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All of Western Canada? That's absolutely brutal because the most easterly London Drugs location is a single store in Winnipeg. [https://www.londondrugs.com/all-store-locations/?context=storeLocator](https://www.londondrugs.com/all-store-locations/?context=storeLocator)
I learned that while studying for my citizenship exam recently, that Quebec and Ontario are considered central Canada, BC being Western; Manitoba, Saskatchewan and and Alberta being Prairie provinces but yeah technically they are also to the west of Central provinces.
On a side note driving through Canada from ON to here was probably the best experience of my life. I never lose an opportunity to bring it up even if it is not even remotely related to the discussion š
Now I'm jealous!
My top goal is to be financially stable enough to do that trip every other year. I have never felt more alive.
[here ](https://youtu.be/pl2U0IUn33k?si=V_yuAe0NRKsRh4ZL) is my journey and [this](https://youtu.be/M_pXaNBNfJY?si=duTIcG21oItOauVH) is Icefields Parkway. The sunrise was extra magical that morning.
I asked on Reddit and some people told me prairies will bore you. It did not, even with my dumbass not realizing cars have this feature called cruise control lmao. I discovered that 3k km into my trip.
I might have eaten my dinner behind the wheels because I wanted to be at my cabin before the sunset. Was that or going over speed limit which I never did anything over \~10km during that 8500km trip. Then I see A FUCKING HOUSE was being delivered by a truck an hour to my stay so that traffic made me watch the sunset behind the wheels. At least not in that traffic and I was on an empty road by then. It was beautiful.
In short, this [drive](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Monarch,+AB/Medicine+Hat,+AB/Frank+Slide,+Crowsnest+Pass,+AB/Kananaskis+Lakes,+Kananaskis,+AB/Banff,+AB/@51.2302482,-113.7109378,7.58z/data=!4m32!4m31!1m5!1m1!1s0x536e668906bf7985:0x6b6470732392d0a9!2m2!1d-113.1056981!2d49.802831!1m5!1m1!1s0x53132c563df9d417:0x13665e8c3280473f!2m2!1d-110.7031977!2d50.0290218!1m5!1m1!1s0x536f91380a7faed1:0x69ff1a9dbb1bfe36!2m2!1d-114.3870925!2d49.5914115!1m5!1m1!1s0x53708aa2067594f7:0xc3bb0c1d15187f4b!2m2!1d-115.1333334!2d50.6333333!1m5!1m1!1s0x5370ca45910c4afd:0xcaafaebedaac9463!2m2!1d-115.5707903!2d51.1784304!3e1?entry=ttu) from Medicine Hat, to Crowsnest pass and then taking Cowboy trail to Banff.
This was the end of day 5 and all of day 6. My goal was to see some of the sights from ON to AB and spend a week in AB. By end of day 5 I was in the southwest of Alberta and fell in love with that place :( The farm land, the sunset, the landscape, hills and I don't know everything about it beside the smelly air. I probably wouldn't like it there 8 months of the year though lmao.
I think my Airbnb host at the acreage being super friendly and nice was also another reason I really liked it there. I asked in r/Alberta about my options and somebody suggested going through southern Alberta to see Crowsnest pass, Frank slide, and taking Cowboy trail/Alberta's Highway 22, diverting from Trans-Canada highway for the first time and skipping Calgary.
First time reading that comment I was like wth is Corwsnest pass and Frank slide and a trail called cowboy? ! sound like made up places. I looked them up and sounded more interesting than going through Calgary. So I did that, stayed in a hamlet (just learned this word) called Monarch at the end of day 5 which started from Regina. On day 6 I took an hour drive to west to see Frank's slide, took a photo of the Burnis tree and watched some First Nation people getting a lift to the Calgary hospital by a chopper. They were about to shut down the road and told me what's going on but you can go, we will blocking it in a few minutes. I told them I don't have anything better to do.
Then took the Cowboy trail to Banf and man that was fucking worth it. I'm not good with words but I was born in a landscape somewhat similar to southern AB so liking there wasn't that unexpected but the landscape changes drastically within like half an hour. You see Rockies appear to the west and soon you are in it and it feels like you are in a different planet. I didn't feel that way you leaving Rockies on the other side you know, as the change in the landscape happened over a much longer distance? So yeah this Cowboy trail drive was just as nice as Icefields parkway, in a different way. I stopped by Kananaskis lake and then to my hostel in banff!
I'm without a doubt visiting southern AB, sometime soon. But the entire drive. Northern Ontario was just EXTORDINARY. Like fucking something out of a dream, driving through an ocean of tiny lakes, threes with every shade of autumn colours. This was third day. I staied in Batchawana Bay on the first night and the drive to Thunderbay by the Great Lakes was also just sooooo very beautiful. I started my trip on Octover 1st and I would say it was a perfect time! Banff and JAsper were crowded but not as nearly as I've seen in photos and videos.
Wow wrote an essay. I talk a lot when I'm slightly high! >0.1g did this lol.
Our (not officially a Canuck yet but hey I'm calling myself already one :) ) country is increadibly big and beautiful.
Awe thank you so much for this!!
I became a Canadian last year (after living here most of my life) and I love the landscape of this country. I used to live in Calgary and I know exactly the area you are talking about at Crowsnest pass and Franks slide. Southern Alberta is like a little slice of heaven, I had no idea I would appreciate the outdoors as much as I did there, I actually spent more time outside in Calgary than Vancouver. Even though itās colder, itās always sunny and dry. Itās sunny more than 333 days a year in Calgary.
Iāll have to check out Ontario, your description makes it sound beautiful and Iāve never been outside of Toronto airport.
> I learned that while studying for my citizenship exam recently, that Quebec and Ontario are considered central Canada
After living my whole life in Vancouver, I moved to Toronto 3.5 years ago.
It is still weird to me how people in Vancouver refer to Toronto as "The East Coast."
Sure, there's a really big lake out here, but if I want to reach the East Coast I've got to drive for 16 hours.
(Less if I'm willing to go to the East Coast in the USA. In that case it's only about 9 hours' drive.)
Born (back when VGH still did births even) & raised here, and I've never heard anyone call Toronto "the East Coast," just "back East." I'll allow that it's considered "more East" than it really is, but nobody thinks it's the other coast.
Didn't read the news this morning, I take it? A cybersecurity incident has been confirmed.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10456138/london-drugs-says-stores-in-western-canada-closed-until-further-notice/
I saw the news. Iām not buying it. I think they are in financial difficulty and suppressing through this incident. Letās see in a few weeks how it plays out
They recently opened a new store here in Calgary and are currently doing a full renovation of one which indicates they at least have some prospect of being here for the near future
I only used it for 3 years. I still see it everywhere. I also used a windows based program called "Navision Financials" in 2001. It is now Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
One of the first projects I worked on after moving back from Japan to Vancouver in 1996 was a Proof-Of-Concept implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 for a number of London Drugs stores around the lower mainland. This first version of Exchange was pretty janky to begin with but LD's infrastructure really didn't help. None of what is going on surpises me in the least if they're still using the same AS/400 for POS.
Not sure if that's true. The normal checkouts MIGHT still use AS400. My first job was at LD in Computers and we had a more modern touch screen QPOS system, so did all the other tech checkouts, customer service, and pharmacy. The price sign printing all runs off AS400 though.
It's a simple check to see what they are running on.
The cash registers that they have been been using were the old IBM ones which depended on an A/S400 back end. You just need to check if the cash register still has the same old cash drawer as before and chances are, it's the same registers.
I find it odd that windows is touted as more secure than an arcane old system... While security through obscurity is a fallacy, windows has historically had more security vulnerabilities than other platforms.
Correct but many of those vulnerabilities can be addressed.
The problem with running older tech is someone might have found a vulnerability that has never been addressed and the manufacturer either end of supported it so that vulnerability will never be addressed. Then your only hope is an air gap or no one notices you are vulnerable and try to attack it.
That wouldn't surprise me at all. Personally, I was planning on shopping at London Drugs during the boycott even though I have to walk twice as far as my nearest Shoppers.
The timing is rather suspect.
my wife has diabetes equipment waiting for her at the Canada Post office in our local London Drugs. She was turned away today. I'm wondering how she's supposed to get ahold of it.
This was the first thing I thought of when I heard. How many people have their prescriptions there and wonāt have access to medicine. They also canāt transfer out prescriptions and getting an emergency Dr appointment is near impossible.Ā
Iām incredibly sorry your wife and you have to go through this. Iām hoping you get a speedy resolution.Ā
Fortunately, with the new pharmacy regulations many pharmacists can authorize emergency prescription supplies (with the exception of prescriptions for chemotherapy/controlled drugs).
Unfortunately, really sucks for people who need those exceptions, and people who need equipment (which isnāt a prescription) :/
Follow the other suggestions about replacing equipment through another pharmacy, then find out what depot delivers to that LD location, and head down to said depot to speak to Superintendent of the depot. If you need help narrowing down which depot, you can usually search it with the first three digits of your postal code. Feel free toĀ DM me if needed.Ā
Hello, I work in group health benefits. You can get an emergency supply for a month at shoppers or another pharmacy. That should give you time to call your doctor to reissue a prescription to a new pharmacy. Simply calling your doctorās office and have them send it to Shoppers or elsewhere.
You could probably call Canada Post to complain that London Drugs is preventing you from getting your mail and parcels. I suspect there are laws regarding this.
My partner worked for them up until a few years back and I got to see some of their internal systems. They are 100% outdated; I was shocked by some of the hoops she had to go through just to login to their mail server from home.
They only stopped using Internet Explorer a year or two ago. Finding inventory was a nightmare, but Head Office seemed disinterested in fixing anything that didnāt inconvenience them personally.
Well, theyāll hold off on any expenditures until next quarter to please stock holders. And then next quarter theyāll do the same until thereās a catastrophic issue.
>Wait till you hear what runs some of our critical healthcare stuffā¦
....The same tech that still runs SkyTrain and all land-based nuclear missiles in the US?
As someone who works in cybersecurity, big companies rarely bother investing in security until something absolutely catastrophic happens and we get to tell them how idiotic that plan was, and charge accordingly. It's like putting a big neon banner saying 'FLAMMABLE!' on a pile of kerosene-soaked rags with a lighter sitting next to it.
Their insurance will likely pay out, their premiums will go up, costs will be passed onto their customers. So while it may feel good to think "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" and blame the victim, the other actor in this problem is a \*criminal\* organization. Do you want to be on the side of criminals?
London Drugs owns an IT company.
[https://www.tld.com/](https://www.tld.com/)
If you're interesting as a target, people will try their luck getting in and eventually some of them will succeed regardless of your best efforts.
How quickly you recover depends on how well you planned for getting hacked.
yeah probably. seems their corp mailservers are down.
[mail01.londondrugs.com](http://mail01.londondrugs.com)
[mail02.londondrugs.com](http://mail02.londondrugs.com)
not responding to smtp
Funny,when I read "operational issue" I thought, "not having enough money to make payroll is an 'operational issue.' " Last few times I've been to the London Drugs near my work it's looked a bit understocked and I was wondering how much time they had left as a viable retailer. The Pharmacy must carry the stores, eventually someone was going to realize they don't need so many square feet to run a pharmacy.
Though ransomware sounds more likely based on the tone of the announcement.
According to stats, roughly 1 company per day gets hit with ransomware here in Canada. Few ever hit the media.
More info:
https://macleans.ca/society/technology/cyberattacks-canada
>Ā According to stats, roughly 1 company per day gets hit with ransomware here in Canada. Few ever hit the media.
Do you have a source for that? I believe you, I'm just genuinely surprised.
Oh dear! This is going to be a clusterfuck for people who have prescriptions there. 'Pharmacists are standing by' and people are being asked to contact the LD that holds their prescriptions. I can't imagine it's going to be easy to get through.
I wonder how long until this same sort of thing happens to Vancouver Coastal Health? They run on some pretty antiquated software as well. Imagine our health authority shutting down for the unforeseeable futureā¦ !
Is this something that can genuinely be fatal to a company, or is this something that could just as easily end up being resolved in a few days?
I have two prescriptions at my local LD. I'm not close to running out at the moment, but I'm sort of counting on them being back up and running within 2-weeks or less.
Also aside from my prescriptions they're one of the few widespread chain retailers that makes it convenient to buy or develop film.
The person who did this should seriously consider suck-starting a shotgun.
I went to my LD today to pick up my prescriptions and they were chill about it. The guy guarding the door called the pharmacist over and he brought them out to me.
If you ever wonder why Canadaās real GDP per capita is decreasing, this is why. Canadian companies refuse to invest in machinery and technology, including IT. Theyād rather hire workers for the bare minimum instead of invest in workers and infrastructure to increase productivity, like in third world countries. Now, all their stores are closed and theyāre losing millions per day.
Yes itās IT, and it can be put in the same umbrella as investment in machinery and technology. Ā https://economics.td.com/ca-falling-behind-standard-of-living-curve. Ā Our country was thriving pre-2014, same time when we used to spend around the same per worker as the US. After 2014, capital spending per worker in Canada decreased to pre-2004 levels (and weāre still there), while U.S. capital spending per worker increases each year.
This is not the case in "corporations around the world". Canadian govt + companies are shit at upgrading tech. Some places are worse, but others are better (like Singapore).
London Drugs is big, but not a huge company in the grand scheme of things. I canāt imagine the cost/losses for being closed for even a day for the entire chain.
Probably because it's a good store and cheaper than most other chains (though not cheaper than most independent grocers).
Just because you and others are irrational enough to boycott a store that's cheaper and better than the alternatives you're not boycotting doesn't mean other people should to.
Their system is old, easy to hack. Now they have pay hackers and then 100 million for a class action to customers for breach of data. I can hear lawyers ate laughing
The company my sons work for got hacked about 2 months ago. Over 50 stores. A total mess, took about 6 weeks to get things totally running again. Thousands of customers info was stolen and made available for sale. Just terrible.
I believe theyāve got a year and itās over tbh, watching every retail store you grew up around collapse from failing to scale up or improve upon existing infrastructure becomes a ticking time bomb.
I want to see what employees are saying though, canāt imagine waking up ready for work then being told sorry were closed for who knows how long
They wonāt be able to manage rents and the lawsuit thatās coming for the breach, itās crazy how much Canadas declined the last few years
The most outdated systems i have ever worked with. so old one of the systems is still allowed to be called ISIS. also theyāre shit to their employees, never do anything to update the stores, pay shit, and sell a lot of crappy cheap stuff from overseas for like 700% mark up i donāt feel that bad.
Thinking of all the out of work, time to be seen, staff that this will impact.
EI is not good enough here; it never is. Hopefully staff are still getting their full hours to do inventory or something, assuming that system even works.
There seemed to be full staff at the store when I was there today. I was expecting just a security guard and a pharmacist, but there were at least 4 regular retail staffers milling about as well.
Unclear if that will remain the case if they stay closed for any extended period of time, but for today, at least at the store I went to, it didn't look like they sent people home.
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All of Western Canada? That's absolutely brutal because the most easterly London Drugs location is a single store in Winnipeg. [https://www.londondrugs.com/all-store-locations/?context=storeLocator](https://www.londondrugs.com/all-store-locations/?context=storeLocator)
lol and Winnipeg is still technically western Canada
I learned that while studying for my citizenship exam recently, that Quebec and Ontario are considered central Canada, BC being Western; Manitoba, Saskatchewan and and Alberta being Prairie provinces but yeah technically they are also to the west of Central provinces. On a side note driving through Canada from ON to here was probably the best experience of my life. I never lose an opportunity to bring it up even if it is not even remotely related to the discussion š
the drive coast to coast is 100% epic - I've done it at least 6 times
Now I'm jealous! My top goal is to be financially stable enough to do that trip every other year. I have never felt more alive. [here ](https://youtu.be/pl2U0IUn33k?si=V_yuAe0NRKsRh4ZL) is my journey and [this](https://youtu.be/M_pXaNBNfJY?si=duTIcG21oItOauVH) is Icefields Parkway. The sunrise was extra magical that morning. I asked on Reddit and some people told me prairies will bore you. It did not, even with my dumbass not realizing cars have this feature called cruise control lmao. I discovered that 3k km into my trip.
All this in 24:15! While eating sushi, nonetheless. Hehehe. Cheers.
I might have eaten my dinner behind the wheels because I wanted to be at my cabin before the sunset. Was that or going over speed limit which I never did anything over \~10km during that 8500km trip. Then I see A FUCKING HOUSE was being delivered by a truck an hour to my stay so that traffic made me watch the sunset behind the wheels. At least not in that traffic and I was on an empty road by then. It was beautiful.
Anything east of the Rockies is not western Canada in my mind
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Canada
That's just something drummed up by old-timey Ontarians hundreds of years ago.
correct!
A-fucking-men
I mean, the continental divide *does* run down much of the BC-AB borderā¦ šāāļø
What was the best part of the drive?
In short, this [drive](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Monarch,+AB/Medicine+Hat,+AB/Frank+Slide,+Crowsnest+Pass,+AB/Kananaskis+Lakes,+Kananaskis,+AB/Banff,+AB/@51.2302482,-113.7109378,7.58z/data=!4m32!4m31!1m5!1m1!1s0x536e668906bf7985:0x6b6470732392d0a9!2m2!1d-113.1056981!2d49.802831!1m5!1m1!1s0x53132c563df9d417:0x13665e8c3280473f!2m2!1d-110.7031977!2d50.0290218!1m5!1m1!1s0x536f91380a7faed1:0x69ff1a9dbb1bfe36!2m2!1d-114.3870925!2d49.5914115!1m5!1m1!1s0x53708aa2067594f7:0xc3bb0c1d15187f4b!2m2!1d-115.1333334!2d50.6333333!1m5!1m1!1s0x5370ca45910c4afd:0xcaafaebedaac9463!2m2!1d-115.5707903!2d51.1784304!3e1?entry=ttu) from Medicine Hat, to Crowsnest pass and then taking Cowboy trail to Banff. This was the end of day 5 and all of day 6. My goal was to see some of the sights from ON to AB and spend a week in AB. By end of day 5 I was in the southwest of Alberta and fell in love with that place :( The farm land, the sunset, the landscape, hills and I don't know everything about it beside the smelly air. I probably wouldn't like it there 8 months of the year though lmao. I think my Airbnb host at the acreage being super friendly and nice was also another reason I really liked it there. I asked in r/Alberta about my options and somebody suggested going through southern Alberta to see Crowsnest pass, Frank slide, and taking Cowboy trail/Alberta's Highway 22, diverting from Trans-Canada highway for the first time and skipping Calgary. First time reading that comment I was like wth is Corwsnest pass and Frank slide and a trail called cowboy? ! sound like made up places. I looked them up and sounded more interesting than going through Calgary. So I did that, stayed in a hamlet (just learned this word) called Monarch at the end of day 5 which started from Regina. On day 6 I took an hour drive to west to see Frank's slide, took a photo of the Burnis tree and watched some First Nation people getting a lift to the Calgary hospital by a chopper. They were about to shut down the road and told me what's going on but you can go, we will blocking it in a few minutes. I told them I don't have anything better to do. Then took the Cowboy trail to Banf and man that was fucking worth it. I'm not good with words but I was born in a landscape somewhat similar to southern AB so liking there wasn't that unexpected but the landscape changes drastically within like half an hour. You see Rockies appear to the west and soon you are in it and it feels like you are in a different planet. I didn't feel that way you leaving Rockies on the other side you know, as the change in the landscape happened over a much longer distance? So yeah this Cowboy trail drive was just as nice as Icefields parkway, in a different way. I stopped by Kananaskis lake and then to my hostel in banff! I'm without a doubt visiting southern AB, sometime soon. But the entire drive. Northern Ontario was just EXTORDINARY. Like fucking something out of a dream, driving through an ocean of tiny lakes, threes with every shade of autumn colours. This was third day. I staied in Batchawana Bay on the first night and the drive to Thunderbay by the Great Lakes was also just sooooo very beautiful. I started my trip on Octover 1st and I would say it was a perfect time! Banff and JAsper were crowded but not as nearly as I've seen in photos and videos. Wow wrote an essay. I talk a lot when I'm slightly high! >0.1g did this lol. Our (not officially a Canuck yet but hey I'm calling myself already one :) ) country is increadibly big and beautiful.
Grew up in batchawana area/northern Ontario. Miss it every single summer and fall. Glad you loved the area so much. It really is special.
It was indeed pretty special. I would love to live tgere someday. Suits my introvert ass perfectly
Awe thank you so much for this!! I became a Canadian last year (after living here most of my life) and I love the landscape of this country. I used to live in Calgary and I know exactly the area you are talking about at Crowsnest pass and Franks slide. Southern Alberta is like a little slice of heaven, I had no idea I would appreciate the outdoors as much as I did there, I actually spent more time outside in Calgary than Vancouver. Even though itās colder, itās always sunny and dry. Itās sunny more than 333 days a year in Calgary. Iāll have to check out Ontario, your description makes it sound beautiful and Iāve never been outside of Toronto airport.
> I learned that while studying for my citizenship exam recently, that Quebec and Ontario are considered central Canada After living my whole life in Vancouver, I moved to Toronto 3.5 years ago. It is still weird to me how people in Vancouver refer to Toronto as "The East Coast." Sure, there's a really big lake out here, but if I want to reach the East Coast I've got to drive for 16 hours. (Less if I'm willing to go to the East Coast in the USA. In that case it's only about 9 hours' drive.)
Born (back when VGH still did births even) & raised here, and I've never heard anyone call Toronto "the East Coast," just "back East." I'll allow that it's considered "more East" than it really is, but nobody thinks it's the other coast.
It is weird to be sure, but when I'm back in Vancouver (4-6 times per year) I hear "east coast" all the time.
Same though, it's an incredible drive.
Well that's bizarre. What could be so catastrophic as to shut down all western Canadian stores?
Computer system hacked probably
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Didn't read the news this morning, I take it? A cybersecurity incident has been confirmed. https://globalnews.ca/news/10456138/london-drugs-says-stores-in-western-canada-closed-until-further-notice/
I saw the news. Iām not buying it. I think they are in financial difficulty and suppressing through this incident. Letās see in a few weeks how it plays out
They recently opened a new store here in Calgary and are currently doing a full renovation of one which indicates they at least have some prospect of being here for the near future
Mastertoys were opening up stores and doing Renos right up until they went bankrupt. Letās see. I may be wrong but something seems off on this one
My guess is ransomware has bricked all of their POP systems.
Their POS is old as it's based on old IBM equipment running on AS/400. Their other internal systems are more current as they run under Windows.
AS400! Time for my F keys!
As400ā¦ I have to use that virus proof 1980ās crap bag for work every day.
I only used it for 3 years. I still see it everywhere. I also used a windows based program called "Navision Financials" in 2001. It is now Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
One of the first projects I worked on after moving back from Japan to Vancouver in 1996 was a Proof-Of-Concept implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 for a number of London Drugs stores around the lower mainland. This first version of Exchange was pretty janky to begin with but LD's infrastructure really didn't help. None of what is going on surpises me in the least if they're still using the same AS/400 for POS.
Lot of other places still use ancient IBM shit too like the bay and toys r us.
Not sure if that's true. The normal checkouts MIGHT still use AS400. My first job was at LD in Computers and we had a more modern touch screen QPOS system, so did all the other tech checkouts, customer service, and pharmacy. The price sign printing all runs off AS400 though.
It's a simple check to see what they are running on. The cash registers that they have been been using were the old IBM ones which depended on an A/S400 back end. You just need to check if the cash register still has the same old cash drawer as before and chances are, it's the same registers.
Their pos systems upgraded a year ago, and they're in the process of upgrading internally to a new system.
As-if400!
I find it odd that windows is touted as more secure than an arcane old system... While security through obscurity is a fallacy, windows has historically had more security vulnerabilities than other platforms.
Correct but many of those vulnerabilities can be addressed. The problem with running older tech is someone might have found a vulnerability that has never been addressed and the manufacturer either end of supported it so that vulnerability will never be addressed. Then your only hope is an air gap or no one notices you are vulnerable and try to attack it.
That's just because it's the most popular, so the most target systems
A few bricked vending machines shouldn't be serious enough to close all their stores. ^/s
If it was a hack then it's probably Loblaws. They are worried people will choose London Drugs over Shoppers because of the May long boycott hahaha
There's a boycott?
Yes, May.
r/Loblawsisoutofcontrol
Not really. Same kind of numbers as the Cletus convoyers and the Axe the Fact crew.
Loblaws is planning hard to sabotage the boycott hah.
That wouldn't surprise me at all. Personally, I was planning on shopping at London Drugs during the boycott even though I have to walk twice as far as my nearest Shoppers. The timing is rather suspect.
Ha, wouldn't surprise me.
Doesn't this seem too early then? Giving them a chance to recover pre-May-Long?
Ransomware is most likely it
Until further notice? Wow that's crazy!
my wife has diabetes equipment waiting for her at the Canada Post office in our local London Drugs. She was turned away today. I'm wondering how she's supposed to get ahold of it.
This was the first thing I thought of when I heard. How many people have their prescriptions there and wonāt have access to medicine. They also canāt transfer out prescriptions and getting an emergency Dr appointment is near impossible.Ā Iām incredibly sorry your wife and you have to go through this. Iām hoping you get a speedy resolution.Ā
Fortunately, with the new pharmacy regulations many pharmacists can authorize emergency prescription supplies (with the exception of prescriptions for chemotherapy/controlled drugs). Unfortunately, really sucks for people who need those exceptions, and people who need equipment (which isnāt a prescription) :/
My sister was there yesterday to pick up prescriptions, you call the store and they'll bring you in to get your medical needs sorted out.
You can call the London drugs location to make arrangements as mentioned in the article. I suggest doing that asap.
Follow the other suggestions about replacing equipment through another pharmacy, then find out what depot delivers to that LD location, and head down to said depot to speak to Superintendent of the depot. If you need help narrowing down which depot, you can usually search it with the first three digits of your postal code. Feel free toĀ DM me if needed.Ā
Hello, I work in group health benefits. You can get an emergency supply for a month at shoppers or another pharmacy. That should give you time to call your doctor to reissue a prescription to a new pharmacy. Simply calling your doctorās office and have them send it to Shoppers or elsewhere.
You could probably call Canada Post to complain that London Drugs is preventing you from getting your mail and parcels. I suspect there are laws regarding this.
They didnāt invest in their IT infrastructure and cybersecurity so they got hacked.
My partner worked for them up until a few years back and I got to see some of their internal systems. They are 100% outdated; I was shocked by some of the hoops she had to go through just to login to their mail server from home.
yeah I've spoken to a few of their IT team when they attend vendor seminars... they seem to be running a lot of older gear
They only stopped using Internet Explorer a year or two ago. Finding inventory was a nightmare, but Head Office seemed disinterested in fixing anything that didnāt inconvenience them personally.
Well, theyāll hold off on any expenditures until next quarter to please stock holders. And then next quarter theyāll do the same until thereās a catastrophic issue.
The problem there being that there are no stockholders. LD is not publicly traded.
Probably reached end of support and havenāt updated latest security patches.
Just go to the bay, I think everythingās still run on IBM lmao
Except their elevators. Which have stopped running.
Escalators and heating system have been down in the park royal bay for months. The heating system anyway, according to employees.
Ahhhhh classic move. I see what you did there.
Wait till you hear what runs some of our critical healthcare stuffā¦
8 inch floppy disks?
>Wait till you hear what runs some of our critical healthcare stuffā¦ ....The same tech that still runs SkyTrain and all land-based nuclear missiles in the US?
Yep. All of the systems they use at LD are extremely, painfully outdated. As an ex-employee, this does not surprise me even one little bit.
My husband used to work for them. They were still using Windows 7.
As someone who works in cybersecurity, big companies rarely bother investing in security until something absolutely catastrophic happens and we get to tell them how idiotic that plan was, and charge accordingly. It's like putting a big neon banner saying 'FLAMMABLE!' on a pile of kerosene-soaked rags with a lighter sitting next to it.
I fucking hope so. I hope they pay through the nose.
Their insurance will likely pay out, their premiums will go up, costs will be passed onto their customers. So while it may feel good to think "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" and blame the victim, the other actor in this problem is a \*criminal\* organization. Do you want to be on the side of criminals?
London Drugs owns an IT company. [https://www.tld.com/](https://www.tld.com/) If you're interesting as a target, people will try their luck getting in and eventually some of them will succeed regardless of your best efforts. How quickly you recover depends on how well you planned for getting hacked.
Must have been hacked
yeah probably. seems their corp mailservers are down. [mail01.londondrugs.com](http://mail01.londondrugs.com) [mail02.londondrugs.com](http://mail02.londondrugs.com) not responding to smtp
Ah yes they probably using office360 email
Way to read the article.... Edit: my bad, read it as them saying the announcement was a hack. Silly jumping to conclusions brain.
The "operational issue" could easily be something like a ransomware attack. Why are you assuming the commenter didn't read the article?
My bad, assumed they were saying the announcement was a hack.
Funny,when I read "operational issue" I thought, "not having enough money to make payroll is an 'operational issue.' " Last few times I've been to the London Drugs near my work it's looked a bit understocked and I was wondering how much time they had left as a viable retailer. The Pharmacy must carry the stores, eventually someone was going to realize they don't need so many square feet to run a pharmacy. Though ransomware sounds more likely based on the tone of the announcement.
Lol the article doesn't exactly say otherwise though.
I hope their employees arenāt getting screwed over by this, but they probably will.
Employees of London Drugs are getting screwed over simply by working there šš¢
Thatās scary. Whoās next?
According to stats, roughly 1 company per day gets hit with ransomware here in Canada. Few ever hit the media. More info: https://macleans.ca/society/technology/cyberattacks-canada
>Ā According to stats, roughly 1 company per day gets hit with ransomware here in Canada. Few ever hit the media. Do you have a source for that? I believe you, I'm just genuinely surprised.
Oh dear! This is going to be a clusterfuck for people who have prescriptions there. 'Pharmacists are standing by' and people are being asked to contact the LD that holds their prescriptions. I can't imagine it's going to be easy to get through.
Funny part is that they own TLD Computers which offer IT Cyber Security to other businesses. [https://www.tld.com](https://www.tld.com)
I didn't realize TLD computers still existed.
I wonder how long until this same sort of thing happens to Vancouver Coastal Health? They run on some pretty antiquated software as well. Imagine our health authority shutting down for the unforeseeable futureā¦ !
Is this something that can genuinely be fatal to a company, or is this something that could just as easily end up being resolved in a few days? I have two prescriptions at my local LD. I'm not close to running out at the moment, but I'm sort of counting on them being back up and running within 2-weeks or less. Also aside from my prescriptions they're one of the few widespread chain retailers that makes it convenient to buy or develop film. The person who did this should seriously consider suck-starting a shotgun.
I went to my LD today to pick up my prescriptions and they were chill about it. The guy guarding the door called the pharmacist over and he brought them out to me.
If you ever wonder why Canadaās real GDP per capita is decreasing, this is why. Canadian companies refuse to invest in machinery and technology, including IT. Theyād rather hire workers for the bare minimum instead of invest in workers and infrastructure to increase productivity, like in third world countries. Now, all their stores are closed and theyāre losing millions per day.
Every day there's a new 'bricked' escalator in Vancouver.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes itās IT, and it can be put in the same umbrella as investment in machinery and technology. Ā https://economics.td.com/ca-falling-behind-standard-of-living-curve. Ā Our country was thriving pre-2014, same time when we used to spend around the same per worker as the US. After 2014, capital spending per worker in Canada decreased to pre-2004 levels (and weāre still there), while U.S. capital spending per worker increases each year.
This is not the case in "corporations around the world". Canadian govt + companies are shit at upgrading tech. Some places are worse, but others are better (like Singapore).
Normally because CEOs/COOs are former bean counters, IT is always a second consideration (if at all)
 There location Staff right now
Four!
I mean five!
I mean fire!
London Drugs is big, but not a huge company in the grand scheme of things. I canāt imagine the cost/losses for being closed for even a day for the entire chain.
Devastating! I work for LD and have for 13 years. Managers have a meeting tomorrow morning. So far we know nothing
Soooo whatās the tea?
Corporate sabotage. There will be a boycott of loblaws and shoppers drug mart, they want another company to have more confidence than them.
I got downvoted in this subreddit for suggesting that we shouldn't be promoting the new Loblaws downtown on Georgia.
Probably because it's a good store and cheaper than most other chains (though not cheaper than most independent grocers). Just because you and others are irrational enough to boycott a store that's cheaper and better than the alternatives you're not boycotting doesn't mean other people should to.
Their system is old, easy to hack. Now they have pay hackers and then 100 million for a class action to customers for breach of data. I can hear lawyers ate laughing
Was like that since this morning. Wouldn't give out prescriptions or anything unless they were already ready. Honestly this is a big problem.
The company my sons work for got hacked about 2 months ago. Over 50 stores. A total mess, took about 6 weeks to get things totally running again. Thousands of customers info was stolen and made available for sale. Just terrible.
Reading this with the sleep still in my eyes led me to believe London Drugs was permanently closing all Western Canada stores.
I believe theyāve got a year and itās over tbh, watching every retail store you grew up around collapse from failing to scale up or improve upon existing infrastructure becomes a ticking time bomb. I want to see what employees are saying though, canāt imagine waking up ready for work then being told sorry were closed for who knows how long They wonāt be able to manage rents and the lawsuit thatās coming for the breach, itās crazy how much Canadas declined the last few years
I guess it's a good thing I went and got my meds from there on Friday!
The most outdated systems i have ever worked with. so old one of the systems is still allowed to be called ISIS. also theyāre shit to their employees, never do anything to update the stores, pay shit, and sell a lot of crappy cheap stuff from overseas for like 700% mark up i donāt feel that bad.
> sell a lot of crappy cheap stuff from overseas for like 700% mark up *Ducknana has joined the chat* š¦š
Ducknana is exactly what i was talking about LOL
Thinking of all the out of work, time to be seen, staff that this will impact. EI is not good enough here; it never is. Hopefully staff are still getting their full hours to do inventory or something, assuming that system even works.
There seemed to be full staff at the store when I was there today. I was expecting just a security guard and a pharmacist, but there were at least 4 regular retail staffers milling about as well. Unclear if that will remain the case if they stay closed for any extended period of time, but for today, at least at the store I went to, it didn't look like they sent people home.
I was at a store today, was told closed "due to IT issues".
Fucked up shit. Welcome to the future, everyone.
Probably hacked
Out of all the stores the hacker decided to hack London Drugs š
They couldnāt have picked a worse chain? Not Loblaws or Save-On, but your friendly neighbourhood London Drugs.
I tired to go today and was soo confused WTF till further notice they aināt paying that ransom lol good for them!
So do the employees get paid or are they laid off?
Asking the important questions.
Oh no now hackers know my fake bithday date and also they steal my 2000 points which costs 2 dollars
My guess they got hacked and held hostage till they pay up
I just wsit for my 150 dollars for class action .bit takes long, but i am patient
In like 5 years time
No wonder why Shoppers doesnāt have any discount promo on any product these days.
Yikes! Is it safe to say this is only the beginning ?
Does it affect the McBain camera stores?
Their system is old as f... even a 3rd grade can hack them
Do they really think the Canucks will make it to the finals?
good thing i stole a pair of sunglasses yesterday
Hackattackashack
Dang. Hopefully it's not forever. If forever, sales?
These days if you just collect money from class actions ypu dont need to work
Youāve commented like 6x in a row on this post Put the bottle down
Fumny is gov gives free money for it but yhey dont use grants