Any Kroger Employees?

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Nerdd13

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I'm thinking about applying to Kroger for a tech job (currently at CVS). What's your opinon with this company? how's the environment like? Is the computer system easy to learn and catch on? and what's the starting hourly for techs? Thanks for your help!
 
I'm with Kroger in Kentucky.

Most of the stores are pretty nice.
You get 10% off Kroger branded products every day.

Starting pay is around $6/hour here.
With two years experience (or certification) they will start you at $7, I think.
Our techs are unionized (UFCW) so you have to pay dues.
I think the dues are kinda steep for the benefit you actually get.

Pharmacy hours are generally OK. M-F 8-9/Sa 9-6/Su 12-6.
Most of the stores have drive-thrus.

Technology is poor. Some stores have to mix suspensions using a jug of distilled water. I'm not kidding.

The computer system is hard to learn. Not at all intuitive.
Some stores utilize the Pharmacy2000 filling program which is nice.
Most don't have P2000 though.

Management can be kind of stingy with tech hours. My current store has 80 tech hours which translates to one technician per hour that the pharmacy is open. We have a drive-thru. My intern hours are in addition to the 80 tech hours so that helps a little bit.

Kroger is OK. It's not horrible, not great.
I don't really have anything to compare it with.
 
Nerdd13 said:
I'm thinking about applying to Kroger for a tech job (currently at CVS). What's your opinon with this company? how's the environment like? Is the computer system easy to learn and catch on? and what's the starting hourly for techs? Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

I work at a Kroger just outside of Cincinnati. My overall experience there has been good so far.

I started at 6.85/hr but got quickly moved up to 7.85/hr after passing a couple of simple tests over the computer system, sigs, and the top 50 drugs. There are opportunites for raises after that. We are not unionized (thankfully) so no fees as far as that goes.

All4MyDaughter is right though, the technology is piss-poor. The computer system has some definite lackings that could be fixed very easily if corporate wasn't so cheap. However, it is fairly easy to pick up.
 
There are rumors that Kroger is going to upgrade their computer system and put all of their chains on the same system. Connexus is what I heard they were considering the most heavily. But, the discussion started around 2 years ago and no action has been taken so far. I'm with Fred Meyer and we are on PDX. It's liveable and learnable. What system does CVS run?
 
does anyone know the pays for internship at kroger pharmacy?
 
All4MyDaughter said:
I'd say it depends on your zone. In Kentucky (at least in zones 7 and 8) its P1- $8, P2 - $9, P3 - $10, and P4 - $11.

Not too great.
Click to expand...

In Cincinnati, its $10, 11, 12, and 13.
 
It all depends on where you live. Starting tech pay here is $9.74 and a immediate $2 raise if your certified. The computer system (PDX) is extremely out of date but pretty simple to use.

It just sucks if a patient comes in saying they havent picked up their meds and you look on the shelf and its not there. Because then you look at their profile in the computer and it says its been filled. Then you have to look through all the meds on the shelf to see if its been possibly mis-filed. If that doesnt work then you have to look at the book with the patient signatures to see if its already been picked up (most of the time it has been). Its a real PITA. I hear walgreens system tracks weather the meds have been paid for so you dont have that problem. i dont know about CVS though.
 
futureRXdealer said:
I hear walgreens system tracks weather the meds have been paid for so you dont have that problem. i dont know about CVS though.
Click to expand...
Wow! That sounds like a great feature! I wish my store did that because it sucks searching through all the bins to see if something has been misplaced etc.
 
yeah, the walgreens system is not too bad. it has a great feature called the work que. if a patient comes in to pick up the meds and you do not see the prescription in the bin you can check the work que to see if it has already been sold. if the prescription is not ready yet it will tell you which step in the filling cycle its in (just typed in and waiting to be reviewd; printed waiting to be filled; or filled and waiting for the final check)
 
CVS's system is not bad at all.. Once you learn it, of course it's easy. But we can tell if the customer has picked up their script also and theirs a screen to see all the "what needs to be verify" , the "only printing screen" and then there's an "everything" screen where you can see what is ready to print, what need to be verify, rejections, etc etc....

I was with Eckerd before CVS bought them out and I am wondering if that's the same system that Kroger is using. I'm still deciding if I want to apply at Kronger since it's right near my house and I'm not entirely happy with the hourly rate with CVS after being with the compay for about 3 years...
 
If I had to do it over again, I'd get in with Rite Aid. They give their interns health/dental/RX drug insurance at something like $20/week.
 
Nerdd13 said:
CVS's system is not bad at all.. Once you learn it, of course it's easy. But we can tell if the customer has picked up their script also and theirs a screen to see all the "what needs to be verify" , the "only printing screen" and then there's an "everything" screen where you can see what is ready to print, what need to be verify, rejections, etc etc....
Click to expand...
My store has something like that too, but its very difficult to get to and not convenient at all. Then to top it off, if it's one of those "weird" prescriptions that has been credited or a sig edited etc (that didn't go straight through the stations like normal) we basically lose it. The one good thing the system does have is intials saying the pharmacist checked it. So, technically we know its made it past the pharmacist if that is there, but we don't know what happened to it after that point.
 
pharmagirl said:
My store has something like that too, but its very difficult to get to and not convenient at all. Then to top it off, if it's one of those "weird" prescriptions that has been credited or a sig edited etc (that didn't go straight through the stations like normal) we basically lose it. The one good thing the system does have is intials saying the pharmacist checked it. So, technically we know its made it past the pharmacist if that is there, but we don't know what happened to it after that point.
Click to expand...

So do u work for Kroger? For certified techs (specifically texas) if anyone knows, isn't the average starting is about 10? Is that about what kroger would start off with? and is Kroger flexible with they sced. for students? I heard walgreens is pretty structured and work times are made up by the lead tech.

At CVS, they are good in working with your hrs and helping you out. Just wondering if Kroger is pretty free like that.
 
Is Connexus a good program? I've never heard of it.
 
bananaface said:
Kroger officially bought Connexus, code and all. It is going to be in all Kroger stores within 2 years, and the first stores in about a year.
Click to expand...

I was talking with the intern I work with about this and she said she has been hearing this since she started 5 years ago, but has yet to see anything happen. You may very well be right, but Kroger sure seems to take their time with things like this.
 
CincyPrePharm06 said:
I was talking with the intern I work with about this and she said she has been hearing this since she started 5 years ago, but has yet to see anything happen. You may very well be right, but Kroger sure seems to take their time with things like this.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they had been talking about buying it for a long time. The word from our big managemement meeting in Portland last week is that the software has now been purchased and a timeline for launch set in place. Now that they've put money in they should get on the ball.
 
bananaface said:
There are rumors that Kroger is going to upgrade their computer system and put all of their chains on the same system. Connexus is what I heard they were considering the most heavily. But, the discussion started around 2 years ago and no action has been taken so far. I'm with Fred Meyer and we are on PDX. It's liveable and learnable. What system does CVS run?
Click to expand...
CVS has their own internal system called Rx2000. They are almost continually inserting software "upgrades" to add functions. I've heard a rumor that they may completely change the system, but no idea of when that might actually come to pass. We are linked to all other CVSs, assuming that the patient's name, birthdate, etc. have been input correctly to begin with and we are searching on what was input before.

Yes, as the earlier poster noted, we can look to see if the Rx was paid for, and it shows what day, time, register, and employee number was used when the Rx was paid for. It's a nice feature. I think the thing we have that I like the best is the auto-fax to doctors. We spend a LOT less time calling doctors than we used to. My pharmacy is around 200-250 Rx per day in the week, and there are days that we only have 2 or 3 phone calls to make in the morning because everything else has autofaxed.

In terms of pay, I'm not sure about interns, but in my market the tech pay is significantly less at Krogers than with CVS.
 
rxlynn said:
Yes, as the earlier poster noted, we can look to see if the Rx was paid for, and it shows what day, time, register, and employee number was used when the Rx was paid for. It's a nice feature. I think the thing we have that I like the best is the auto-fax to doctors. We spend a LOT less time calling doctors than we used to. My pharmacy is around 200-250 Rx per day in the week, and there are days that we only have 2 or 3 phone calls to make in the morning because everything else has autofaxed.
Click to expand...
How does the autofax work? Do you use it just for needing refills or other things too?
 
All4MyDaughter said:
I'm with Kroger in Kentucky.

Most of the stores are pretty nice.
You get 10% off Kroger branded products every day.

Starting pay is around $6/hour here.
With two years experience (or certification) they will start you at $7, I think.
Our techs are unionized (UFCW) so you have to pay dues.
I think the dues are kinda steep for the benefit you actually get.

Pharmacy hours are generally OK. M-F 8-9/Sa 9-6/Su 12-6.
Most of the stores have drive-thrus.

Technology is poor. Some stores have to mix suspensions using a jug of distilled water. I'm not kidding.

The computer system is hard to learn. Not at all intuitive.
Some stores utilize the Pharmacy2000 filling program which is nice.
Most don't have P2000 though.

Management can be kind of stingy with tech hours. My current store has 80 tech hours which translates to one technician per hour that the pharmacy is open. We have a drive-thru. My intern hours are in addition to the 80 tech hours so that helps a little bit.

Kroger is OK. It's not horrible, not great.
I don't really have anything to compare it with.
Click to expand...


what is the entry-level salary for a registered pharmacist in Kroger? I am living in Lexington, KY.

Thanks so much.
 
All4MyDaughter said:
I THINK it's around 96,000 in Louisville. Somewhere close to that, anyway.
Click to expand...

REALLY??? Sooooooo high!!
 
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