As
I rounded the corner to head down the aisle to the pharmacy, I saw the dreaded
sight – a line that extended across the
aisle I was on and across part of the next aisle. So, I changed my course
and moved over to that aisle so I could intercept the line and find my place at
the end. Once in line I realized it would probably not be as bad as I first
though because there were only four people in front of me – for some reason they decided to keep a safe
distance of about 4 ft. between them.
You
know how it is when you submit to “the line.” Our senses start taking in
everything in our surrounding – probably inherited
this from our ancestors who wanted to make sure there were no mountain lines or
rattlesnakes close by where they were waiting in line for a drink of water.
This makes us really good at spotting potential threats – and I did. Over to
the left there were four people sitting in chairs waiting on prescriptions and
outside the drive thru window there were two cars. We were all looking toward
one spot – and that spot was occupied by
one young woman. There were ten of us all looking at her!
I
quickly noticed that she was looking somewhere too – back in the pharmacy where
there were three or four other Walgreen employees staying business and making
sure they made no eye contact with us.
After
about 25 or more minutes standing in line, I made it to her – provided the
usual stuff – name, address, DOB. She
went over and picked up a bag and handed it to me and told me to put my info in
the system. When she told me the price I asked her if that was correct, it was
only about half what it was supposed to be – and then it happened. She looked
in the bag and there was only one bottle. Then she went back to the computer
and clicked and said – they only filled one prescription. With a strained
forced smile she said – “Would you like
wait for us to fill it – in about another 30 minutes?”
That’s
when I decided this Walgreen pharmacy has a problem. A problem is an existing
situation that fails to meet values and expectations.” So I analyzed the
situation and came up with the following options for what the problem is:
(1) Customers are less important than
other things.
(2) Employees that interact with
customers are too expensive to hire.
(3) Too many customers show at once.
(4) Too many customers show up at the
wrong time.
After
cogitating on this highly important situation I reached this conclusion – This Walgreen Pharmacy must have too many
customers!
What
do you think? Got any suggestions?
The
Country Cogitator
PS I feel a little better now.
