I did the unthinkable last night, I visited a big box discounter (hint the colours are red, blue and yellow).
As John shared with me this morning at Peak this is a fireable offence as we are all avid supporters of community pharmacy (we kid, but it is frowned upon). However, this was a desperate instance of my husband forgetting to fill his script and this being the only pharmacy open at that time of night in our suburb. So, after many complaints on my end, we popped into the-one-that-must-not-be-named to quickly get his meds.
Now, I am willing to share this with our database as this trip not only proved why I avoid this pharmacy brand but also changed my husband’s mind! Who unlike me is not as exposed to the pharmacy industry and will do things normally as a matter of convenience (well, so we thought?)
So, we entered walking through cluttered filled aisles which were filled with so much signage that even for my marketing brain I felt overwhelmed. Once we reached the back, we popped in the script and were advised that we would have to wait 15 minutes for the script to be filled. I understand prescriptions do take time, but I would like to paint the picture of what the pharmacy looked like in this moment. There was just us and about ten team members in the pharmacy, if this was a movie a tumble weed would be floating across the store. It was ridiculously quiet.
So, we sat and listened to the millions of ads played on the many TVs behind us and waited. Five minutes passed and we weren’t feeling impatient as we understand things can take time. At around the ten-minute mark, the very team member that served my husband asked if he needed help with anything, clearly forgetting he had already been served by her. I happily told them we were waiting for his script. She went back to what she was doing (standing right opposite us from the counter.) Then another two minutes, she reintroduced herself to my husband and asked if he needed help. At this point, I could see my husband was shifting from patiently understanding to becoming impatient. Then about five minutes later, he was served and received his script. There was no chat about the medicines or how he was going, just his medication handed to him and directed to go up the front to pay.
When I left the pharmacy, I looked down at the receipt and noticed that the cost of the script was significantly lower than what we pay at our local pharmacy. My husband answered with the response yes, but you pay for what you get.
Price driven promotion has become a heavy competitor for the pharmacy industry. Yes, there are customers that will visit certain pharmacies to get more bang for their buck. However, there are customers like myself and my husband who appreciate a personalised service. My husband had become accustomed to being greeted by the pharmacy team when we walked into the store. Then having our pharmacist discuss our medications and ask how everything is going. We are always more than happy to wait and browse. We feel appreciated and trust our pharmacy’s choice of service offering and products. However, last night when we were at this pharmacy, we simply felt like another number and it was almost like the staff were eager to get rid of us.