Eckerd to Lay off 1,400 Florida Headquarters Workers

[mom cat]

Eckerd to Lay off 1,400 Florida Headquarters Workers
The Associated Press
Published: Jul 20, 2004






LARGO, Fla. (AP) - Eckerd Corp. plans to lay off about 1,400 management and support workers at its Florida headquarters starting next month, as the pharmacy chain prepares to change owners.
The jobs will be cut from Aug. 1 through Jan. 31. It is unclear how many will be transferred to one of Eckerd's new owners, according to the notice released Monday by Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. agreed in April to sell Florida-based Eckerd's more than 2,800 stores to rivals CVS Corp. and Jean Coutu Group Inc. in two deals valued at $4.53 billion. Federal regulators have approved the sale, which is expected to close by the end of the month.

Coutu will receive Eckerd headquarters in Largo, and its U.S. subsidiary, Brooks Pharmacy, notified the state of the planned layoffs.

Brooks "intends to make every effort to find suitable employment for displaced associates elsewhere," according to a letter filed with the state. Employees who joined Eckerd before Dec. 1 will be offered severance packages, the letter said.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBTYB8JWWD.html

[wish_I_could_vote]

1. jean coutu

where you can find everything, even a friend. Canadians, remember that slogan?

[bluestateguy]

2. Uh oh

I don't think they got Karl Rove's memo about voters in swing states not wanting to be unemployed in an election year.

[Florida_Geek]

3. more IT workers out of work

Largo is their computer center.........

[SoCalDem]

4. suitable employment ....Walmart or McDonalds??

Merger-mania and consolidation always have their downsides, don't they??

Let's hope that Kerry and Edwards speak to these folks.. Those 1.400 votes would be nice to have in our column..

If they SAY 1,400, you know there will be more than that :(

[1monster]

12. Went through this when Eckerds bought out the Florida Revcos in 1990...

(Yeah, right in the middle of the other Bush recession.)

There were two Revco's in town. One was about a mile and a half away from an existing Eckerds and was thus closed down. All those employees had to find other employment.

Of those of us at the remaining Revco, all who had dependent children were gone within 18 to 20 months. Two were fired on the flimisiest excuses, one pharmacist was replaced when she requested a short (one week) unpaid leave of absence for an unexpected family emergency, two were harrassed to the point that the hourly wage associate walked off the job and the assistant manager (formerly manager of the store under Revco) gave a week's notice and moved to North Carolina where Revco, still in existance there, hired him immediately to manage another store.

That was before JC Pennys bought Eckerds. But I would assume that if CVS has stores in the area of the current Eckerds, then the current Eckerds employees may find that most of them are gone in 18 to 20 months too.

[SoCalDem]

15. That's what will happen.. CVS stores are icky..

Eckerds (as I recall them) were usually in smaller centers where there was a Publix or some other market, and out here CVS stores are usually inside malls..

Unfortunately for drug store chains, now that grocery stores have pharmacies, and Walmarts & Costcos do too, the day of the "stand-alone" drug store are numbered..

We had that consolidation out here when Thrifty and Sav-On were gobbled up.. It's odd too because once RiteAid started "merging" into our area, and closing stores, because there were "too many" drug stores....Walgreens popped up out here and has TWO in my area..

It's pretty much just a way to keep employees "in their place"..Keeps them hopping from place to place and keep those wages low..

[UpInArms]

5. job training will include learning to say

"would you like that super-sized?"

[mbperrin]

6. There goes that * job machine again!

There the jobs go!

[quaoar]

7. No need to worry

I'm sure there will be plenty of available openings at Wal-Mart for all those people. I hear Taco Bell might be hiring, too.

[markses]

8. Do laid off employees get to vote in Florida?

:evilgrin:

[Halliburton]

9. No

According to Bush, laid off workers=terrorists!

[markses]

10. LOL

Welcome to DU, Halliburton. I understand that we need some work done in the basement: Make a bid! ;-)

[mbee]

11. A vacant store here in Baltimore has a sign that Eckards is coming

soon. Guess they're coming from FL. Crazy!

[soup]

13. Is this CVS the new Walmart of Drug Supercenters? n/t

[King of New Orleans]

14. The Eckerd's around here are shoddy

badly outclassed by Walgreen's. Unless they pumped alot of money into refurbishing them I don't know how they'll survive. I imagine most of them won't.

[DaveClearwater99]

16. Ekerds in Largo

is their computer center and it's staffed largely by H1-Bs. There was an article in the St Pete Times a while back about how many H1-Bs are working there so Bush won't lose many votes.

The one person I know who works there now just got his Green Card and has joined the Right Wing Christian fold. I'm sure he'll still be supporting Bush. It's amazing how droolers will continue to support Bush even when they're unemployed.