Spent over half an hour on line at CVS yesterday to pick up medication

[conuly]

Unfortunately, we were all out, so I didn't have the option to come back in the morning.

The guy behind me would not stop whining about how "they need to open a new line" and "it's not moving, I don't know why they don't open a new line" and so on. Which, I get it, I do. I like to complain. I have, in fact, complained about this line now four separate times. But not to the same person over and over again!

And eventually I turned around and said, very carefully, "They can not open a new line because they'd need a new pharmacist. Which they don't have, so complaining doesn't make this line move any faster. All you're really doing here is irritating me". He got a bit pissy for a moment about not seeing how his incessant complaints irritated me, but then he did at least shut up.

And again - I really understand the urge to complain. I really do. What else am I doing here, after all, other than making my fourth complaint? But omg, if the other people in the same situation are not chiming in, just shut up already. You're not making things better, and you can complain just as well in your own mind as aloud!

Comments

[ioplokon]

i swear i have the world's only good cvs pharmacy. they have 2 people on the register at all times & have gone out of their way to get my prescription fixed when my doctor messed up & when my insurance was being a butt.

[conuly]

I've honestly never seen them anywhere near this understaffed before. I don't want you to think that experience was at all typical.

[ioplokon]

looks like you have the other good one. idk, local friends all have miserable cvs experiences & I'm like ?? bc mine is really good.

[spiffikins]

I totally agree! And seriously - it seems reasonable to understand that the pharmacy is kind of specialized? They can't just pull in anyone who can run a till, to open a register?

[sathari]

You are my personal hero for this.

[conuly]

And OMG they were so short-staffed. I've never seen it that bad, even at less crowded times of day - exactly four people. One on the register, one on the drive-through, and two people handling everything else. I'm not sure what everything else is, actually, but I know they usually have more people doing that than handling the registers + drive through, so you know it's bad.

[conuly]

One complaint per person, per line. If everybody else chimes in - great! Otherwise - one complaint.

[lilysea]

My feeling is that generally complaints made in person to people who you don't know should be limited to what is actionable

eg "I can't stand up much longer, is there a chair?"

or "I can't stand up much longer, can someone please hold my place in the line"

Complaining to people who you don't know
when there is no action they can take
seems... pointless.

[movingfinger]

I've noticed this at the chain drugstore locally too---they are down a pharmacist from pre-pandemic and it appears to be permanent. They have cut back hours as a result and now there are long always queues inside and at the driveup. I don't know whether it's cost-cutting (trained pharmacists should be paid and paid well) or that people burned out in pharmacy and are doing other things, or different types of pharmacy work.

After half an hour waiting in the driveup line, I transferred all my scrips to the nice local pharmacist we still have.


(There is no 24-hour pharmacy anywhere west of the Sound, afaik; there used to be one, the chain closed it, and the pharmacies all sport signs telling you to go across the water. Which doesn't always work out, because at the times one needs 24-hour pharmacies, the boats aren't always running and it's a very long drive).

[silveradept]

Would that all of our places had enough people at every shift that of things did get this bad, they could open another line. If only to give someone like this complainer less to complain about.

[conuly]

You know, if he'd said anything at all reasonable like "I need a chair" I would've been all over that. Absolutely. Heck, I would've even allowed him to cut in line if he'd seriously said that he had some urgent situation he couldn't wait for. But he just went on and on and on and on about the one thing everybody knows.

[conuly]

Perhaps he thought they were hiding the extra pharmacists in the back.

[lilysea]

Yeah, I really don't get that

I'll complain if there's something *actionable*

or I might complain to Dreamwidth/in person friends after the event when I get home again

but complaining to strangers when there is nothing actionable is just ?????? to me

like, it literally wouldn't occur to me to do it

and it just seems like such a waste of breath/waste of energy for him to do it

[conuly]

I do see how everybody commiserating over the same situation can be a group bonding thing, and even though you wouldn't consciously say "Ah, yes, let me group bond with these people on line at CVS" we're still a social species and we do these things.

But listen, cats are a social species too, and if my darling Callie attempts to bond with her mother by sniffing her face and gets ignored, she stops.