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Black Monday after Thanksgiving

·1555 words·8 mins

For as long as Pharmacy has been in existance, there has always been the Black Monday after Thanksgiving. For those not in the profession, since Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, that weekend (for the doctors and some smaller pharmacies) is always a 4 day weekend that always ends on a Monday.
This means that you have about 3 days of Rx’s that have been stacking up while the doctor has been away (or the pharmacy has been closed) that are just waiting to explode all over your face the following Monday.
As I write this, black monday is over (at least for me). I hope you all have a vice filled night.
Just for shits and giggles, post your average and how many you did today in the comment. Our average is about 375 and we did over 500 today.

Comments #

Comment by Bored rx tech on 2007-11-26 20:14:19 -0800 #

Wow yeah i left work and i dont think we hit a hundred yet.

Comment by Grasshopper on 2007-11-26 20:14:59 -0800 #

I’m a relief pharmacist, working at a small grocery store pharmacy in a small town (currently). Average 80-120 a day.
I worked today (Black Monday) and we did around 140. Not much different than a normal Monday…so not to bad.

Comment by usmcgf22 on 2007-11-26 20:24:12 -0800 #

Our average is about 200 a day, and we weren’t closed that Friday or Saturday… but Friday we did 350! So we had a Black Friday instead!!

Comment by Brandon on 2007-11-26 20:36:43 -0800 #

150 — Average
250 — Black Monday
Clinical Epidemiology paper due tomorrow…
Finishing now – drinking later…

Comment by Dave G on 2007-11-26 21:04:33 -0800 #

We normally fill about 600 on Mondays and we weren’t that much busier. Last Monday we did 707 and it kicked our ass. (yes, I work for WAG). In fact, last Monday my store wasn’t even close to being the busiest (we were 8th in the district-two stores doing over 1000 including 6 doing over 800)

Comment by Lynn (RainDrop) on 2007-11-26 21:12:17 -0800 #

I used to work at a 24 hr pharmacy in NYC. We were one of five pharmacies in a two-block area. Our normal counts were 400-500. One Black Monday, we did 745. Our pharmacy was small and we had techs, interns and RPh’s crashing into each other.

Comment by Jory on 2007-11-26 21:26:50 -0800 #

We were rather slow today which was kind of surprising. I worked at the slow store today (averages about 90, did about 150 today) and our busy stores were near the 250 mark (avg about 180). Think this means we’re gonna get hosed later this week.

Comment by S Lee on 2007-11-26 23:44:08 -0800 #

We average at 150-200 and we did 390 today! =X One pharmacist, One tech

Comment by Crystal on 2007-11-27 05:06:01 -0800 #

We average about 150/day, and I think we didn’t even hit that when I’d left the store. Then again, it was raining all day, which means that the old folks were staying in out of fear of the wetness.

Comment by Mark on 2007-11-27 05:42:30 -0800 #

For the first time in my career I stopped accepting rxs unless they were to be picked up tuesday. To make matters worse my tech started 2 weeks ago.

Comment by C. Diane on 2007-11-27 06:08:37 -0800 #

I don’t think we did more than usual (about 90) in my health department pharmacy.
Wednesday, however, my poor manager was there all alone, expecting a slow day, and he did 188. And we’re only open for 8 hours.

Comment by Pilldoc on 2007-11-27 07:04:29 -0800 #

Our average Monday is anywhere from 200-250, on Black Monday we did 295. So not outrageous. And, I get to look forward to a visit from the “Bigwigs” today..can’t they just stay home????

Comment by Pharmacy Mike on 2007-11-27 10:22:59 -0800 #

This year was weird. We didn’t do any more than an average monday (somewhere in the mid-500’s). Last year, we did 628 on Black Monday.
For whatever reason, the worst day of the year for us is typically the Monday after Easter. Last year we did 701 on that day… and no, we’re not a Walgreens or CVS.

Comment by Prophetess of Doom on 2007-11-27 10:42:54 -0800 #

Small town pharmacy… average 150 – we did 197 on Monday. Was fun, though! 🙂 Love your site!

Comment by rph3664 on 2007-11-27 11:28:22 -0800 #

As many of you know, I no longer work in retail, but my last holiday there was the day after Labor Day. We averaged about 200 a day, but that day, we did 400 exactly, smashing our old record in the low 300s to smithereens.
And I’ll never forget the music channel on the overhead PA, either. It was that classic rock channel that was playing things like the 17-minute version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and even played “In The Court of the Crimson King.” They once had that channel on when I came in in the morning and “Crimson King” was playing when I opened the pharmacy.
It almost made me want to take acid, something I have never had any desire to do.
lol

Comment by John Johnson on 2007-11-27 13:15:48 -0800 #

Average is about 100 per day, yesterday we did 183. It went pretty smooth, though. Lot of refills!!

Comment by Cranky Pants44 on 2007-11-27 13:37:36 -0800 #

I knew Black Monday was coming…Our store averages around 250 on Mondays (higher at the beginning of the month due to our lovely medicare system!). As I was leaving at 7pm we had over 290 with five hours left to our day. All that AND 39 weeks pregnant! Come to think of it, maybe I shouldn’t have been there…I chewed on a few people’s heads yesterday…hmmm…

Comment by Sandi on 2007-11-27 17:49:01 -0800 #

I work in a call center and took about 70 calls (typical is 70-80 for a Monday) over 10 hours, but one of them was a potential suicide and I was on the phone with her for an hour (she would not agree to be transferred to suidide hotline no way no how)

Comment by The Ole’ Apothecary on 2007-11-27 18:55:31 -0800 #

You could add “Black Tuesday” for the first day post any of the “Monday Holiday Bill” (federal) holidays that affect office hours (Memorial Day), and also Christmas and New Year’s if they fall on a Sunday).
Ever wonder why sickness never has a day off in the pharmacy world, but can take a holiday in the doctors’ offices?

Comment by RxTechKim on 2007-11-27 19:23:37 -0800 #

On Mondays, our clinic pharmacy averages about 170. We did 296, however, that was with a nursing home fill. I think we were actually slower than normal this past Monday.

Comment by pharmacy tech gone postal on 2007-11-27 19:34:14 -0800 #

WE are a grocery store pharmacy and we average about 300 per day, black monday was over 400. tired now, drinking whiskey with diet mt dew.

Comment by Tony on 2007-11-28 07:13:18 -0800 #

We usually average around 600-700 per day. We regularly hit 900 on Mondays. This black monday, however, we cranked out a whopping 1200! I feel dead.

Comment by BlueTech on 2007-11-28 09:45:59 -0800 #

Weekday Average – 400
Monday Average – 480
Black Monday – 750
The Walgreens in one of our busiest towns does 1200 per day, regularly. I’d hate to see what happened on monday…then again, they’re 24 hours…

Comment by Ragin’ CPhT on 2007-12-01 09:42:41 -0800 #

ANY day after a holiday majorly sucks! Drs. office workers are ‘testy’ – as are the patients for whatever reason! Actually, I hate the day prior to the holiday … people are leaving town, etc. and they just HAVE to have that prescription that they’ve been holding on to for the past 6 weeks filled right then, and piss and moan if you tell them they have a 20 minute wait! It’s the usual bs – my favorite one is … “my flight leaves in 2 hours” – uh, like that’s MY fault? Where were you the past SIX weeks? Hmmmm? Or, “I’m going out of town for the holidays and I need to get on the road” … okay, and I should give a shit, why??? And, yes, I work for WAG!

Comment by Elizabeth on 2007-12-17 20:15:51 -0800 #

We usually do about 500-550 on a given monday Black monday was 637.

Comment by phxpharmacist on 2007-12-21 06:50:26 -0800 #

Black Monday yielded 671, we average about 580 on mondays.

Comment by chuck on 2013-01-02 20:10:23 -0800 #

Interesting stuff! I like seeing numbers of Rxs posted but they dont really mean anything to me without knowing how many RPh & tech hours posted and if there is a drive thru. And if there is a machine, I wouldnt begin to understand how you could compare the volume of that to most pharmacies without a machine. I would say also that there are variables involved. How good are techs? How needy are the people? This can easily make it seem like you have done double or triple the Rxs. I work mainly by myself never with a machine but sometimes with overlap. I was impressed last week when I learned that only 1 RPh managed 483 in one day by himself (and some flu shots to boot). Staff good and no drive-thru BUT DAMNNNNNN!!!!