Rite Aid Reviews

Pros

You have a job in this economy. Lots of overtime.

Cons

This company is going down the tubes fast.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire the board of directors!

Pros

The people are nice and genuine and really care about the customers. The instant feed back from the customers when you have met or exceeded their expectations is very rewarding.

Cons

Company does not see value in associates who are store level to advance into leadership roles that are not store based positions.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize that there may be much stronger talent that can be leveraged for short term projects in the stores and that these associates have a diverse skill set base eager to use their education and their hands on front line knowledge for the good of the company and customers.

Pros

A nice building to work in. Comparable insurance to competitors. Low customer traffic, so low stress.

Cons

Low pay. 1-2 % pay increases, if you're lucky. Little chance to advance. Stores are run with very small staffs. Upper management changes yearly, if not more often. Company declining in sales and traffic, while competitors are doing much better. There are no longer Store Managers or Assistant Managers in stores, they are run by Shift Supervisors who now do manager and assistants job for less pay. They are overseen by "Pod Managers" who oversee 5 stores each. Since Managers and Assistants are gone, if you're a shift that is as far as you can advance. When a Pod Manager position has opened they hire from outside the company. Like most retail nowadays, the District Managers tend to "micromanage" and criticise as much as possible. There has been tremendous turnover in the past three years, you never know how long a district manager will last, and each one wants different things. The stores are so low volume now because of all of upper mgts. bad decisions, that they are easy to run, but you will be lonely, as you will run the store by yourself for a long time each day. Working here now is just a job to get by with, not a career, but you can't tell management that of course!

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back the market mix the stores used to have to bring back lost customers. Maybe try the sav-a-lot grocery/pharmacy mix used in s.carolina here, I think it would work better than the "value plus" concept now in effect. Our stores are missing sales by double digits since this went into effect. It's a failure! Quit acting like politicians, saying that things are great, accept that this is a failure, and do something different!

Pros

Really enjoyed providing customer service and working with the customers

Cons

Very disorganized company. Rules enforced very randomly.someone led this company to believe that all customer service consists of is saying "welcome to rite aid where flu shots are offered seven days a week" .very much a cvs wanna- be except they imitate every thing a year or two later.store I worked in was top producing store in district and yet they would invest no money to update the extremely dated,worn out conditions of the store. If it were not the only place to shop in this town customers would not shop here . When another drugstore chain finally recognizes this areas value for locating a store due to it's proximity to interstate 95 rite aid will forced out of business.

Advice to Senior Management

When you make judgements prior to hearing both sides of the story then you never get the full story.your loss,your customers loss.don't underestimate how the physical condition of the stores you operate alter the way you are perceived by the customer. if you don't care about the eye sore you maintain then you really don't care about the people who live in this town and need to shop in your store.They know that.First chance they get, they will shop somewhere else and rightly so.

Pros

Discount for you and your family
Friendly co-workers
the customers are usually nice,
the store is definitely not packed, so its relaxing

Cons

The company seems to be going bankrupt,
lack of hours given out
Have the worst pay ever
Managers are unfreindly
They don't care about their employees

Pros

good pay, good health benefits, great working condition, good and friendly customers, just about every thing under one roof and clean stores.

Cons

Long hours, upper management does not have any respect for managers, hr department does not follow the company policies, they let their managers go without any solid reason, they don,t have a open door policy.

Advice to Senior Management

Give little respect to your management team, do not force them to violate company policies,worh with them to understand the store needs since every store location requires different type of support.

Pros

Co-workers can be the best part; I have worked with some of these people for many years, and call them friends as well as associates. There are many people who really care about thier job, the work they produce, and the customers. And like me, they used to care about the company. (see cons for more) Depending on the store manager, the flexibility of hours can be wonderful. 8 am-10pm, Sun-Sat offers alot of time options. Just know that as a new-hire you will most likely be covering nights and weekends. For a cashier, there is a limited amount of job variety because you are sort of tied to a checkstand, but if you ask and show initiative, these tasks do expand. As a supervisor, I am rarely bored. So many different things to do, so little time to do them in.
I'd say before you choose a specific store to apply at, ask a few associates about the store manager and assistant manager. These two people, especially the store manager, make the difference in whether your job will be enjoyable or miserable.

Cons

So many more cons today than there were a few years ago. In the PROS section I wrote, "And like me, they used to care about the company. I say used to, because very few of us care anymore. We are glad to have jobs, but have seen this company change so drastically in the past several years, and not in a good way, that it has become almost impossible to care. For a lot of us, this is what makes the day-to-day so difficult." Every day is a challange. Long-time employees who used to take pride in their area of the store, the area we were in charge of, are embarrassed by what the customers are encountering now. District and Corporate management does not have a clue! The top management at Rite Aid has become so focused on creating "new" programs that they have lost total sight of the stores and have absolutely no idea what is really needed. The Wellness + program has some great things attached to it; you get the sale prices and people like the +UP coupons, but they HATE having to sign up for a card to get these sale prices. And the employees hate the constant numbers being sent out with CAPITAL LETTER rants about how many customers are making purchases without a Wellness card being swiped. Never a positive, always a criticism. The G.E.T. program................constant notices reminding us to "Greet, Engage, and Thank the customer. This would not be a bad concept, but if senior management is in the store and you are not using the exact script they have chosen (Welcome to Rite Aid, Thank you for shopping at Rite Aid, Please come again), you are not following G.E.T and can be written up for it. Maybe trust the employees to handle G.E.T. in our own fashion (Hi, nice to see you again, Thanks, have a good day, See you next time)? But to this new Rite Aid, exact words are the program, and exact words it must be.
As a supervisor, what I see most is the lack of focus on what needs to be done at store level, and a total lack of understanding about the time constraints we are facing. There is a serious need for a reality check. What used to be priorities; getting the freight out, keeping the store clean, having enough cashiers to help the customers and let management do their jobs have given way to meeting the plan, having the highest new-program numbers, and the "top priority" of the day. Every day that I walk in the door, I am told to "work on this; it is the most important thing, it has to be done". The DM has called and said this....today. Yesterday the DM called and it was this other thing. And I look around at my unfinished work, and my messy store, and my overworked, discouraged employees, and I know that the joy has gone out of Rite Aid. It makes me sad.

more cons:
The pay is bad; it starts low and ther is an automatic 2% raise each year. We do a self/manager appraisal every year, but they are pointless. Good or bad, it's 2%.

The hours can suck. 8 am-10pm (which translates to anywhere from 5am-11pm), Sun-Sat is a lot of hours to be open. We are open 365 days a year, including Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. For a company that claims to value its associates so much, this is a bad situation. Again, it didn't used to be like this. Only in the past 5 years or so has the total greed taken over on the holidays. We used to close on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and close at 5 on Christmas Eve; now the hours don't really change at all.

A bad store manager is a long-term bad store manager. Short of getting caught stealing, they are around for years. I've been through good and bad, and the bad are getting more common. Short work days, chatting on the phone all day, playing favorites with associates and schedules,kissing up to the DMs.......I unfortunately am seeing it all these days, every day.

Advice to Senior Management

GET a clue!!! Realize that there are only so many hours in a day, and that when you short-staff your stores, everything can not get done. Don't give your store managers (or DMs--they do call the stores) a weeks notice when you are going to visit. Just show up! All that week accomplishes is that everyone stops what they are doing, spends hours facing and hiding our mess, and we bring in extra people to hang signs and make it all presentable. If you want to see reality, just show up!
Stop with the new programs. Trust your emloyees and management to know how to take care of our customers and our store. Give us hours and people, and I guarentee the work will get done and the customers will be happier. So will the employees. We used to be, we used to care.

Pros

Dealing with the customers was the best part of my day, other than that...

Cons

Long Hours
Budgets get cut forcing Store Manger to become associates to get the job done
District Manager threatens with write ups rather then coaching and mentoring
Quick to blame you when things don't get done even though salary has been cut
On an average day its just you and one person all day in the morning and at night
Shrink is up because you can't watch the entire store
Managers are not managers at all you spend too much time as an associate

Advice to Senior Management

Should have stuck with Raptar and culture change. Great idea; however, never made it into the store level. Many District Managers are still old school and are unwilling to change for the better. It's their way or the highway and I have seen many good managers fired for no reason at all. Lack of communication from the top down.

Pros

decent retail business, they are flexible in scheduling and all fo the district managers have been decent and seem willing to help

Cons

management training performed by district managers and was not very productive. a company of this size should have initial training for all new hires so they can come in the store ready to work as the managers are so busy trying to stay ahead of the game it affects the productivity of their new hires. Benefits do not begin until 90 days in

Advice to Senior Management

don't be short-sighted in your strategy, stating that the company is short on funds so training will stop is a short sighted fix but may affect future managers which may affect future company earnings

Pros

Rite Aid has many benefits to becoming an employee. They have good benefits, a very structured management style, promote the willingness to work with others, safety and confidentiality compliance, and will teach the employee skills that may be used in future eneavors.

Cons

Rite Aid is a good establishment to work at, but there are a few cons. One con is the pay is not up to par with other employers like them. Another is working with the public, which isn't bad 90% of the time, but that remaining 10% can drive a person up the wall....

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees better. If your employees were paid better, they would be willing to work harder, pay more attention to customers, paperwork, etc... this would promote accuracy in all management positions, thus preventing the loss of millions of dollars in inventory.