Customer Service at the Pharmacy

I grew up in the 1970’s and can still remember the old corner drug stores that seemingly dotted the landscape.  The stores were owned by pharmacists, often a husband and wife team with their children working there as well.  If you were a regular customer, you were treated as a friend and was always welcomed with a smile.

The pharmacy that my parents used even had the “soda jerk” still operating, plus all the favorite candies in jars.  The store was adorned with different paintings, artwork and bric-a-brac that took you back to the old days.  It was more like an experience rather than just a shopping trip to the store.

Flash forward to 2018, now pharmacies (and virtually every other kind of store for that matter) are owned by corporations, who’s main objective is to make you a consumer (you know—something that is measured in cash) not a customer. The pharmacies have become “super-stores” that look like every other store out there. The interiors of these places are so vanilla and sterile they actually make operating rooms look stylish.

So, a couple of nights ago, I agreed to go to the pharmacy for a friend and pick up his pain meds.  My friend had just gone through his second back surgery in a month and wasn’t very mobile.  I decided to go the pharmacy that uses only letters for a name (I’ll bet you can guess it).

I entered the store and made my way through the endless racks of commercialized products that turn the place into something that the “Maze Runners” would not be able to conquer.  After finally reaching the pharmacist counter, which is as barricaded and friendly as a police station, I handed the script to the pharmacist who was behind the glass.  After staring at it for a minute, she proceeded to tell me that the store was closing in 4 minutes and that it would take 15 minutes to fill the script.

With a half-smile, she returned the script to me and wished me a good evening—how considerate. So, not only do today’s pharmacies lack any kind of style and warmth but they are also devoid of any kind of customer service.  I was forced to go to the other major pharmacy in town which not only has too many locations but is open late.

Ok, I completely understand the tricky issues with drugs, the opioid crisis and other abuses, but it seems to me that the law-abiding customers are the ones who suffer most.  Would it really have been a major crime to fill script even if the manager had to lock the door then let me out?  Gone are the days of the customer-friendly proprietor, replaced by an underpaid, underappreciated employee.

Being a customer-driven organization is something that is as extinct as the dinosaurs, once again proving my theory that we are all now just consumers, we look good on a spread sheet but not on a happiness meter!

Talk to Ya Later!

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer @2018 All Rights Reserved