October 10, 2008 was a great Day

I just went to the Walgreens Board and this is what the headline read

Walgreen CEO retires after failed Longs bid

YES FOLKS! JEFF REIN THE WORST CEO EVER AND ONE OF THE FOUR REASONS WHY I HATE WALGREENS, EXITED STAGE LEFT ON FRIDAY.

This was two days after Walgreens had humble pie served to them by LONGS and the America Public

I think that I played some role in his ouster or retirement. Because on September 29, I submitted a Letter to the Board of Directors of Longs Drug Stores outlining why CVS should buy them

Here is what I outlined

Walgreens has not been a good corporate citizen since 2002 when David W Bernauer took over the operations and when Jeff Rein took over in 2006. Here are the reasons why they have not been a good corporate citizen

- Walgreens had to settle two lawsuits totaling $55 Million with the government. $20 million when the EEOC charged that Walgreens were discriminating against African-Americans in the area of promotions or going to better stores and $35 million for overcharging Medicare on Pills and Capsules.
- Walgreens has an inane policy of having their photo-lab specialist not be in the photo lab and instead when being short-staff protect $100,000 worth of cosmetics no matter the gender. CVS has their specialists in the photo lab, so does Wal-Mart and Target, BUT NOT WALGREENS. They worry about protecting lipstick than developing a customer’s role of film. Now, Walgreens will counter that you work for the company. IF you work for any company and work in a call center for them by the same token, are you expected to head a store and work there in case the store is minus a couple of people. ANSWER NO, you work in the call center.
- Walgreens has promoted bad employees, fire great employees and exhibit poor customer service. Go to ripoffreport.com or complaints.com and search Walgreens and you will find that customers are complaining about the service and employees using foul language and racial slurs. As a former employee, I warned upper management about the poor customer service one store’s manager was giving. Upper management not only refused to listen to me, THEY BLAME ME for it. Many customers were coming up to me about my customer service and told me I WAS NOT THE PROBLEM. Therefore, after that another customer complained about that manager, I decided to speak out and be honest. I lost my job 5 days before Christmas in 2005.
- In addition, I went on to the Yahoo Message Board to tell the stockholders of Walgreens and the public about my experience. Walgreens Supporters have gone on the board and basically called me a crybaby, posted lies about me, stated that I was washed out and that my current job that I am scum and have posted my address and phone number on the message board. The Walgreens Supporters have been using tactics that Brown and Williamson employed on Dr. Jeffrey Wigand when he spoke out against them. We all know what happened to Brown and Williamson after that, RJ Reynolds brought them out.
- The town of Fairfield, CT in the neighborhood of Stratfield Village did not want Walgreens in their backyard because they had standards that Walgreens had to be conformed too. Instead of following the rules, WALGREENS sued this small neighborhood twice. Go to this website http://www.stratfieldvillageassociation.org/Walgreensmainpage.html and you will see the battle
- Walgreens did not want to buy you in the first place. The only reason why they want to buy your now is prevent CVS from getting you and trim tens of thousands of jobs.

Walgreens would have lost. They would blame the current economic conditions. I say that is not the only reason. It is their conduct of their employees and supporters is the reason why Jeff Rein is out the job.