I don't get it, business is through the roof, scripts are in record numbers, long lines in the front, and hours are cut dramatically. I can't help but feel they're nervous about this merger and running things as tightly as they possibly can. But this can't last forever on their current business model, customers are not happy with the lines, I've noticed a real change this year, not to mention good employees aren't getting enough hours which means they aren't being paid enough, which means they will look for other jobs. I find myself checking news updates on this merger keeping my fingers crossed because I'm hoping the DMs will come back and say they can add some of the cut hours. Is this something that might change if Aetna goes the way they want?
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Hate to defend here but, The funding model hasn't been changed for the year for the stores. The stores that went sub minimum hours were completed back in Q1. I have a friend in store ops that confirmed it for my whole market and sent me their operating budgets so i could try and help them out. The bottom line is Summer is our slowest time of the year and our payroll flexs down because of it. Doesn't matter if you are beating budget if your sales are down overall. I looked at my demand and greensheets to see where my store was heading. That being said, I'm pretty lucky my team is flexible and i have a good FT/PT mix. I am also helping out some of the stores around me when my Part timers want more hours. This is nothing new and I have been doing this even way back when I had two Assistants...now that was a freakin hours cut but that's the reality of retail now. Anybody remember when we got champagne bottles from tom ryan when we completed the Save-on/Osco acquisition....doubt that's happening again.
As for the Aetna loan, look no further than our stock price to know how we will pay for this. We clearly upset wall street by freezing our earnings per share to help pay for this, used the rest of our savings from the tax cut to fund it and will likely cut aetna/caremark headcount post deal to fund this.
They took a huge loan to fund this...if this does not go through their is no plan B. Coupled with the potential of the PBM cash game possibly being killed....this is the new normal.