Is He In Hiding?

Given that he is never seen publicly anymore, I am beginning to wonder if Galen Weston Jr,  the president of Loblaw Companies Ltd., is in witness protection. If not, given the extortionate prices he has presided over in recent years, it might not be a bad idea. 

Not content with the record profits his company is accruing, he is helming a couple of more initiatives to squeeze even more money from his operations, while simultaneously inviting even more odium from both taxpayers and the consuming public.

The CBC reports one of theses avenues is via the Loblaw-owned Shoppers Drug Mart chain. Corporate pressure is being exerted to up profit-levels through medication reviews.

Medication reviews are meetings between a pharmacist and a patient to go over their prescriptions and ensure they're taking the right combination of medicines. Anyone who takes at least three medications for a chronic condition, is living in a licensed long-term care home, or is receiving treatment for diabetes is eligible for a medication review in Ontario under the province's MedsCheck program.

"The pressure was extremely intense," said Curtis, a pharmacist and former associate store owner whose franchise agreement was terminated in the last six months. 

"They were essentially monitoring performance records weekly and if you were not hitting your weekly billing numbers, you were requested to come up with business plans and somehow come through with those billing dollars at the end of the day."

Emails to pharmacists belie the denials issued by the company about this practice.

In a December 2023 email to associate owners in Ontario — where Shoppers has most of its stores — a vice president reiterated the company's ongoing plan to "accelerate the care we are providing" through medication reviews before the end of the year. The plan included adopting higher weekly targets (known internally as "run rates") to prepare owners to meet new targets set out for 2024. 

 "Over the next 48 hours, I will be reaching out to you directly to speak with you and understand your commitment to meeting this run rate and providing these services to your patient population, and what your plan is to meet the run rate by the end of this week," the email said.

Associate owners get a cut of the professional services billed by their pharmacies. Records show the company offered an incentive of 10 per cent on top of that cut for a period at the end of 2023 if owners exceeded their target plan. 

Is this a victimless 'crime'? Hardly, because here in Ontario, payment for the reviews would be through OHIP, meaning all taxpayers are on the hook for this abuse.

This February, Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies across Ontario brought in a collective $1,869,300 in revenue for professional services in a single week, according to internal records. Medication reviews accounted for more than 75 per cent of that revenue — $1,423,900. 

This is not the only measure Loblaw is taking, however, as the following video explains. 

As my wife said, what if you only browse and don't buy anything? How do you get out of the store?

One can only suggest that Mr. Weston look to his own house before applying the label of "criminal suspect" to his customers.