Thread regarding CVS layoffs

"What mistake did they make and what lessons were learned? Please elaborate."

I'm not the person you're asking this question. From what I found, the deal ended more than 10 years ago. To put things into perspective, that's before smart phone, 3G internet, improved technology literacy.

“More than likely Amazon learned from their mistakes with d--gstore.com and won’t make the same mistake again. For some reason this time feels different...”

What mistake did they make and what lessons were learned? Please elaborate.

I still can’t for the life of me figure out all this sky is falling mentality of analysts and so called experts who say Pillpack will pit all the pharmacies out of business.

Last time I checked I still see that Fresh market, Krogers, Sprouts were still in business.... and their stock price is higher than the day Amazon bought Whole Foods. In fact if you do your research Amazon’s grocery share has declined since Whole Foods. I remember ar that time all the so called experts saying Amazon will put all others out of business.... what a joke that turned out to be.

Can any one tell me in specifics how Amazon will take cost out of the system? What will they do? Pay pharmacists less? Everybody is already doing that. Automate? All the pbm’s ma order operations are full automated. Leverage their massive number of Prime members to use Pillpack? They can only use Pillpack if they have insurance that is contracted with Express Scripts.

Under cut everybody with cash prices? Most generics are 5-10 dollar copay at Walgreens or CVS, how much is Amazon going to charge?

Get real people. Too many chicken little’s running around with no facts or no indistry expertise claiming Amazon’s Pillpack will put all others out of business. Give me a break!

More than likely Amazon learned from their mistakes with d--gstore.com and won’t make the same mistake again. For some reason this time feels different...

Amazon years ago did try to get into the pharmacy and failed miserably. Yes, that’s correct. They owned a company called d--gstore.com which letter it sold to Walgreens. And after 3 years, even Walgreens closed it down as well.

"Pill pack pays it's rphs about 20k less then what we do. If you think we are all safe because we have a license then your kidding yourself."

They are paying new grads 20k-30k less, this is not just Pillpack, it's CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid.

"It's only a matter of time until we aren't needed to verify pills in a bottle vs a screen and they allow a robot to fill the script, label it and drop it in a bag to ship it out."

I got news for you, this is being already being done at Optum, Cigna's Express Scripts, and CVS Caremark. Looks like you are a little late to the game. In fact they have been automated since years ago. I would like to see how Amazon can cut more costs out of the process than these companies already have.

Pill pack pays it's rphs about 20k less then what we do. If you think we are all safe because we have a license then your kidding yourself. It's only a matter of time until we aren't needed to verify pills in a bottle vs a screen and they allow a robot to fill the script, label it and drop it in a bag to ship it out.

Amazon will only go so far, because people don't need their meds in 24 hrs, they need their meds ASAP or it can become a life threatening condition, and if a Whole Foods were to have a pharmacy, which they don't, they're far away. People don't even shop at malls anymore because they now have 2,000 retailers in between. 1 day shipping is fine for a phone or clothing, bit not for health when 90% of health care spending is on folks 65+. Will it affect CVS? Sure it will. But it'll need a lot more local distribution channels before it can dream about displacing the likes of CVS/Walgreens/RiteAid.

"Amazon is NOT in the business of failed ventures"

Ever hear of the Fire phone or the Fire tablet? Maybe you haven't because those were Amazon ventures that failed miserably. How about Whole Foods? Oh yeah, looks like that's going really well for them too... NOT !

They bought Pillpack because to build out a pharmacy on a national scale takes a lot more investment than the little less than the billion they paid for Pillpack. They are not jumping in the water, they are testing the waters with a small investment to see if they can make it work or not.

Pharmacy is a very low margin business, with Amazon being cheap with their workers as they are do you really think they will pay 100k plus for pharmacist salaries to get into a low margin business as pharmacy? How about returns? When they start getting returns on those meds that cost 3-5k for a month supply how long do you think they will stay in the business?