which has not only merged into a local hospital group, but is also now a part of the Allspire Health Partners monster... Several family friends are also in the medical field in the area) it has been showing in many doctor surveys over several years now.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/11/17/primary.care.doctors.study/index.html

http://www.nejmcareercenter.org/minisites/rpt/1-in-3-physicians-plans-to-quit-within-10-years/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcsie...care-foretells-mass-exodus-from-patient-care/

http://www.californiahealthline.org...uitting-medicare-is-obamacare-really-to-blame

http://www.californiahealthline.org...uitting-medicare-is-obamacare-really-to-blame

 

[iguana_tonante]

For comparison's sake what a pharmacy looks like in Europe and Germany in particular.
The decor can be quite different but the thought of them selling cigarettes is laughable here.

That's almost an exact copy of the pharmacy I use (which is located just next door of the physician's and pediatrician's offices, which is very smart business). I have another small pharmacy which is a little closer that I use to buy over-the-counter medicines on the fly (or the random baby stuff), but basically all prescriptions are filled in the first one. I also feel the idea of a pharmacy selling things that kill you is slightly weird, but different places, different rules.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It's estimated that a side effect of ObamaCare will be the loss of anywhere from 30% to 60% of private pratice GP offices. While most political types in favor of it either dismiss/ignore the forcast, and those opposed to it use it as fuel to attack the new law saying it will not only cause many pratices to close, doctors to retire, and overload the hospital networks.

Please provide your source(s) from now on so people can verify or rebut that information.

Outside of personal sources, which I will admit is NJ/NYC area focused (my mother works in both a private pratice that is being forced to merge with several other pratices, cut staff, and has informed the staff staying that there will be no raises or bonuses for the foreseeable future in order to survive, as well as at a hospital which has not only merged into a local hospital group, but is also now a part of the Allspire Health Partners monster... Several family friends are also in the medical field in the area) it has been showing in many doctor surveys over several years now.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/11/17/primary.care.doctors.study/index.html

http://www.nejmcareercenter.org/minisites/rpt/1-in-3-physicians-plans-to-quit-within-10-years/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcsie...care-foretells-mass-exodus-from-patient-care/

http://www.californiahealthline.org...uitting-medicare-is-obamacare-really-to-blame

http://www.californiahealthline.org...uitting-medicare-is-obamacare-really-to-blame

The first link predates Obamacare and Obama's presidency altogether.

The second link does give a 34% figure, but includes not only doctors upset that Obamacare allegedly goes too far in those figures, but also doctors who say it doesn't go far enough and those who are leaving their practices for reasons completely unrelated to Obamacare, so that proves... nothing, really.

The third link is an opinion piece by a doctor who works as an on-air personality for Fox News and has a problem with Obamacare himself (hardly an impartial source), and the surveys mentioned simply express concerns rather than cite any hard facts or studies reflecting an actual demonstrable affect on private practice doctors.

The fourth link is about a change in Medicare policy dating back to 2003 and the Bush administration which has upset some private practice doctors, and how they've used Obamacare as a convenient scapegoat for an already existing issue they've had for over a decade.

The fifth link is the same as the fourth.

Now that that's out of the way, yes, some private practice doctors will quit, retire, and join larger health networks, but that's not unusual for a major change in policy of this nature to cause some shifting of priorities, and a lot of them are using Obamacare as an excuse for their own decisions or unrelated issues. That doesn't make it wrong to implement. Also, there will be a net gain in the number of practicing doctors (and other health professionals) simply by nature of the vastly increasing demand from millions of new, previously untreated or under-served, patients.

Finally, the point of asking for your sources was not originally to refute them, but to encourage you to provide them in the future when making major claims that go beyond just personal anecdotes. So please do so from now on. Thank you.