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The problem is, if you read the stories, Amazon is turning pharmaceutical work into basically another warehouse job of high quotas and speed. To the point that
by delfinom 3y ago
The problem is, if you read the stories, Amazon is turning pharmaceutical work into basically another warehouse job of high quotas and speed. To the point that pharmacies just ignore Amazon's requests to transfer meds because Amazon would use autodialers to call pharmacies, and then put the called on pharmacy on hold until the single pharmacist on call at Amazon picks up that call after dealing with dozens of others at the same time. Meanwhile wasting the time of the other pharmacies.
This is just Amazon trying to grow their pharmacy business at all costs. What they are doing in this specific example is a good thing, but who knows what the fallout will be.
- vwcx 3y ago> who knows what the fallout will be Excellent point. It's easy (in the US, at least) to take the widespread availability of pharmacies in grocery stores, street corners, etc for granted. It's not difficult to see Amazon squeezing the industry enough to make a pharmacy in a grocery store unsustainable.
- bobthepanda 3y agoYMMV. But I live in the Seattle area and it seems like the major chains (CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid) are all doing the same and their pharmacists are quitting in droves. Rite Aid just bought a beloved local chain and now everyone I know has switched because it’s been run into the ground.
- Zpalmtree 3y agoMore competition is rarely a bad thing
- scubbo 3y agoRarely, indeed! But when a competitor is a behemoth who is able to eat losses until they drive competitors out of business (and has a track record of doing so) so that competition (and customer experience quality) declines in the long run, that's the rare-but-true case of "a new competitor entering the market is bad, actually".
- milesvp 3y agoYeah, seriously. More competition, and monopsony do not dwell in the same space. We’ve been very lax in our reigning in of big companies that destroy competition while claiming they’re competitive. It’s like bringing a gun to a track meet and saying you won the race while one racer lies bleeding on the ground and every other racer has suspiciously slow times.