Walgreens in vegas or Ralphs in SoCal- What would you do??

[hawaii90210]

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Dear all,
I have a situation and just want to gather some of your opinions, so any current pharmacists working for either one of these chains, your input is greatly appreciated.. here we go:
I live in SoCal ( LA) all this time and currently a grad intern for Ralphs and have been with the company for years; however, I have no permanent offer with ralphs yet, i just know that I might potentially be a floater for them, region to float: not sure..
I recently got an offer for walgreens in vegas with full time floater Rph. and now debating whether i should stay in CA or move to vegas.... My questions are:

1. How are walgreens compare with other chain? in term of benefits, tech hours and work flow???
- Is it going to be easier for me to transfer back into CA walgreens in the long run if i take the job out in vegas??

2. Do pharmacists at walgreens spend more time on patient counseling, drug DUR and other patient care aspect rather than filling prescriptions at all time??

3. given the fact that I am so comfortable with the Ralphs system, should i take the risk to leave this company for walgreens? Is walgreens gonna be around for longer given the ESI sitatuation?

4. Finally, How is Las vegas compare to SoCal despite the crazy heat in the summer??

I know i am asking a lot of questions but I am in a point that i need to see what other opinion out there before I make this major move.. this is also my first time posting in the forum so pls be easy on me 🙂
thank you for your input!!!

 

[Its Z]

Vegas. No state income tax in Nevada. Dirt cheap real estate also. Entertainment when you want. And LA is only 5 hours away drive. And you have a job offer.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Vegas. Full time float is 40 hours and guaranteed income. All chains are pretty much the same. You'll learn the Wags computer system fast. I learned CVS's system in a matter of days.

No income tax, the cheapest airport I know of fees wise...and it has international destinations, too, guaranteed hours, CHEAP property due to the housing collapse.

Vegas. Not even a question in my mind.

 

[xiphoid2010]

Damn you guys, all those perks you mentioned make me second guess if I should've given the VA job in vegas more consideration. But my wife was like "there's no way in hell I'm raising my baby in Vegas" and that was the end of that, Texas it was. Anybody live in Vegas have any input? Never been ther, but can kind of imagine drunks, hookers, and people who lost their shirt might be more common than most cities.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Damn you guys, all those perks you mentioned make me second guess if I should've given the VA job in vegas more consideration. But my wife was like "there's no way in hell I'm raising my baby in Vegas" and that was the end of that, Texas it was. Anybody live in Vegas have any input? Never been ther, but can kind of imagine drunks, hookers, and people who lost their shirt might be more common than most cities.

The strip and surrounding area is like that, but las Vegas is pretty big, and you can avoid these areas if you try hard enough.

 

[confettiflyer]

Vegas for sure, pick a nice area to live, and you're good.

 

[confettiflyer]

Never been ther, but can kind of imagine drunks, hookers, and people who lost their shirt might be more common than most cities.

Common misconception about LV. Outside the strip and in the master planned communities, it's your typical suburban oasis filled with strip malls, Costco, and lots of golfing.

Whenever I visit friends in Vegas, 1/2 of 3 days will be spent on-strip. We avoid it like the plague.

If you raise kids there...make sure they leave the city for college life, this is a must. If they don't, they get caught in this weird Vegas black hole and they become lifers. Don't be a Vegas lifer...locals and some Californians know what I'm talking about.

 

[BMBiology]

Working for Ralphs can be risky. Pharmacy is just a small part of Ralphs and I hear they have not been making money.

If you don't have family in Southern California and if Walgreens offers you 40 hrs/week then take it. Work hard a few years and pay back your student loans. California is not getting better any time soon.

 

[SHC1984]

Vegas man! Where else are you gonna have the opportunity to gamble 24/7? Fun stuff man!

 

[vardenafil]

i went to pharmacy school in vegas. lived there for almost 8 years. i can answer any question youd like. the good the bad the ugly... i even worked for walgreens for 4 years as a floater/staffer in vegas. so i can tell you about the dpm's work schedule ect... shot me an pm with all your questions.

 

[UTpharmmonkey]

..

 

[joetrisman]

Thank you everyone for your opinion. After looking at all the pros and cons of both sides and especially see how Ralphs treated me, I decided to go w/ Vegas 🙂 I guess I am very blessed to have an offer given how tough the market is for new grad. Thnx again for all ur opinion. Have a great day!!!

An old store manager of mine told me that during a vegas convention he was told that the pharmacists at the Wags on the strip job primarily consists of directing people to which isle condoms are on. Sounds like a decent gig to me 👍

 

[redbeaver]

Walgreens is definitely the better choice hands down. You do have an overlap pharmacist on the weekdays. You have a tech to help out each day of the week. You don't have to work more than 8 hours a day. Because the store is small, you get to know all the employees there, not just the pharmacy. It becomes like a family. They've been established for over 100 years, and they are a pharmacy-based company unlike grocery store pharmacies. Walgreens also has an excellent computer system. It's very efficient and easy to learn.
On the other hand, stay away from any Kroger grocery store pharmacy like the flu. This includes Ralphs, Smith's, Fry's, City Market, King Soopers, etc. Anyone who is planning to apply to Kroger needs to think TWICE. This is for your own good. Do not be duped by their low volume of scripts and their union benefits. First off, just because they have low script volume does not mean that the work is going to be easy. For the most part, the pharmacy is understaffed. There’s only one pharmacist who runs the whole show. Oftentimes they leave you alone by yourself without a tech or any help. Why? Because they are losing ground to CVS and Walgreens. Secondly, they will not warn you about their probation period when they first hire you. Just because they give you a job offer does not mean that you’re 100% guaranteed to keep the job. Until then, you still need to assume that you’re still unemployed even if you just started working for them. If they don’t want to keep you, they will not even issue you a fair warning. They will just fire you on the spot. They are known to do that. Please don’t let yourself be screwed over by them. It’s not worth the pain. Lastly, Kroger pharmacies are hurting and losing revenue. The main reason why they opened pharmacies in the first place was to get people to buy groceries there. That's where they generate their revenue, not the pharmacy. In about 5-10 years, the grocery store pharmacies will become obsolete because they cannot compete against Walmart, Costco, and the top 3 retail chain pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid).

 

[DrWrong]

Vegas man! Where else are you gonna have the opportunity to gamble 24/7? Fun stuff man!

And get prostitutes legally!

Goodness. Just realized this was posted last year. Why would you bump this? Geez.

 

[grumps]

Places in the desert like Vegas, Arizona, and New Mexico I would avoid. As an empire retreats the latest colonial outposts will be abandoned. The RE bubble 2.0 appears to have been pricked which doesn't bode well for Vegas. You could get trapped there underwater on a mortgage with falling knife equity and no income as the big chains mothball operations. Vegas is a one-trick pony, the economy is not diverse enough to withstand a shock to the tourist trade.

The same rationale goes for Hawaii and places like the Virgin Islands. Before planting roots there you have to consider if that community could sustain itself for an extended period if cutoff from trade. Could these islands/desert oases support their bloated populations with available fishing/farming capital? And what if cheap energy is not available making the fishing fleets/farm equipment unusable?

 

[confettiflyer]

Places in the desert like Vegas, Arizona, and New Mexico I would avoid. As an empire retreats the latest colonial outposts will be abandoned. The RE bubble 2.0 appears to have been pricked which doesn't bode well for Vegas. You could get trapped there underwater on a mortgage with falling knife equity and no income as the big chains mothball operations. Vegas is a one-trick pony, the economy is not diverse enough to withstand a shock to the tourist trade.

The same rationale goes for Hawaii and places like the Virgin Islands. Before planting roots there you have to consider if that community could sustain itself for an extended period if cutoff from trade. Could these islands/desert oases support their bloated populations with available fishing/farming capital? And what if cheap energy is not available making the fishing fleets/farm equipment unusable?

...da fuq...

 

[Momus]

...da fuq...

Grumps has Asperger's lol

 

[grumps]

🙂

Grumps has Asperger's lol

What do I take for that? Ampho B?

 

[pezdispenser]

🙂


What do I take for that? Ampho B?

Are you thinking about Aspergillosis?