CVS & Brooks Drug Stores - Your comments please...

[Junkman]

Since the Walmart discussion was shut down and I had two post to it removed, possibly we could continue the discussion using these two fine establishments as another example of how they have take over an industry and put all of the independents out of business. Please keep it civil and cordual.... Don't want any more ruffled feathers..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[AndyM]

Around here, CVS has had a reputation of buying historic old houses and other buildings and tearing them down to build their cookie-cutter look-alike stores. Also, they bought some of the old mom and pop drug stores and temporarily put the CVS name on the store, only to close them down a few months later, after they built a new "superstore" next door to the old location.

After tearing down all of these buildings and buying out the competition, CVS realized a couple of years ago that they had TOO MANY stores in the area and closed most of them. What do we have now? Empty CVS stores that were only built within the past few years.

Don't they research this stuff ahead of time, before building, to realize that the market is already saturated??? Even with all the closings, there are still CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Eckerd, Discount Drug Mart, and Marc's (my favorite, but they are only in NE Ohio) everywhere!
I know of one intersection with three major drug stores!

When they built them all within a year or so of each other, I said all three couldn't possibly survive. Sure enough, one is closed one year after being built, but it stayed open long enough to put the small store down the road out of business.

 

[fivestring]

"After tearing down all of these buildings and buying out the competition, CVS realized a couple of years ago that they had TOO MANY stores in the area and closed most of them. What do we have now? Empty CVS stores that were only built within the past few years. "

All of the major players know that if you can't beat 'em, then join (buy them out) 'em. Walmart, CVS, Bank of America, etc.

The bottom line is that this country was built on the fact that you can be as successful as you want to be. That you can make as much money as you want to. That you CAN be top dog. All of this is based on how driven a person is.
Though I don't like the idea of "VOLUME BUYING", I do like the fact that places like Walmart have caused others to reduce their costs and prices to be competitive. This does mean that I save $$ in the long run.
It's been mentioned in quite a number of threads....
Labor costs are killing America.
The industries with the highest labor cost and usually the most lost jobs to foreign countries or workers, or to just blaming a slumping economy are the unionized industries -- auto, air, steel, textile, trucking, etc. No need to go any further, because this blaring fact does ruffle a lot of feathers.

It's no wonder that fewer people are flying, fewer people are buying new cars and SUV's and recreational vehicles ... the costs of those items are ridiculous. I have not bought a new vehicle since 1987, nor will I even contemplate buying a new vehicle.

 

[Old_Hickory]

Labor costs are killing America.

I hope you are lumping management in as being overpaid,look at the TYCO CEO was that a Union problem ?

 

[Chuck52]

I've never heard of CVS or Brooks. Locally, I guess Osco and Walgreens are the big chain drug stores. I've been fortunate not to need much in the way of prescription drugs over the years, so I've never developed any store loyalty based on that. For me, the pharmacy in the clinic I go to has offered both convenience and decent prices for the few times I've needed that stuff. I do take glucosamine and chondroitin, and vitamin E, and I'll pick those up where ever I happen to see low prices on them....often Walmart, though sometimes the supermarkets, or Osco. The other stuff the drug stores carry is available in so many other stores that they don't get much of my business.

Chuck

 

[Hambone]

Yep. CVS did that here, down from our Super Wally World.
We had a Hooks drug store. Revco bought them, then CVS.
We did have a local drugstore, but, CVS bought them.
Since, we have had a Medicine Shop open. That is a chain also, but, I think maybe a franchise deal.
Don't know for sure.

 

[dmccarty]

Re: CVS & Brooks Drug Stores - Your comments pleas

Junkman,

The Wall Street Journal had an article a few years ago about
the expansion of the big box drug stores. The chains are
fighting against each other for the market share so they are
buying up land at key locations to plant the bigger stores. The
key is to grab the buisness from the other guy. They figure
even if the store does not perform well, they are taking
business from the other drug store chains. If a given store
is not making money they can always close it . At a minimum
they are keeping that specific location out of the hands of
their competion. And even if they are forced to close and then
sell the store its at a valuable location so they should be able
to easily sell the property and make money on the sale.

This seems to have happened to a Sport Authority store in our
area. They tried to get into this market by buying up another
store but they did not expand quickly in the area. Dicks
Sporting goods came into town and opened quite a few stores.
They plan on opening a few more. The Sport Authority store
is closing down since they are not performing and thus they are
out of this market. Dicks Sporting Goods flooded the market
with stores and won. Sports Authority did not and lost.

Later,
Dan McCarty

 

[wroughtn_harv]

What folks seem to forget is liberty includes the freedom to fail.

I don't like box stores. I don't like the principles or the lack thereof involved.

But liberty is involved. They have a right to exist. If others fail because of that then it's because they too have rights, one of them is to fail.

Freedom isn't freedom if failure isn't an option. Parents forget that. Governments too.

 

[fivestring]

I'm sure there are some management positions that are overpaid. The business owner(s) decide(s) their pay.
The workers don't need to worry themselves over how much money management makes. The workers have no say in that matter, no matter what their unions tell them.

 

[Old_Hickory]

I am not talking about unions exclusively,I never have worked for a union I work for a non union company.
The bottom line is to make the company succeed,but when the company starts cutting back and loading more work on the guy at the bottom of the totem pole because there is not enough money and management is getting all of the perks does that make it right ? The management says "we are all in this together" but when it comes to the rewards etc they skim it off of the top.
What the TYCO CEO done is unexcusableThere are faults on both ends of the spectrum,hourly workers cause a lot of the problerms themselves and a lot of times (not all) management makes some dumb moves out of arrogance and stupidity.Look at your ENRON guys,tell those workers that lost there 401K's that they did not need to worry about what management makes.
I could debate this all day,but I am not interested in a flame war.