Headline: The American Prospect, 3/19/2026
Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein reports:
The changing nature of business ownership may contribute to the trend, as owners are increasingly removed from day-to-day realities. Regulators have found systemic understaffing by large corporate chains, for example, leading to unprecedented enforcement action. In 2021, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy discovered CVS pharmacies with barricaded walk-up windows that diverted all customers to the drive-through, because there was only one pharmacist on duty to deal with customers. Unopened boxes and deliveries littered pharmacist workstations, while the heat in the building rose above safe levels. Some patients had to wait over a month to have their prescriptions filled. “Pharmacy staff asked for assistance from a pharmacist and pharmacy technician to fill prescriptions after hours to get caught up,” the board’s report reads. “They were denied, stating there is no staffing available to do so.” Investigators first visited one CVS store in March, and when they returned in October, they noted that every worker interviewed in the first report just months earlier was gone. In 2024, the board settled a $1.5 million fine against the chain.
[snip]
Increased corporate concentration plays a role in understaffing, as seen vividly in the Ohio Board of Pharmacy’s report on the business practices of CVS. CVS, the sixth-largest corporation in America and one of two major pharmacies, has a history of buying out competitor pharmacies, only to close them and divert business to their main store. This increased business does not come with additional staff, drowning pharmacists and store employees with more than they can handle.
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