The Sad World of Retail Management

Unfortunately I can’t escape the constant reminder that we have a management crisis in the corporate world today. It seems to be getting more pervasive. You don’t have to work for a company to experience the frustration of dealing with an inept manager.

If you go to the grocery store, the mall and even the drugstore, you are going to get caught up in a management nightmare. It was a good thing that I was not physically in Walgreens, our local pharmacy last night. They might have called security on me like they did when I was in Spencer’s Gift store 4 years ago. That is another story.

I was at the drive-through window trying to pick up a prescription that I thought was going to be ready for me. When I pulled up to the drive-through, there was a car in front of me at the window and a truck in the second lane to the right of me. Three of us sitting there, and sitting there, and sitting…

No one was coming to the window and I could tell the guy in the truck was already exasperated. I just assumed he had been waiting for the phantom clerk. After about ten minutes, a clerk shows up at the window and gestures to the man in the truck. They had an exchange that I could not understand and the clerk disappeared again.

The car in front of me pulled away, obviously fed up. Another 5 minutes passed and the phantom clerk returned, this time his facial expressions and gesticulations were not friendly. He was clearly frustrated with the guy in the truck. That frustration was obviously reciprocated. I heard the guy say “Can I just have my credit card back?” Clearly he was not a happy camper. The card went through the air tube and the guy grabbed it and tore away screeching his tires in protest.

I pulled up to the window. I was waiting for twenty minutes now and I was losing what little patience I had left. The clerk came to the window right away, so I was hopeful. I told him my name and he went searching for my prescription. Five minutes later, he came back claiming there was no prescription for me.

I told him that I had talked to the Pharmacist earlier and she was going to transfer the prescription from another Pharmacy and that it would be ready. He had no answer.

“I want to speak to the Pharmacist.” I snapped. I was losing my grip. Five minutes later, the Pharmacist shows up at the window sheepishly. “I tried to call the Pharmacy to transfer your prescription, but I could not get through” she said. She had a squirrelly expression on her face. “Did you try pressing zero?” I asked sarcastically. I know, I know, I was being inappropriate now, but I was mad.

After another five minute exchanged filled with excuses, I was determined not to let her off the hook. She told me to come back in hour and she would have two pills for the weekend and then we could straighten out the situation with the other pharmacy on Monday when they reopened.

An hour to put two pills in a bottle?

I came back and was greeted by the clerk after about a ten minute wait. He then had a whole series of excuses why they did not have the two pills ready. We had a series of exchanges back and forth, each time he disappeared for two or three minutes. I was livid. Another car was waiting to the right of me and three cars had piled up behind me. It was past closing time now.

Enter the illustrious night supervisor. He smiles at me and looks back at the clerk and the Pharmacist. Then he looks out the window discovering the pile up of cars. You could tell he was not happy. He puts a sign in the window that says “Pharmacist no longer available. To fill prescriptions please visit your nearest 24 hour Walgreens.” Then he looked at me and said the clerk would be right with me. He had no clue that I had been there for another half an hour and that the clerk and I had had about 10 exchanges, all futile. I wanted to tell him that there never was a Pharmacist available, but I bit my tongue.

Finally the elusive Pharmacist appears at the window and tells me how difficult it was to print a label for these two pills and that she was new to Walgreens.

Really? I had no idea. Why in the world would management let a new, obviously ill-trained Pharmacist man the shop for the evening – the busiest time of the day? I blame this ultimately on the manager of the store. You just don’t put customers through something like this. His closing manager gave a clear message that he just wanted to close up shop, even though there were 5 of us at the drive through not being serviced.

The Pharmacist lifted the glass door to put the bottle with the two pills in the tray, then took them out, looked at them. Went to put them back in, then took them out again and crossed something out on the bottle. The whole time the clerk worked the door, as it was obvious she did not even know how to operate the window.

Finally the pill bottle came out of the window in the tray and I picked it up. She said, “Sorry for the wait.”

Sorry for the wait? How about sorry for the harangue?

I stopped and opened the bottle to see if there were actually two pills in the bottle. There were actually two pills and they looked the right color and shape. I thought to myself, what chance was there that they were actually the right pills? I pulled away furious. At this point it would have been better if they were narcotics.

I do not ultimately blame this Pharmacist. She was doing about the best she could. I blame the store management for putting her in a situation that she could obviously not handle. I am going to talk to the store manager today and give him feedback he needs to hear. I feel sorry for the Pharmacist. Her boss let her down. She may even get fired for it. I am sure the guy who tore off earlier, the two other women in the cars who kept rolling their eyes all might end up complaining. How many more people were frustrated that evening?

It is easier to put a man on the moon than to push two pills through the drive-through window at Walgreens.