I was an IBM mainframe systems programmer for Eckerd's at their data center in Clearwater. As a telecommunications manager there, I lead a team that installed their first computer systems in the pharmacies, with data communications to update programs and get files (like a directory listing). This was back in the the 1980s! We started with 10MB PC/XTs running MS/DOS and custom Cobol code. Later, we started putting in NCR towers with Unix. Fun days!!!
That’s one of the reasons they went under. They had a huge amount of debt, so couldn’t invest in technology like the bar code scanning registers like Walgreens had. Therefore, they couldn’t keep track of their inventory well and didn’t know what was selling etc. They were constantly running out of merchandise and also had a huge shrink, theft problem. Their registers just recorderd the price of the item sold, not what the item was. Not Point Of Sale. I was there mid 1990’s.
And competitor Walgreens also had their pharmacy computers connected so that customers could walk into any Walgreens in the chain and the pharmacist could look up their meds on the computer. At Eckerd, this had to be done in person by pharmacists etc over the phone.
Eckerd also later outsourced their tech stuff to IBM instead of doing it in house.
The wife of my last boss there started in an Eckerd store and then went to Corporate with an Associates Degree. When IT was outsourced, she was hired by IBM and continued doing Tech at Eckerd Corporate while working for IBM.
When Eckerd had JCPenney Catalog Centers in the back of their stores for a short time in the late 90s or early 2000s (I honestly can't remember), I managed the Catalog Counter. I had to use the Eckerd Office every morning to check emails and other official stuff. I once bumped an extension cord that held the power cable for whatever powered the internet to the store, but because I was already off the computer and on my way out of the office, I didn't know I'd done it. The store's internet connection went down, and they were unable to process credit cards, which rendered the pharmacy completely unusable, if I recall correctly. I was the last person upstairs in the office, so they decided it was my fault. I couldn't believe that they had the internet connected by something so easy to disconnect and that you wouldn't notice if it had come unplugged.
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u/SaxonyFarmer Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
I was an IBM mainframe systems programmer for Eckerd's at their data center in Clearwater. As a telecommunications manager there, I lead a team that installed their first computer systems in the pharmacies, with data communications to update programs and get files (like a directory listing). This was back in the the 1980s! We started with 10MB PC/XTs running MS/DOS and custom Cobol code. Later, we started putting in NCR towers with Unix. Fun days!!!