Okay, the time has come for a decision. I have offers from four chains...RiteAid, Walmart, Walgreens and Safeway. All are FT, and the geography is acceptable for all of them. I have a leader in my mind, but I would like to hear some input from the good folks out there with experience at these places. Thanks.
Retail Decision
- Thread starter cjb56
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I worked at RiteAid for 2 years as an intern - seemed like a good company at the time. I don't have any recent experience with them, other than being told their stock was plummeting, but a lot of stocks are down. Their counseling focus wasn't very high compared to other chains at the time - not sure if that's changed.
No experience with safeway. I'm told walgreens and CVS (I know it's not listed) have added way too many responsibilities to their pharmacists, but this seems to be consistent everywhere. We have a student in our class that worked at walmart x4 years as intern and took an offer with walgreens. He seemed to be super pro-walmart going through school so I was surprised that he said he will be with walgreens. I personally would never want to work at walmart, but that's not necessarily a pharmacy issue.
No experience with safeway. I'm told walgreens and CVS (I know it's not listed) have added way too many responsibilities to their pharmacists, but this seems to be consistent everywhere. We have a student in our class that worked at walmart x4 years as intern and took an offer with walgreens. He seemed to be super pro-walmart going through school so I was surprised that he said he will be with walgreens. I personally would never want to work at walmart, but that's not necessarily a pharmacy issue.
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This ^
But other than that, would recommend Walmart and Walgreens over the other two. Safeway is slow, company was just bought by private equity (stores will be closing) , still uses archaic command line based pharmacy software. Riteaid, well, we all know the story with that one.
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I would not diss Rite Aid. Their numbers are bad. CVS and WAG net profit is around 3%, while RAD gets ~1% net profit (a lot of room to improve). Their stock jumped from the lowest 0.20 cents in 2009 to over $6 now. They are reporting a profitable net income every quarter now. Although I will not personally buy RAD stock (high PE - overpriced territory), the company will only gets better because they are so behind their competition. RAD is not featured in SDN more often because they are not as efficient as CVS/WAG who hang their employees dry and squeeze every juice out of them (read: work environment probably is not as bad). That just means they can cut more expenses, improve their efficiency to get their numbers up in par with their competition. Good for shareholders, not so good for rphs who work for them.
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How do you feel about the evolution of pharmacy? Do you think Rite Aid will be left behind?
Walgreens and CVS are evolving into a healthcare provider mode by operating walk in clinic models, and diving into the specialty care pharmacy. CVS also has Caremark...
I understand Rite Aid is entering the markets now but I feel like they are always a step behind, and lacking in vision. Also, entering the market now leaves them at a huge disadvantage from having the research and experience in executing and taking advantage of the model.
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The safeway near my house has like 20 hrs/week of tech help 
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How is a new pharmacist supposed to learn at Safeway when they are alone all week...
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The safeway near my house has like 20 hrs/week of tech help
That's probably because they do 300-400 scripts a week. The tech hours aren't that great anymore at Safeway, but its actually better than what you get at CVS/Walgreens.
The last Saturday I worked, I watched Netflix basically the entire day
