Kmart Pharmacy

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

So I have searched the forum and read old threads but would love some current feedback from those who have current experience having worked for Kmart vs other pharmacies. I am looking for a low stress environment where I can work for the next 4 to 5 years before opening an indie pharmacy of my own. I currently am with CVS and it is ANYTHING but low stress. I have spoken to the recruiter at this point and to be honest it sounds really good, of course compared to CVS I imagine anything would sound good. It is a decent volume store and it is one of the Big Kmarts. I walked around it and it was spotless and loaded with nice displays of merchandise for the Christmas shopping season.. It is in the middle of a nice new shopping complex with four to six blocks of newly built stores all around it. I described the minute by minute tracking of your work that CVS engages in and how if you step away to help a patient out in the aisle you can come back to a third of your screen being red. She responded by saying "We don't have red.". I'd love to get feedback from actual Kmart pharmacists but barring that would love to hear about those people that once worked for CVS and now work for other retail pharmacies. I know that there are people on here who will say retail is retail but trust me CVS has cornered the market on squeezing the life / spirit out of its emloyees. Would love to hear feedback about how your new retail environment at pharmacy X is an improvement over CVS and specifically why. Trying to make the break from CVS but don't want to go from the frying pan into the fire.

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[M0df]

I don't work for Kmart but just like you I did some research. I think much will depend on your RXS, so you might want to look into his background. If he is from CVS/Wags, then some of the mentality might carry over. Plus would you be floating or is there particular store you are applying for? I might have mentioned these things in previous posts but here is my short list of pros and cons

Pros: low volume. fewer metrics. better hours. holidays off. better staffing although script count is too low, you will work by yourself. probably older customers (they will go shop while you fill their scripts).

Cons: lower pay. no 401k contribution from employer. no or minimal raises from what I gather. aggressive flu shot/shingles targets for their volume.

Overall they can't compete in technology with the leaders and they can't really measure most of the metrics CVS is measuring anyway. The only things I can see them easily measuring are scripts, immunizations, some service and inventory management. You will lose out financially but since you are talking about 4-5 year window, it is not that bad. Plus if you hustle, you can make up the income in some other ways anyway.

 

[OmiPharmD]

I'm amazed Kmart is still around. In my area the Kmart pharmacies were closed but they were very low volume. I'd still be concerned about them being around. But if all you really want is 4-5 years it might be a risk worth taking.

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

I was told they are in every state but three, Maine, North Dakota, and Alaska. Yeah I would not have been interested if the volume was too low for fear it would not have lasted if more cuts came down the line.

 

[M0df]

They care more about steady growth out of pharmacy. It just an add-on. I bet they are losing money on pharmacy overall. If volume is low and declining, then I would worry. But low volume overall doesn't mean they will do anything about any particular location.

 

[fewaopi]

Funny how we keep thinking kmart should've been out of business years ago yet it's still surprising they are still in business, they have to be getting their money somewhere. If kmart is a temporary holdover to escape CVS and move onto somewhere better, yeah maybe you should take it.

 

[edwardmatt83]

I was a manager for a Kmart pharmacy for my first 2 years out of school. They are a fast sinking ship. I enjoyed my job, but knew it wasn't going to last long. My store was slow enough that I didn't have a technician - so I had to do everything which kept me pretty busy in a slow store. Coupons will drive you crazy. When they start giving out $200 in gift cards for transferring 4 prescriptions, it will be impossible to be profitable - which means no bonus for you. They closed my store 1 month after I left for another job. My DM assured me they weren't going to close it, but I felt otherwise. They give little to no warning regarding store closure and have closed 3 stores in my area recently. If it is in a remote location, they might have a better chance of staying open. The job is nice, but the benefits suck. No matching 401k, insurance for a family costs about $500/month with a $4000k deductible. You get 2 weeks of vacation - woot woot 8 days!

 

[BeLikeBueller]

I was an intern at K-mart a few years back and it was great as far as low-stress, low-volume. One day, I had time to read four chapters in a book I had brought with me. The one thing I will echo, however, is that a lot of K-marts are going/have gone out of business. The model now seems to be leaving one store open in a geographic area. My hometown and the town I currently live in are small to moderate sized cities. Each one has only one K-mart left. If you're looking at the last K-mart in your area, you're probably safe for a few years. If not, you probably want to try fort he K-mart that is farthest from another big-box store like Wal-mart (just another observation about the K-marts that are still open). But hey, being unemployed is just about better than CVS, from what I hear...

 

[hurx]

I also was an intern a Kmart. They closed about 3 other stores in the area in the past year. There were still probably 3 or 4 in our area including mine after that. You have to remember that when you are in situations with lower volume then you also have less staff. Towards the end of my internship we had a pharmacist come from CVS thinking she was going to be relaxing but we were pretty consistently busy. (Also, she was trying to learn a new system on our very, very old computers). But I definitely believe it is less stressful for pharmacists once you get the hang off things though. Depending on your support staff you will not have to deal with the coupons as much as your techs/interns will but they are a real pain.