It's been a good experience allowing me to gain knowledge, experience, and meet alot of interesting people.
Pros
In todays economy, just having a job is a good reason. The employee discount is nice for growing families, especially 30% off on cvs brand items. Many of the store managers are good to work for. Some of them respect their employees and work with them on scheduling, etc. Working in northeast Ohio, hourly people are part of ufcw local 880 union. Cvs pays for your benefits. (hourly people only). Basically, you can start as a part-time cashier and work your way up if you have the right management team that recognizes your hard work and dedication. I know one person who started as a part-time cashier, and worked their way up to store manager in 6 years with no other outside experience. Where I will stop with this is do not strive to go beyond lead pharmacy tech or shift supervisor B
Cons
CVS is starting to do whatever it takes to keep their shareholders happy. They have cut hours so bad that usually it is a manger, or supervisor, and a clerk only. They then expect you to wait on customers, front and face the store, run the vacuum, and whatever other projects the manger or district manager decide to throw in there. I work in an inner city store in a gang infested crime ridden area. Many of our customers are less than desirable, and only come in to steal. I have asked for a police officer to be posted in our store like sav-a-lot and giant eagle grocery stores have. I was told by a corporate employee that they are too expensive, and our store does not meet the criteria for any security whatsoever because "NO ONE HAS BEEN HURT IN THIS STORE YET". It seems that some of the older seasoned veteran managers that are making good money (in my opinion good money is 55,000. to 70,000 per year.) are the only ones that are still tolerating the situation and are able to handle the stress. Even those people are starting to get pushed out along with veteran pharmacists because it is cheaper to get young, inexperienced managers that they can pay 30,000 to 40,000 if they are lucky.(who can take care of a family on that now a days?) and young fresh graduate pharmacists who yes have the education, but not always the customer service skills, or any idea how to run a business. Why do you think there is a class action lawsuit out there right now filed by current and former assistant managers? CVS uses, abuses, and then loses their assistant managers and store managers. I was happy to see they eliminated alot of corporate positions last fall, including three area vice presidents who you know made well into six figures. I have one suggestion. Instead of giving all that money to extreme home makeover every week, maybe start looking into your own employees. With what most employees make, I'm sure many of them live in unsafe, near inhabitable homes and have children and spouses with disabilities that could use medical equipment, fully paid for college educations, prescriptions, etc.
