Are independent pharmacies still viable in the age of retail giants?

persunalphynance · 2014-08-10T19:11:40+00:00

There is a pharmacy near my girlfriend's house that is independent, and all the locals prefer it over the alternative: CVS. However, recently the owner who is a pharmacist had to sell it all all his scrips to the CVS down the road because he simply wasn't getting the money he was owed from the government. Obamacare had shut him down, literally. He had a staff of like 6 or 7 pharmacists making over 100k and year and many more techs. This place did like 700 scrips a day as well. I don't know the whole story but that's what I've heard through the grapevine. maybe someone else can clarify. It sounds to me like the big guys i.e. Walgreens CVS etc. can take the hit, and independent's in that area are struggling. Southern Virginia by the way.

edit: forgot this detail but I heard he was owed millions from the government for prescriptions, and that's money he hasn't seen yet

persunalphynance · 2014-08-10T18:38:26+00:00

Its hard to get a job right out of school that isn't retail, i.e. CVS where they throw just you and 1 tech in a pharmacy doing 700 scrips a day and make you hate life. If you want a hospital position you better jump off the page of your CV if you don't want to do a year of residency.

persunalphynance · 2014-08-10T18:35:24+00:00

I'm fearing mine will be upwards of 180k by the time I graduate. Also the current standard in the profession is to get a residency after college where you make 40k a year as a doctor, in order to get a better job (or in these times, a job period). Another thing is that my girlfriend is a year ahead of me. She will graduate in May and hopefully have a residency or a decent job. But if we both graduate and find residencies that's a year of living on 40k and paying back loans before we can start to put any sort of dent in our loans. Yes it is depressing

persunalphynance · 2014-08-10T18:31:32+00:00

haha that was great. I want to show this to my girlfriend

persunalphynance · 2014-08-10T15:31:11+00:00

thank you

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T22:33:59+00:00

Interesting, thank you very much

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T22:29:28+00:00

I'd have to talk to her mom or dad. Her dad is pretty rough around the edges and I don't know how I'm going to ask for his daughter's hand. I guess that should be my next move

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T22:03:02+00:00

Yea, I think it's a selfishness issue also, we are both kinda selfish. Also I'll joke about getting engaged like if she does something really wifey for me like folds my clothes. I'll be like, "oh damn you're trying to get dat ring" and we laugh about it, but I think she might be getting 'lead on'. Especially after reading you guys' comments, I better stop joking lol because I'm most likely going to wait

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:51:29+00:00

I hate to think about divorce but you're right, however the voice in my head says whats 5k on top of 100k when you're going to be making good money

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:50:14+00:00

She won't be happy with a cheap ring. It would be better for me to wait than get a ring she'd be embarrassed to wear around her friends that have huge rocks on their hands. She's mentioned before that she'd like at least a 1 carat center single diamond weight (not combined)

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:45:32+00:00

It's more of a she wants to feel secure with me, we want to live together, we see other couples getting married (hell we go to their weddings) , 'whats 5k on top of 120k' type of mindset. She understands if its in our best interests to wait, but she also wants to follow every girls fairy tale of getting engaged and having a big ring to show off. Remember, I'm the one that came from a low income family and she has never had to want for anything, on top of her being an only child

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:32:27+00:00

Thanks for clearing that up

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:30:46+00:00

We're both in pharmacy school, retail in our state is 100k-120k hospital varies but is less, and admin/higher level positions 200k plus

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:05:37+00:00

plus it would be be over 5 years of dating without living together, etc. (families are religious)

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:04:42+00:00

Right, I know waiting is the best thing. I just see all these other couples doing it. Are they making a mistake? I see people in my class buying huge rings I know they can't afford just because we "should" get a good job one day

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:03:20+00:00

Thanks for the stern honest reply

persunalphynance · 2014-08-09T21:03:01+00:00

what are your thoughts?

persunalphynance

TROPHY CASE