Rite Aid Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

One of the best reasons to work at Rite Aid is the flexibility you are given in your own schedule.

Cons

One of the downsides of working at Rite Aid is some of the crazy customers that come into the store with their bizarre requests.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe that the shift supervisors are not managers so they need to stop acting like it and need to treat other employees with respect.

Pros

good management and good customer service

Cons

bad reputation and company closing down stores

Advice to Senior Management

n/a

Pros

experience as a pharmacy technician that is required for better jobs

Cons

outrageous customers, forced to do multiple jobs at once without adequate tools and time, not enough help, required to stand all day, low pay, no opportunity for growth, no raises, bad benefits

Advice to Senior Management

hire more help, give raises

Pros

great customers good colleagues ample opportunites to learn

Cons

long hours especially late in night

Advice to Senior Management

respect your employees

Pros

My manager is cool to work for and is willing to help out when ever needed. Alot of regular customers that are like family as well as co-workers (this is in my store and not in all). ever need a day of and the managers usually work with you. if you make it to my postion rite aid is a big and well known company great for resumes.

Cons

Hours suck, you work weekends days nights never have same schedule two weeks in a row. pay is low compared to other drug stores. Every store is run differently, every store manager intruprets what is said in there own way and does it how the see best fit. Store layouts for planograms do not always match the store you are in so you need to improvise. Benifets blow big time health insurance is not even ensurance it is a health fund that cost the company nothing, for being a health provider you sure take care of your employees.

Advice to Senior Management

There are alot of changes happening and not for the better. There are a few regional and executives who come into stores and feel like they know how a store should be run based off of how things where when they had a store. my advice to upper management is to relize that with the poor comunication in this company you cant expect perfection, and quit making all the managers feel like their job is on the line at all times, that is no way to work.

Pros

I'm a lucky one in this company, with an intelligent and fair boss. That is a rarity in this company. If you like to juggle, and be challenged to complete 100 hours worth of work in 45-50 hours. This is the place for you!

Cons

There is no opportunity for advancement. Middle management thinks of most store managers as un-educated and unworthy. Most of the people in store operations management (DMs, HRMs, LPMs) are nothing but sheep that may disagree with upper management decisions, but are unwilling to speak up out of fear. There is a culture of fear in this company.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat store management and DMs with respect and be willing to listen to them on a case by case basis. You may have some good idea, I honestly believe that, but you have no idea what you're doing to the stores as far as increased workload. You've created a place where it is now impossible to maintain the standards that are required due to all the compliance task issues and lack of payroll. Do time studies on the the tasks and progams you have initiated.

Pros

Rite Aid is a nationwide company with many stores located in the eastern coast and western coast. Good for those who might want to move around

Cons

Management is very unorganized, in order to get something done, one might need to contact three or four individual to find the person that know what to do

Advice to Senior Management

The company is very finanically unstable, managements are kept changing. Often times you would come across new management that still struggle with the position

Pros

Nice pharmacists as bosses. Nice general manager of store. Easy to communicate with staff. easy commute, great experience for first time tech.

Cons

not much break time, a lot of time trying to please customers who do not respect your job, on your feet for many hours

Advice to Senior Management

I HAVE JUST STATED WORKING AT RITE AID AS A PHARMACY TECH AND I AM PLEASED AT THE WAY MANAGEMENT TREATS ITS EMPLOYEES.

Pros

The pay is good but you may find others are being paid more for the same level of work. Don't worry about that, just keep up your job performance. As an assistant manager in the city, I was not worried about being laid off in this tough economy. Others may have a different experience, as the company is trying to promote more cashiers to shift supervisors. But with so many tough stores, they need to keep full level managers to protect their money and products. The work is hard, but that's because you are truly running a customer oriented store. With an open mind and good work ethics, you will learn everything you need to learn about running a large retail store. So to conclude, I will say that Rite will offer you good pay, job stability, and great access to on the job training.

Cons

Now the downside... Rite aid is a mix between a Mom and Pop store and Corporate Giant. You will have to contend with both elements. On the store level you will work long hours. Everyone I know of consistently work more than 50 hours. The demands of the store and corporate needs makes it a little hard to work less. My advice is to focus on the store while you are the only manager on duty and then focus on tasks whenever you can put someone else in charge of the store. Your manager. You will not be able to choose your store, therefore you won't know what type of manager you will be working for. In my time at Rite Aid I had three bad managers and five good managers. Understand that a bad manager is your enemy. Why? because behind your back he or she is working hard to discredit and undermine you. They are lazy, will use you as their number one pawn, and yes, they will lie. Do your job, document your work, and request a transfer as soon as possible. Don't waste your time trying to prove you are a good and hard worker, DM will always side with the store manager, just move on, you will be happier, trust me. Promotions. If you are new to Rite Aid, do not run one of their stores immediately, chances are you will fail. Work there a while, learn your ropes, pay your dues. It's not as easy a job as it may look. Assistant manager will find that promotions are given a little haphazardly. More promotions are given based on DM preference than on outstanding job performance. Don't worry, you can always take your experience and more on.

Advice to Senior Management

Rite Aid may not be a great place to work but it offers every employee from cashier to management an opportunity to learn and grow. My advice is to rotate assistant manager to different stores every year. Managers every three years and DMs every five years. High volume and Overnight store managers and assistants should stay in high volume stores, rotate them throughout the region. Why rotate? Your employee's experience is totally influenced by what store he or she is at. By rotating management more often, the store will develop a Rite Aid culture instead of the culture created by the store manager. As a person who worked in a number of store, I learned how the stores are different and have learned how to adapt to these different types. This experience is invaluable. Store managers will perform better if they have that experience and assistant manager will perform better knowing their future depends on their work performance not just on the opinion of a manager.

Pros

great place to be stepped on by customers and bad managers. Treat employees really bad. Most employees quit right away.

Cons

cheap pay bad work enviornment.Treat employees really bad. Most employees quit right away. Pay really low salaries and You have to pay union also.

Advice to Senior Management

Hope they start respecting employees not just managers. If you don not know that employees are the back bone of your compnay then you will pay.