So Shoppers Drug Mart today in London Ontario cut hours, and added a delivery fee of $5 for prescriptions, and $10 for non prescription items. Why? Because they are throwing a hissy fit over Ontarios Health Minister announcement last week to cut costs of generic prescription drug costs at least half. Making it more affordable for all walks of life in Ontario to have access to medications. This means less cash in the pockets of Shoppers Drug Mart therefore the huge panic. Up until this announcement pharamcies were paid “cash bonuses” and “perks” for dispensing generic drugs and Government officials have decided to nix this.
So basically Shopper’s way of fighting back was to start the first cut backs and extra fees in the Health Ministers Deb Matthews hometown of London. Immature in my books but this is nothing new of Shoppers Drug Mart.
What are your feelings on this issue? Do you think Shopper’s is in the wrong or right? Do you think they needed to act so quickly? No Shopper’s Drug Mart employees were available for comment for television interviews tonight. (Guess they were all too busy?)
I did however like Health Minister Deb Matthews comment that Shoppers Drug Mart needs to fight this with the government, not their customers.
Heres some news articles for further information:
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/792625–shoppers-drug-mart-threatens-layoffs-closings
Look forward to hearing your comments!
Well we all know that a story is formed based on the information you choose to include and you choose to include the information that backs up your view. As a healthcare provider for many years, NOT a pharmacist, I see first hand what is involved. Do you? You can pick and choose which columnist to “believe” but unless said columnist is actually “living” this controversy then they don’t have the “whole” story, now do they?
I find it mildly amusing that people are complaining about paying a dispensing fee for their drugs but they don’t hesitate to buy an over priced meal from a high end restaurant.
You can’t leave the KEG without throwing down a hundred dollar bill for a meal for two and that’s only if you limit yourself to one drink a piece.
Do you really think that slab of beef and medium sized spud cost 60 dollars a piece? NO you’re paying for the service of the professional chef, the line chef, the waitress, the bus boy etc to deliver that perfectly cooked steak to you. THEN you tip the waitress on top of what you’ve already paid for in the cost of your meal.
The fee for those services are hidden in the cost of your meal. The pharmacy is no different except they show you what your dispensing fee is.
Charchar, I thank you for at least acknowledging that the pieces are both biased; but that is what an argument is all about is it not? I also agree that there is no neutrality in the media, every publication… or should I say conglomerate has its own agenda when it comes to reporting the news, but that’s why I thankful to be living in what I would loosely term a democracy. I also didn’t say that the government was blameless for this mess, and as far as out and out hypocrisy, one has only to look at the billions of dollars and lives being lost to tobacco use, yet the government rakes in billions in revenues on the same product.
This was published on November 11 2009 in the Financial Post on third-quarter earnings at SDM–
Shoppers posted a 6.6% increase in third quarter profit Wednesday on strong revenues, driven mostly by a 9.7% jump in prescription sales to $1.48-billion. In the past year, prescription sales have risen to 49.1% of total sales from 48.3%, in the midst of a strategy to aggressively market discounts and other retail offerings at the front of its stores. Front store sales rose 6.2% to $1.53-billion. Jurgen Schreiber, chief executive with Shoppers, is happy with the way things have worked out so far.
One of the facts alluded to so succinctly in the article I posted was the number of pharmacies operating within close proximity to each other. I don’t know where you are, but I live close to a small town in southwestern Ontario that has 3 pharmacies (one of them a SDM) and yet can only support two grocery, and one hardware store.
Finally, show me anywhere where the government is making it look like pharmacies and pharmacists are the big bad guys?
Lori – “Well we all know that a story is formed based on the information you choose to include and you choose to include the information that backs up your view.”
Like I said to Charchar, This is what as basically defined as an argument, I’m glad we all know that!
Lori – “As a healthcare provider for many years, NOT a pharmacist, I see first hand what is involved. Do you?”
I was a health care worker for 8 years many moons ago in London Ontario, but would not make the claim that I see “first hand” what is involved here. That would be as absurd as what Sara Palin did when she claimed that she new all about Russia simply because on a clear day she could see it across the Bering Straight!
Further to your “first hand” statement, you must find yourself in quite a state when trying to sift through things like the war in Afghanistan, the CRTC’s decision regarding throttling by Bell Canada or a myriad of other events outside the scope of your professional expertise.
So, you have the floor… As an insider Lori, what is really involved here that I don’t understand?
Coach Poppy. Do you not hesitate when you “drop $100 for a meal” at the KEG? You do this often? From your tone, it certainly sounds like you do this a lot without hesitation. In that case, a few extra dollars certainly doesn’t matter to you, since you’re super rich (or heavily in debt).
I suppose a few extra dollars is nothing to you, but some of us may feel the pinch.
Jeff,
Wow, you sure read into that post WRONG. I have only ever been to the Keg once and that was because my boss treated her employees to a Thank You dinner. I know what the prices are from the menu. I’ve never been back because I know a a million other things I could spend $100 on. So for you to dissect, from that post, that I dine there often and I’m either super rich or super poor is so far off base!
I’m amazed that you can tell the “tone” from words on a screen. You know nothing about me to be making those assumptions.
It’s people like you that read into a post and twist the words beyond recognition that make having a debate a complete waste of time.
Wisen up my friend and stay on topic here. What I spend my hard earned dollars on makes no difference here. I’m as thrifty as the next person.
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I just want to say that I really like the pharmcist at the SDM that I go to. She’s always friendly and helpful and never makes me feel like I’m wasting her time. In fact, I rarely meet a bad or uncaring pharmacist. If that’s going to cost me $14 when I buy a prescription I happen to think it’s money well spent. You can be sure that the Dr. who wrote that script doesn’t give a c**p about me and neither does his nurse! And that goes for pretty much every doctor and nurse I’ve ever met. My being alive seems to annoy them.
genericpharmacia.com provide the customers with the drugs at the lowest possible costs because they do not have to spend too much on maintaining the physical shop and on hiring the person who will handle the shop. Very less maintenance and rental is required for the online drugs stores so additional savings are done here. Also, http://www.drugstoregenerics.com purchase the medicines directly from the drug manufacturer so they get the drugs at very less costs and the drug wholesaler doesn’t come in between. This helps the online pharmacies to keep the prices of the drugs at comparatively lower rates than the shopkeepers.
thank you very much for your view,it’s very helpful for me.