London Drugs Reviews in Vancouver, BC Area

Pros

Great coworkers. Nice customers. Nice supervisor.

Cons

The pay was lousy. The discount was bad. I got mad that instead of hiring one full-time tech, they hired two part-time techs, and then didn't even allow us to get a second part-time job. How could I support myself on one part-time job? Plus, the pharmacy was dirty and they never cleaned it but they didn't give us time to clean it either. Also, they didn't provide training for me to use the computer system, therefore, my first 8 weeks were trial-and-error which I think cost the company hundreds of dollars lost - not kidding!
The craziest thing was that I was one technician working alone with 3 pharmacists in the store at the same time. Why hire more expensive pharmacists but not a cheap tech?

Advice to Senior Management

Please increase pay, also please provide more support to the pharmacists. Do not have one tech only at a time. Please hire full-time techs.

Pros

Some people made it a fun atmoshpere. There was an acceptable discount offered to employees. Taking time off wasnt an issue.

Cons

Where do I begin. You get treated like a low life by customers who are without a doubt unemployable. Some staff had issues, especially store managers, that were brought from work to the workplace such as addiction issues. Not a fun place to work.

Advice to Senior Management

Start hiring people who will make decent managers, not those who just put enough time in to be moved up.

Pros

Flexible hours, competitive pay, easy tasks, nice co-workers to work with, many locations for transfers, good benefits if you are in status position

Cons

Can transfer you 1 hour commute from your current address (i now drive 58 minutes to current store, driving past 2 locations on my route, not very eco-friendly). Senior Management too focused on reports, graphs, grids and losing focus on why they are there like customer service, and employee relations. You cannot run a successful business locked in your office.
Payroll is increasingly an issue, company is cutting back on many of its operational requirements, including store level. I see more customers walking away because they have a hard time getting help, or the help that is there has 3 people waiting for them, when all they want is something that's simply locked behind glass.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring your focus back to what London Drugs was once known for. That mission statement of ours is fading quite fast, and will soon be "Do anything and Everything to be like Wal-Mart and Best Buy and conquer Canada"

Fire useless people more often, and get an HR team who has more balls, you are letting useless people with poor performance use all the payroll hours to the good people who work hard and want to be there, while HR polices and procedures make it virtually impossible to terminate staff.

Fire the store management who have been KNOWN for eons and have bad reputations for being horrible managers, maybe then staff will work harder to make you meet your benchmarks because treating your employees like numbers will get you in the red, a common trend of the downward spiral that was "London Drugs"

Pros

Good benefits/perks, flexible hours if you're a student.

Cons

overwhelming work load, lack of hours for staff that is not high a high enough position, pay that is becoming no longer competitive, little acknowledgment for job well done, constant abuse from customers due to now lacking customer service due to payroll cuts (no longer the company that provided superior customer service) , promoting of individuals that are not ready for position (apparent in some of the management). This is based not only on my experience when I worked for the company, but in the feedback from friends that still work there. London Drugs use to be a great company that you were excited to work for, now they are going down hill fast. They have loyal long term employees that have now not been able to pay their rent because unless you are status - your hours can be cut down to nothing. There is by far not enough positive acknowledgment of the employees, and honestly the pay should be higher for certain positions.

Advice to Senior Management

London Drugs should refocus on what made them a great company - their people. They need to get back on track with how they interact with their employees, provide the hours that will allow for the customer service they were known for, re-train their store management - positive leadership will go a long way and starts at the top. Stop looking for ways to cut costs that affect the pay or hours of your staff - they need competitive wages and hours that encourage them to stay with you (and thanks them for all the years that they have stayed) - not bare minimum. Start listening to your staff.

Pros

Their are none at the moment. I can tell you that most employee's i know throughout the company are extremely unhappy.

Cons

Employee's are treated poorly when sales are down and little is said when they are up.
Senority or long service with the company means very little if you work in one of thier stores.

Advice to Senior Management

Start treating your long term employee's better, we are the ones that made London Drugs excellent customer service what it used to be. Unfortunatley that can not be said anymore, and most customers will tell you that.
If were all forced to leave because you've cut our hours down to 10 a week, who's going to provide a superior shopping experance when things get better.

Pros

The only reason to work here is if you're a student or if you're an adult that cant find a job else where.

The hours are somewhat flexible (it's also a major con, see below).

Cons

Let's start with the fact that most workers here are part time. When I say part time I mean they will give you a part time status even when you work 40hours. That means they can cut your hours anytime they want and not giving you any benefits at all. (What a way to treat your workers).

So I said the hours are flexible but they are extremely inconsistent. You can literally work 10hours a week and 40hours the next. In addition, the schedule is completely rigged, (all the entry level position are equal and anyone can work them). This means that the person who does the schedule will give the relatively easier task to their suck ups.

Another thing you'll find that is that this job has almost no chance of advancement. You'll notice immediately that many people have been there for 10, 20+ years and are still working entry level positions.

While it's hard to get promoted, they'll often hire management externally and pay them more then if you're promoted internally. This system is messed because external hired managements have no idea what they're doing.

Advice to Senior Management

Most of the time, senior managements are promoted internally. That's fine, except for the fact that they are all power abusers. I guess they must have forgot that they were once a regular nobody. Oh, I guess the didnt, that's the beauty of vicious cycle.

Senior Management will never recognize your work and will only demand you to do them better.