Our store manager got back from visiting the DC that serves our store today

[TwixVoy]

Our store manager went with a group of other store managers to visit our DC today. This DC serves every store in a city that is one of the largest in the country.

All she could say was how shocked she was over how completely empty the entire center was. It explains why we can not get a great amount of product in to our stores. For example, we have not been able to restock on out of stock TVs at every store in the city for going on two weeks now.

Right now we are trying to get every end cap in the store set up with some kind of promotion/sale. Sales growth for the entire company has been in the solid red for the same time last year. We are talking double digit negative maturity numbers company wide - and this time last year was when we were starting to see sales tank so it's even worse than last year. The scary thing is that we are seeing a steady decline, and by this time we would typically be seeing a steady increase.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. Wanna hear something REALLY strange?

I took my regular oxycodone prescription in to the pharmacy where I've been a customer for years. The pharmacist couldn't fill it. They were out of the capsules.

Out of them, and now it's been eleven days since I took that scrip in, and still the pharmacy hasn't been able to get any oxycodone from the suppliers.

I called every drugstore in the area, and got the same answer everywhere.

A friend in Florida told me the same story.

And this is oxycodone in 5 mg. I asked about all dosages, and was told the same thing.

No oxycodone.

Now, I'm not in bad pain, so I don't need it all the time, and I have a stash on hand. But what about people who are in really bad pain?

The pharmacist said there have been delays in getting some drugs, but never anything like this, and no one knows why or when it will end.

[NMDemDist2]

5. ...

:hug:

sux getting old doesn't it??

:pals:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Not if you have a stash

of oxycodone, Vicodin, and this funny stuff that looks like oregano.

Gotta run down to the wine celler - BRB ----------------------------------->

[NMDemDist2]

8. sux to be me then

:rofl:

i'm a recovered drunk and addict, I don't 'stash' I use then look for more :hide:

:hi:


:evilgrin:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

15. That's the difference between addicts and

non-addicts, isn't it? I can take it all or leave it all - except when I'm in pain, which isn't very often.

I am convinced it's a genetic luck of the draw.

I'm glad you recovered:

[NMDemDist2]

16. yup

and me too :hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. I'm sitting here,

grinning at you.................

[Subdivisions]

10. Hey, Bogart....

I knew there was a good reason I liked you! :D

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. Admit it - you're on to me for my looks:

[roguevalley]

28. may I be one tenth as cool as that woman when I get to her age

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I may be wrong, but I thoght I had read somwhere that most drugs are coming from China.

Defineltly most "nutritional supplements"

Question of ingredients aside, there is much news about the "Baltic Dry Index" which tracks shipping across the oceans,
Down something like 98% because of credit lockup.
Reports of docks bulding with goods that cannot be shipped and/or cannot be delivered because no one can use credit to pay for them.

In short...shortages starting to be felt.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. This makes absolute sense

Holy shit, though. If this is what's happening, and it's as good an explanation as I've heard (actually, I've heard none because no one ever had this happen before), then we are so totally, totally fucked.

So the distributors in the US can't get credit, can't get the drugs, and so, we have pharmacists calling every day trying to find out where the oxycodone is.

We're fucked. We are totally fucked.

[msongs]

22. call rush limbaugh, maybe he has some extras nt

[NMDemDist2]

2. why? no credit to order stock? the parent company afraid? no product available?

I was shocked today to see my local Dollar General store with several aisles only 1/3 full and 2/3 clean and empty shelves. As I was in there the staff had a big printout with the lists of the 'discontinued' items

:scared:

[TwixVoy]

13. The company has plenty of credit/cash to order stock

apparently there are a variety of problems going on right now. Part of it is intentionally keeping stock low, but when it comes time to actually try to purchase stock one of them problems is that suppliers can't obtain it to sell to us. Apparently part of it is that they can't even get certain products in to the country in large amounts right now.

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Sounds like what I heard is right...shipping problem.

Time to order more pet anti-biotics from the catalog.
And cat flea stuff.
And to re-new the dog Valium.

Yep..dog is on valium, for the thunderstorms. But Vet writes a 6 mo. script, and I stock up.

As my g'ma alsways said..." You never know...."

I forsee smuggling medicine as a new business model.

[MUAD_DIB]

3. Does your Store name rhyme with WestRye?

[Systematic Chaos]

6. Let him keep the secret as long as he has the job, shall we?

I don't think it matters worth a flying fig what the name of the place rhymes with at this point. It could be Ralph's Toenail Clipping Emporium and it wouldn't change much.

[MUAD_DIB]

11. If that is the case then you should relax.

[galileoreloaded]

9. Twix has said Target before......n/t

[MUAD_DIB]

14. I hadn't seen the prior posts so thanks.

[Celebration]

26. I think we have GUESSED Target before n/t

[kestrel91316]

4. I'm actually starting to see a slight loosening of pocketbooks in my clients the past few weeks.

But I was talking to the lady at the print shop nextdoor and she was complaining that last summer she had months of business amounting to under $10 a day in receipts (no, that's not a typo), and they had to take out a (HELOC?) loan to stay afloat. And she has made zero headway in paying off the loan. Another cat vet in my region had to go deeply in debt to stay afloat the past 2 years.

So I don't feel so bad - EVERYBODY is hurting. Shelves are half-bare at Target, probably because they have reduced stocking levels. And they only had 3 checkstands open tonight at 6PM, and nobody in line had more than half a dozen items, mostly essentials.

We are learning some important lessons in these difficult times - how to make do with less and strip life down to the bare essentials. But I think in the end we will be ok. And it's ok if I never get rich - I gave up on the idea of a Jaguar and McMansion and Prince Charming about 15 years ago.

[Tess49]

21. While I am cutting down on everything I can think of, the one

thing I refuse to cut corners on is health care for my two cat kids and my dog girl. They are all set.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. But, but I found PRINCE CHARMING, not the one in short stories

but charming nonetheless

:-)

[grasswire]

23. I'm going to ask my doc for 12 month rx's for my meds

Longer, if she will write it that way. I plan to stock up. On supplements, too.

[1776Forever]

25. Take a look at this article: Shortage of Critical Commodities Seen Already

February 11, 2009

Shortage of Critical Commodities Seen Already
by Marygwen Dungan

http://www.safehaven.com/article-12578.htm

Maybe you thought that less trade with China would mean fewer choices of lawn gnomes at Walmart this summer. And since you've recently sworn off, who cares anyway. Turns out China is also a leading provider of the raw materials used to make critical pharmaceutical drugs. We'll have fewer of those too and, in some cases, none at all.

What inspired me to write about this subject was the predicament of a friend in pain management. Last week a Wegmans pharmacy ran out of OxyContin® and several other prescription medicines. Customers were told that Wegmans' supplier did not have the ingredients to make several medicines and did not know when they would have them. Wegmans isn't a mom-and-pop corner store with no buying power. It's a 71-store chain on the east coast, is one of the largest private companies in the US and had sales of $4.8 billion in 2008. The active ingredient of OxyContin® is thebaine, an alkaloid compound distilled from opium. By law, it cannot be stored so each year's crop size is determined by expected sales. However, it's only February so the shortage in the US is not due to Asian exporters' supplies having run out.

The shortage of leucovorin, a generic used in the treatment of colon cancer, is so acute that many cancer patients are receiving lower-than-prescribed dosages or none at all. According to suppliers, the shortage is due to "manufacturing" delays. In an interview with Forbes, Michael Katz, chair of a committee of patients that advises the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), said, "I've never heard of anything like it," nor had any of the doctors in the group. There is a fear that shortages will occur more frequently with generic drugs because the margins are so thin. Leucovorin is also called folinic acid, which is derived from vitamin B and, like most vitamins, vitamin B comes from China.

There is also a worldwide shortage of acetonitrile, a critical chemical ingredient used in the purification of pharmaceutical compounds. Acetonitrile is a by-product of the automotive industry and is in short supply due to the worldwide slowdown in that industry, which, in turn, has caused chemical production facilities around the world to close.

Going forward, a number of factors will influence the availability of life-saving medicines and other critical commodities.

Supply disruptions: The majority of growers and producers of the raw materials for drugs are in Asia. You remember the cliff dive of the Baltic Dry Index last year. It was a reflection of severe disruptions in international trade, which, in large part, was caused by the unwillingness of banks to accept letters of credit. This could be the reason for the shortages of opium distillates, vitamins and other raw materials, which are showing up in US pharmacies now.

Profitability and production stoppages: Indian pharmaceutical companies have stopped manufacturing some unprofitable drugs and they threaten to cut back on more. Their profits have been eroded by the fall in value of the rupee, which has raised their procurement costs for both packaging materials and bulk purchases of raw materials from China.

Distribution: Trucking companies across the country are both cutting back on routes and closing due to less business and higher costs. This reached crisis proportions during the gas price spike last spring and summer and is continuing due to reduced demand for hauling. Bankruptcies were up more than 118% by the second half of 2008. In a Reuter's interview, industry consultant Fred Crawford said he expects the acceleration of bankruptcies seen in the second half of 2008 to continue this year.

If demand for medicine decreases in a depression, it's not because people aren't sick. In fact, more people are sick, but they can't afford medical care. If you've come across the crisis-preparedness list of 100 Things that Disappear First, you know that drugs are at the top of the list. Well, we are in a crisis, we are ill-prepared and, sure enough, medicines are disappearing.

..........

This is very scary for those chronically ill patients like my son with Progressive MS who need to have drugs to live with any quality of life that may be left for them. I hope and pray this is taken care of soon and should be a high priority to those in power.



:pals:

[SecularMotion]

27. I've worked enough retail to know

that it's not unusual for warehouses and stockrooms to be near empty at this time of year. Most retail businesses will do their yearly inventories now when the stock is at a low point.