Though frowned upon by many Americans, globalization seems to be the new norm amongst numerous large corporations. Walgreens seems to be taking advantage of mergers and globalization, venturing out into the rapidly developing markets overseas. The Deerfield, Ill-based Company bought 45% of United Kingdom-drugstore chain Alliance Boots back in 2012. In a short time the success of this acquisition allowed Walgreens to present the proposal of buying the remaining 55%. “In 2014, shareholders agreed to the proposal allowing a corporate reorganization resulting in Walgreens becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of a company to be known as Walgreens Boots Alliance” (McCoy, 2014). While planning to buy the remainder of Boots Alliance, Walgreens originally planned to incorporate a headquarters in Europe. This would allow them to take advantage of a legal tax inversion, however, it was brought to their attention the potential beliefs that they would be undermining the American tax system. Since then, the Department of Treasury created new regulations that would make such inversion, while still legal, less profitable and harder to execute (McCoy, 2016). A tax inversion is where U.S. organization purchases a firm domiciled in another nation with a lower corporate expense rate (say the U.K. alternately Ireland) and "migrates" the purchaser's assessment home to that of the offering organization. “A tax-motivated deal rationale may play well to shareholders, but holds the risk of intense criticism by well-known politicians who continue to publicly characterize these deals as unfair, "unAmerican" tax avoidance (Goldberg, et al, 2015). Personally, it ails me to even think that this company, who already isn’t for the shallow pocketed lower class Americans, would be considering such a strategy to evade American tax laws. Furthermore, I will agree that this would have brought on many negative feelings towards the company and I am glad that our Treasury Department felt the need to slow the cash flow into these money hungry, deep pocketed corporations. I feel that inversions should only be allowed for a company who is in need or foresees a financial crisis, and could truly benefit from this, keeping the doors open, or allowing them the ability to prosper for only a set number of years, as deemed necessary. Another key decision within Walgreens Boots Alliance came in 2015 with its decision to buy out its drugstore retail chain competitor Rite Aid. It is believed that this merger will allow consumers the benefit of more access to pharmacies and benefit managers. According to Forbes Investing Website, Walgreens Boots Alliance stated that “the combination of WBA and Rite Aid creates a further opportunity to deliver a high quality retail choice for U.S. consumers in an evolving and increasingly personalized healthcare environment” (Gara, 2015). Walgreens launched a new pharmacy model, Well Experience, in 2011 allowing for more one on one experience with customers and or patients and trying to raise the rate of patient medication consultation rates. These models have thus been targeted for ethical violations, one being a breach of patient confidentiality. The new layout of the clinic model actually brings the pharmacist out in front of the counter, putting his or her computers and mobile devices at risk to be left unattended and visible by the public. The HIPPA violation is still a major concern within Well Experience clinics. I believe that small changes in the setup of the model could solve these problems. A pharmacist should never have his or her station open to the public, meaning no one should be able to see their screens nor reach their work area for any reason without proper clearance protocol. In order to eliminate the public access to the pharmacists work station, simply elevating the pharmacist’s workstation, adding a locking door, and putting up a plexi-glass window all the way around the station could block potential medication theft, the ability for wondering eyes to see other patients medications, and even block the availability of pharmacy techs to ‘snoop’ around outside of the prescriptions they are working on at the current time. I believe this could also possibly eliminate customer confidential calls from being overheard as well. It wouldn’t take much to eliminate some of the risks associated with the Well Experience model, allowing the clinic to still function the way it was intended to when Walgreens introduced it several years ago. Whether it be overall corporate decisions for expansion of stores, or just simple provisions made to clinics already set up, Walgreens could put a little bit of effort into research to find easy and affordable changes or options in order to reduce backlash, and increase consumer happiness. After-all, the old saying goes, the customer is always right.

Resources:
Gara, A. (2015). Forbes: The Last Big Drugstore Deal: Walgreens To Buy Rite Aid for $17.2 Billion. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2015/10/27/the-last-big-drugstore-deal-walgreens-to-buy-rite-aid-for-17-2-billion/#5e879d15ea4f
Goldberg, K., & Nathan, C. (2015). M&A communications challenges posed by tax inversion deals. Insights; the Corporate & Securities Law Advisor, 29(1), 26-28. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1652331701?accountid=87314
McCoy, K. (2014). USA TODAY: Shareholders OK Walgreens-Alliance Boots deal. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/12/29/walgreens-alliance-boots-deal-approval/20996869/
Rudansky, A.K. (2013). Walgreens Accused of Exposing Customer Health Data. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/regulations/walgreens-accused-of-exposing-customer-health-data/d/d-id/1112057?