First Day at my own store - 3 Letter Company

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Cleaveland

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Hook it up with the advice my SDNers. Been with you all since my prepharm days! I
will be a staff there at a store that does about 1500-2000 a week from what I hear. I'm pretty nervous.

Thanks in advance :D

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Hook it up with the advice my SDNers. Been with you all since my prepharm days! I
will be a staff there at a store that does about 1500-2000 a week from what I hear. I'm pretty nervous.

Thanks in advance :D
Well you clearly didn’t listen to the advice of not going into pharmacy and taking out $200k+ in debt when you graduate so I’m not sure what kind of advice you’re looking for here...
 
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Hook it up with the advice my SDNers. Been with you all since my prepharm days! I
will be a staff there at a store that does about 1500-2000 a week from what I hear. I'm pretty nervous.

Thanks in advance :D

Go apply for another job ASAP.
 
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Haha, hook me up Victor!


Easy for the pros like you, haha. :D

I kid you not. You will hate yourself after about a week or so... especially the weekly conference call. I always wanted to take a shower afterwards lol. get all the fakeness off of me... ugh.

It becomes more of a job than a profession... at least that's how i felt. you won't have much support system either. you have to learn how to float and swim at the same time all by yourself while pretending to know everything.... and when you complain, you get a slap in the face with "you make too much money to be complaining".

it's also great that you're starting during the flu season... make sure you keep them numbers high or they'll hate you lol
 
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2000 a week? Easy one
 
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I kid you not. You will hate yourself after about a week or so... especially the weekly conference call. I always wanted to take a shower afterwards lol. get all the fakeness off of me... ugh.

It becomes more of a job than a profession... at least that's how i felt. you won't have much support system either. you have to learn how to float and swim at the same time all by yourself while pretending to know everything.... and when you complain, you get a slap in the face with "you make too much money to be complaining".

it's also great that you're starting during the flu season... make sure you keep them numbers high or they'll hate you lol

Haha, “Fake it till you make it.... to retirement!”

2000 a week? Easy one

Haha, you all are just way too good probably.
 
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Keep a low profile. Don’t get on anyone’s bad side. Stay out of trouble.

As others mentioned, start working on your CV so you can get out.

You MAY feel content and fine with your work situation now, especially when you’re in your mid to late twenties, your work situation may seem manageable and double. When you’re in your early thirties, your perspective on life may change, you might have different priorities and want a different life style. Plan ahead, don’t get stuck and complacent
 
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My advice is not to care too much. I used to hate the floaters who just verified and considered bagging some scripts and answering 2-3 calls in a day to be "helping the techs out", but now I completely understand. I no longer want to stay caught up all day- that doesn't matter. What my DM is tracking now is how many other shots I upsell from a flu shot. So I don't care how chaotic the day is going I just tell the techs to increase wait times and sign people up for a text so they don't hover like pigeons outside of McDonalds and give my undivided attention to anyone who is dumb enough to come to a pharmacy to get immunizations. I used to work as hard and fast as possible so everyone would have a good day. Trust me and don't bother with that mentality.
 
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2000 scripts a week is a low volume store? that's about 400 scripts per day... how busy are the districts that you guys work in? lol
 
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2000 scripts a week is a low volume store? that's about 400 scripts per day... how busy are the districts that you guys work in? lol

Store I used to staff at did 6000/wk. And it wasn't even the busiest store in the area. The one I'm at now does a bit over 3000/wk with late summer volume... And it's considered a "high mid level".

True high volume (5000+) stores are **** shows most pharmacists can't even begin to imagine. It is pure chaos for the pharmacists.

Oddly, it's easier for the techs.

The one I was at...we had one woman whose job was drive through. That's it. Pictures of her kids were at the drive through. It was her office. There was a car there pretty much continuously from 7am to 11pm. She did the RTSs in the brief instances a car wasn't there. And that was her job. And she stayed busy the entire shift. It was seriously demanding, but being able to focus on a single task seemed nice.

But that's how it was. The techs all had a single job, mostly. They didn't take have to multitask.

Good luck with the new store, OP. Don't forget to max out your 401k and Roth IRA in order to retire a millionaire.
 
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Amazing you have enough tech(s) & hours to accommodate 1 person to take care of drive through. My "**** show" of a store is continuous "musical chairs" multitasking chaos (even more tech hours cut recently & college techs back to school) with mostly new hire techs...where'd that box of fentanyl patches go?
 
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Store I used to staff at did 6000/wk. And it wasn't even the busiest store in the area. The one I'm at now does a bit over 3000/wk with late summer volume... And it's considered a "high mid level".

True high volume (5000+) stores are **** shows most pharmacists can't even begin to imagine. It is pure chaos for the pharmacists.

Oddly, it's easier for the techs.

The one I was at...we had one woman whose job was drive through. That's it. Pictures of her kids were at the drive through. It was her office. There was a car there pretty much continuously from 7am to 11pm. She did the RTSs in the brief instances a car wasn't there. And that was her job. And she stayed busy the entire shift. It was seriously demanding, but being able to focus on a single task seemed nice.

But that's how it was. The techs all had a single job, mostly. They didn't take have to multitask.

Good luck with the new store, OP. Don't forget to max out your 401k and Roth IRA in order to retire a millionaire.

yeah but that doesn't justify calling a 2000 scripts stores low volume (especially if they have drive through as well). from the tone of the responses on here, you'd think a 2000 scripts store is dead. I bet you in majority of the districts a 2000 scripts store is at least mid or mid high... some districts might even consider that high volume

you guys can really discourage new grads with the way you guys are talking if they struggle at a store that volume because they'll think they are struggling at a really low volume store that should be a cake walk

and I've worked at 5000+ scripts store before (not a 24 hours store either) and it was really busy but luckily that store was well ran
 
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yeah but that doesn't justify calling a 2000 scripts stores low volume (especially if they have drive through as well). from the tone of the responses on here, you'd think a 2000 scripts store is dead. I bet you in majority of the districts a 2000 scripts store is at least mid or mid high... some districts might even consider that high volume

you guys can really discourage new grads with the way you guys are talking if they struggle at a store that volume because they'll think they are struggling at a really low volume store that should be a cake walk

and I've worked at 5000+ scripts store before (not a 24 hours store either) and it was really busy but luckily that store was well ran

Yeah you can't always go by script count. I was in a store that did around 4300/week and it was chaos. The queue was always behind and the rph was often assigned to drive thru which meant walking back and forth every other minute.

Then I went to a 6000/week store and it was cake cause there were always 4 techs and they busted their butts. All I had to do was stand there and verify.
 
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Good luck. Probably the worse time to start right now in the prime of flu shots.....its **** show season.
 
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My advice is not to care too much. I used to hate the floaters who just verified and considered bagging some scripts and answering 2-3 calls in a day to be "helping the techs out", but now I completely understand. I no longer want to stay caught up all day- that doesn't matter. What my DM is tracking now is how many other shots I upsell from a flu shot. So I don't care how chaotic the day is going I just tell the techs to increase wait times and sign people up for a text so they don't hover like pigeons outside of McDonalds and give my undivided attention to anyone who is dumb enough to come to a pharmacy to get immunizations. I used to work as hard and fast as possible so everyone would have a good day. Trust me and don't bother with that mentality.

No, these floaters are lazy ****s. They can still just put calls on hold and let stupid customers wait 10+ minutes for hitting 0 immediately. At least bag the waiters.

We also give people long wait times because it's not McDonald's and are around 65-70% RWP because it's not possible to do 36 e-scripts spammed in a 20-minute period, all due within 45 minutes of receipt (NOT input), when there is constant in-person traffic and you just did 5 flu shots before 10

Just FYI 1800/week sold is at the 60% percentile and 3500/week is >99% percentile at WM but those numbers are skewed by slow Neighborhood Market stores and Sam's Club
 
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My last district had I think maybe 5 stores that did anywhere near 2k per week. And some of those were seasonal stores to boot. So no, 2k is not a slow store by any reasonable measure. Actually I don’t think it had even that many.

But honestly script count is only a tiny piece of the picture. The slowest store I ever routinely worked at did I think about 1k a week and it was also tied for worst store I ever worked at.
 
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If you calculate the average volume of entire company, it would be much lower than 2000. Stores doing 3000+ are the exceptions, not the norm.
 
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Been a rough week with Flu Season. Hanging in there. The work experience really has been helping though. Been a technician and an intern here. Customers love me as of now, so that's a plus.
 
Hook it up with the advice my SDNers. Been with you all since my prepharm days! I
will be a staff there at a store that does about 1500-2000 a week from what I hear. I'm pretty nervous.

Thanks in advance :D

Congratulations on joining an elite team of pharmacists with CVS Pharmacy! You are a going to have a tremendous impact on patients in your community. Your 6+ years of school have prepared you to handle a constantly understaffed and undertrained environment where having to use the bathroom is frowned upon and meal breaks no longer exist.

Your vigorous clinical training is now secondary to achieving CVS’s key metrics. These constantly changing, impossible to meet standards, which no pharmacist ever fully understands is crucial to ensuring your CEO and board of directors can receive a larger payout each year, while in turn rewarding you with fewer tech hours.

Welcome to CVS and joining our team!
 
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Congratulations on joining an elite team of pharmacists with CVS Pharmacy! You are a going to have a tremendous impact on patients in your community. Your 6+ years of school have prepared you to handle a constantly understaffed and undertrained environment where having to use the bathroom is frowned upon and meal breaks no longer exist.

Your vigorous clinical training is now secondary to achieving CVS’s key metrics. These constantly changing, impossible to meet standards, which no pharmacist ever fully understands is crucial to ensuring your CEO and board of directors can receive a larger payout each year, while in turn rewarding you with fewer tech hours.

Welcome to CVS and joining our team!

Well, on the plus side, plenty of exercise running around in circles all night long...if you need to use the restroom, you aren't running around hard enough (corporate mentality)
 
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These threads are always so depressing.

When are people going to stop with this "you wouldn't make it in a 5000+ store". 5000 is not the norm and most pharmacists will never experience that, heck they probably won't even experience 4000+ or even 3000+.

Average script count is still in the 200-300 per day range. Pharmacists do not do more work at 5000+ stores, they get more tech hours and should learn how to correctly do their job.
 
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Wow, way to scare the greenie ... at least let him get his feet wet before crushing his hopes and dreams.

That's good that your patients like you, it means that they will be much more forgiving when you inevitably let them down on occasion. Don't mean that sarcastically, you will eventually make an error in judgement (give someone the incorrect wait time, keep someone on hold too long, process the wrong script, etc). It's the nature of the beast. The more you do it, the more it becomes like muscle memory, and the more efficient you'll become. Because pharmacy in general (at least in retail) is pretty monotonous, a large part of whether you like/tolerate the experience will come down to your techs, your boss, and your clientele. If you're able to get along with these groups, then its easy to forget that you work for a giant multinational corporation, and your work life becomes much more pleasant.
 
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Appreciate everyone's feedback. Honestly, I wouldn't been able to do this without the technicians obviously. They are absolutely amazing. I've thanked them over a dozen times and probably boosted their ego (because they deserve it). I also agree management has a huge key to success. I managed and also worked in sales which is obviously metrics driven. (For over 10 years) This is not an issue and nothing new.

Thanks again for everyone's input and I hope you all have a great weekend.
 
2000 scripts a week is a low volume store? that's about 400 scripts per day... how busy are the districts that you guys work in? lol

There other factors besides rx count that go into the Sh*tshow Determination Matrix. We had stores that only did 100 per day but the RPH was alone with no cashiers. Imagine ringing up 100 scripts and filling 100. Of course a low vol store has no inventory so a high percentage of rx's need a jobber to complete. That in itself can be quite a task dealing with all the partial fills, manufacturer changes , and completions.

The quality of the clientele matters. A midwestern crowd probably just picks up the scripts with no question, no fuss. On the other hand certain tribe members can make every interaction into high drama.

For the OP, no matter what, make sure your safety tether isn't frayed. Starting out as a retail RPH w/ no more training wheels will seem like this.
 
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There other factors besides rx count that go into the Sh*tshow Determination Matrix. We had stores that only did 100 per day but the RPH was alone with no cashiers. Imagine ringing up 100 scripts and filling 100. Of course a low vol store has no inventory so a high percentage of rx's need a jobber to complete. That in itself can be quite a task dealing with all the partial fills, manufacturer changes , and completions.

The quality of the clientele matters. A midwestern crowd probably just picks up the scripts with no question, no fuss. On the other hand certain tribe members can make every interaction into high drama.

For the OP, no matter what, make sure your safety tether isn't frayed. Starting out as a retail RPH w/ no more training wheels will seem like this.


why did you quote me? I agree with what you said but it had no relevance to my statement lol
 
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My advice is not to care too much. I used to hate the floaters who just verified and considered bagging some scripts and answering 2-3 calls in a day to be "helping the techs out", but now I completely understand. I no longer want to stay caught up all day- that doesn't matter. What my DM is tracking now is how many other shots I upsell from a flu shot. So I don't care how chaotic the day is going I just tell the techs to increase wait times and sign people up for a text so they don't hover like pigeons outside of McDonalds and give my undivided attention to anyone who is dumb enough to come to a pharmacy to get immunizations. I used to work as hard and fast as possible so everyone would have a good day. Trust me and don't bother with that mentality.

Trailer, im a WM manager and i used to work like that too. I am adopting the same philosophy. They have crushed our spirit with the cuts and shots, no support, opiod nonsense. you know WM is WAY overboard with the narcotic rules right? they are far more strict than state laws. anyway, it just plain stinks.....i want out and my MHWD will probably see to it at some point since im way overpaid.
 
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Average script count is still in the 200-300 per day range. Pharmacists do not do more work at 5000+ stores, they get more tech hours and should learn how to correctly do their job.

In theory that could be true, but I have worked at a lot of stores, and generally the busier the store the harder it is. I don't think tech help really scales with volume the way it should. It might depend on which company you work for.
 
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In theory that could be true, but I have worked at a lot of stores, and generally the busier the store the harder it is. I don't think tech help really scales with volume the way it should. It might depend on which company you work for.

It shouldn't scale but the higher the script count, the less side tasks outside what only the pharmacist can do, should be done.
 
Here's another one. Jeez louize, this guy must have been crapping his pants for days afterwards.

 
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