My local Walgreens, their pharmacy was open today (and they even had customers getting prescriptions). The store has always been open of course for last min. shoppers (it was fairly busy) but stunned to see the pharmacy open. It have been closed for years on this holiday
For a lot of people, Christmas is simply a Wednesday in late December.
Sure, we could wait a day to get our prescriptions, but I like that your local Walgreens is bucking the trend.
I did speak to the tech cuz I had mentioned the pharmacy hadn’t opened in years, and she said there was a hoilday differential pay (a plus) . Did wonder if customers knew it was open today!
The Walgreens stores around here are so short-staffed, especially with pharmacists, that the pharmacies have been closing on random days.
My grandson has worked for several pharmacies. He always volunteers for long hours on holidays. Holiday bonus pay for 12 hours was a good Xmas present.
I have always hated how everything closes.
There are always pharmacies open on xmas. People who have a regular prescription can get it on a different day. People who have an acute condition and need antibiotics or pain meds can’t wait. It’s part of the business. Many millions of people don’t celebrate xmas and there’s nothing else to do. May as well work.
Many years ago, my girlfriend and I flew into New Orleans for a week’s vacation, starting on Christmas Day. (She was a teacher and her vacation options were limited to school vacations).
Upon arrival, she noticed that she had forgotten to bring along an important med that had to be taken every day.
So Christmas Day in New Orleans was mostly spent on the phone to covering docs in Boston until we finally got one to call in the script Then we spent another couple hours at the Walgreen’s on the corner of St. Charles and Felicity. (We may have been the only late night customers not seeking pain meds of one sort another.)
But, thankfully, they were open, and that pretty much rescued the trip.
Here’s a little update. My wife visited urgent care on Monday for a routine infection, and they prescribed a routine antibiotic. They called her back today to tell her she needed a non-routine (but still common) antibiotic, but they had located a CVS that not only had a pharmacy that was open on Christmas, but had the antibiotic in stock.
There are seven CVS stores closer to us, and our preferred pharmacy is Walgreens, but this one was open AND had a working pharmacist AND had the right drug in stock. It’s a Christmas miracle!
That’s good to hear . I also just found out a few of the 24hr pharmacies around closed down so guessing they had some pharmacies now open on holidays as locale decisions . The local Walgreens on opposite end of my suburb was closed .
Years ago, I mistakely picked up the wrong idea that Walgreens (store, not Rx) were always 24 hours as a policy, like Waffle House. Some are but most aren’t.
One near me recent started closing at 11pm instead of the previous midnight.
According to my pharmacist assistant grandson, Walgreens is not doing well and is closing numerous stores. You would think they might try to one-up the competition whenever they can.
Staying open when there’s very little business and they aren’t making enough revenue to cover costs isn’t one upping the competition.
There are always a number of local pharmacies open on holidays here. I believe they coordinate so there will be at least one open in each area of the city. Closed ones will often have a sign stating where the nearest open one is located.