SAFEWAY vs TARGET (Pharmacist) - Who would you like to work for?

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vietricester

vietricester

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Any thoughts or idea, this two companies we never talk about much. Can you work overtime in these places?
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For Target I believe you usually work 12 hour shifts a few days a week, so you get OT for those
 
wstrn08 said:
For Target I believe you usually work 12 hour shifts a few days a week, so you get OT for those
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Actually NO you do NOT get Overtime at Target. But YES, unfortunately you have to work those God-awful 12 hour shifts. And its based a 84 hour/ pay period instead of a 80hr/pp, like every where else. So for that reason, the 12 hour shift you work (generally once a week) there doesn't mean you work less days. 😡 lol
 
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84 hrs = hourly paid for target??? any other benefit working at target

Thanks
 
vietricester said:
84 hrs = hourly paid for target??? any other benefit working at target

Thanks
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Let me clarify, you are salaried at Target, not hourly. So your pay is not based on how many hours you work, technically. But you have to work a certain number of hours to be considered full-time. At Target, you work 84 hours per pay period for a full time pharmacist. Which kinda sucks. In the long run, Target pharmacists get paid the least for the amount of time they work.
 
Anybody work at Safeway? I heard from my pharmacist that nobody ever left Safeway and work for another company. They stay with them for a long time in Northern Virginia area. Any feedbacks?
 
MountainD, rock and roll with us COME ON! buddy
 
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safeway is cutting back their tech's hours which means the pharmacist has to do more work with less help. So many people are jumping ship to another retail chains. Things are looking bad for them plus the economy is not really helping. The management's mentality is, 'we don't need you more than you need your job'. It really sucks that things are not like the way they were 5 years ago. I can't even find a decent job here in Atlanta. Either no one is hiring or only crappy pharmacies are posting their job once every 3 months.
 
I'm signed on with Target as well; I've heard nothing but good things about them. You are salaried at an 84 hour bi-weekly schedule, but the average around my area is about $53 and Target has me slotted right there.

A friend of mine started with them in 2006 at 90k and is now up to 120k. I'm not expecting a similar trend but they do keep up with the market.
 
RX8 said:
I'm signed on with Target as well; I've heard nothing but good things about them. You are salaried at an 84 hour bi-weekly schedule, but the average around my area is about $53 and Target has me slotted right there.

A friend of mine started with them in 2006 at 90k and is now up to 120k. I'm not expecting a similar trend but they do keep up with the market.
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I can't speak in terms of pharmacist pay or hours, but in terms of the atmosphere, I greatly enjoyed my time working as a tech for Target. Our customers were very pleasant and the computer system was easy to learn. If I were to go into retail, Target would be right at the top of my list of places to work.
 
IrishHammer said:
I can't speak in terms of pharmacist pay or hours, but in terms of the atmosphere, I greatly enjoyed my time working as a tech for Target. Our customers were very pleasant and the computer system was easy to learn. If I were to go into retail, Target would be right at the top of my list of places to work.
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Target, Costco or Publix.

Anywhere else sucks!
 
SHC1984 said:
Target, Costco or Publix.

Anywhere else sucks!
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I still can't believe Costco has a friggin' pharmacy. "Yes, Mr. Johnson, this is your pharmacist, I'm calling to inform you that your pallet of Nexium is in."
 
As a Tech, Target is great. They pay well, treat you well, good people, not too busy.
 
alenadoma said:
As a Tech, Target is great. They pay well, treat you well, good people, not too busy.
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How's the computer system? I'm starting for the shortly and I'm not used to PDX.
 
RX8 said:
How's the computer system? I'm starting for the shortly and I'm not used to PDX.
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The system is not too bad to use. There isn't a scanning for barcodes so you have to manually look at all the NDC and make sure you have the right bottle. Otherwise, it's not that bad. I enjoyed my time interning at Target, the staff was wonderful and the customers weren't that bad either. My pharmacists were very patient and kind as well. I'm glad I completed my IPPE (pharmacy practice experience) at a Target pharmacy because where I work, they stick interns in the corner to do phone calls and you don't learn any of the stuff you're supposed to be learning at all. I picked up most of the system/computer related functions after two weeks of interning. So yeah, Target is great (according to how it was last year anyway). 👍
 
I did my APPE rotation at a Target. The computer system is very dated. There is not much you can do with it. Their workflow I found to be very inefficient. It takes a lot more effort to label and prepare the bottle than with any other pharmacy.
 
RX8 said:
How's the computer system? I'm starting for the shortly and I'm not used to PDX.
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Well PDX doesn't compare to Rite Aid's system for example, but it's manageable. At first it's not very intuitive, it's a lot of tabbing and F4-ing, but you'll get it down. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty fun.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Good luck!
 
genesis09 said:
I did my APPE rotation at a Target. The computer system is very dated. There is not much you can do with it. Their workflow I found to be very inefficient. It takes a lot more effort to label and prepare the bottle than with any other pharmacy.
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100% accurate!
 
alenadoma said:
Well PDX doesn't compare to Rite Aid's system for example, but it's manageable. At first it's not very intuitive, it's a lot of tabbing and F4-ing, but you'll get it down. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty fun.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Good luck!
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How long did it take you to learn PDX? I hope I can learn within one month.
 
genesis09 said:
I did my APPE rotation at a Target. The computer system is very dated. There is not much you can do with it. Their workflow I found to be very inefficient. It takes a lot more effort to label and prepare the bottle than with any other pharmacy.
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I agree with this, their filling station isn't very efficient. Although Walgreens sucks, their entering/filling etc. is much more efficient.
 
SHC1984 said:
How long did it take you to learn PDX? I hope I can learn within one month.
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To get really good at it? A few months. To be able to enter a prescription? The first week.

I've actually only recently gotten good at dealing with rejections, I always just used to hand it off to the pharmacist. Now I can usually figure it out myself.
 
alenadoma said:
To get really good at it? A few months. To be able to enter a prescription? The first week.

I've actually only recently gotten good at dealing with rejections, I always just used to hand it off to the pharmacist. Now I can usually figure it out myself.
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Yeah, it took me almost 2 months to get good with Walgreen's system. I hope I can learn Target's faster since I have experience with Walgreens...Did your experience with Target's system help you learn Rite Aids???
 
the thing i don't like about PDX (at least in my exp. with Target) is that the result of the adjudication process usually results in the label or rejection letter printing. seems like a big waste of paper to me
 
jachen84 said:
the thing i don't like about PDX (at least in my exp. with Target) is that the result of the adjudication process usually results in the label or rejection letter printing. seems like a big waste of paper to me
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Nothing like listening for the page to flip in the duplexer to know if you got a paid claim or a rejection 🙂

I've worked for Target as a tech for 4 years and I've enjoyed it. They pay and treat techs/interns/pharmacists well. My store does 400-500+ scripts daily Mon-Fri and 200-220 Sat-Sun. It gets a bit chaotic at times. Everything said about PDX is true. It's archaic but it gets the job done. I've heard something about a new and improved computer system coming out (They've scrapped workflow apparently). In the Twin Cities at least.
 
pharmacygopher said:
Nothing like listening for the page to flip in the duplexer to know if you got a paid claim or a rejection 🙂

I've worked for Target as a tech for 4 years and I've enjoyed it. They pay and treat techs/interns/pharmacists well. My store does 400-500+ scripts daily Mon-Fri and 200-220 Sat-Sun. It gets a bit chaotic at times. Everything said about PDX is true. It's archaic but it gets the job done. I've heard something about a new and improved computer system coming out (They've scrapped workflow apparently). In the Twin Cities at least.
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haha yes! the page flip!

And to SHC - yeah, having experience definitely helps you learn another system better. You already know the drugs, insurance and SIGs, so all you really have to learn is how to input new scripts/refills.
 
I worked for K-Mart Pharmacy for a few years "back in the day" and they had a really dated system as well. Anyone know if theirs was PDX as well?
 
I was offered a job with Target and Safeway in Socal and ended up choosing Safeway due to a wide variety of reasons( mainly job locations, flexibilty and job security). I can't say anything bad about Target. They both use PDX which in my opinion...sucks! I will never get used to it after using a system like Connexus. I hear both companies are switching systems within 1 year.👍
 
Smilescali said:
They both use PDX which in my opinion...sucks! I will never get used to it after using a system like Connexus. I hear both companies are switching systems within 1 year.👍
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Supposedly, Safeway will be getting McKesson's windows-based Enterprise Rx system. ...anyone have experience with this?
 
I have worked as a Target pharmacist/pharmacy manager for six months now. I used to work at Rite Aid. I left Rite Aid for Target with the belief that Target would be a better place to work in terms of how much staffing the pharmacy gets. It looks like Target is focusing on growing it's pharmacy business by having more pharmacies in their stores. With this change in focus Target appears to be becoming more and more like other retail pharmacy chains. They are expecting you to more with less help. I'm in a busy pharmacy at Target. Perhaps a less busy Target pharmacy would be a better work environment. The system and workflow suck. Filling 200 prescriptions in a day at Target causes as much stress and work as filling 300 scripts at Rite Aid. Because Target stores are popular shopping destinations and because of the open design of the pharmacy there are far more interruptions by customers than you'll find in a typical Rite Aid store. The label and bottle design for their scripts looks cool and everything, but makes the prescription filling process very slow and cumbersome...yet management at Target is so proud of their creation that they fail to see the major loss in productivity that this causes. In this case, Target values form over function when it comes to filling efficiency. My advice to any pharmacy student or pharmacist looking to take a job at Target pharmacy is this: Do not become a pharmacy manager. You will waste large amounts of unproductive time in meetings, filling out leadership status forms, and other psychologically-based leadership development activities that it becomes cumbersome to focus on being a pharmacist and running the day to day operations in the pharmacy. I liked being a pharmacy manager at Rite Aid much better and believe me I don't hold lots of love for Rite Aid.
 
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