Shoppers Drug Mart Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Shoppers Drug Mart part-time for more than a year

Pros – - Learned how to manage a team, with many restrictions though

Cons – - No future, no get any higher position.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Shoppers Drug Mart full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Sometimes, if you work for one of the few good stores, you're treated like a valuable person. This doesn't usually happen.

Cons – In my experience, most of the managers have too much control over how they treat their people - most of the stores have a reputation in their own and their neighbouring communities for violating labour laws, breaching privacy policies, wrongful terminations, and/or overall disrespect and lack of professionalism on the management's part. I've worked for one great store, and two horrible stores run by tyrants who thrive on establishing themselves as the all-mighty power that holds your fate - you're usually talked to as though you're lucky to still have your job at Shoppers Drug Mart. Human Resources is unheard of - head office makes no attempt to enable employees to voice their concerns.

People are what built this company from the ground up - they deserve more than an annual morale survey that gets zero results. They deserve head office to take human resources seriously and mandate "Respect for the Individual." That's a policy Wal Mart takes very seriously - say what you want about Wal Mart - it's a FANTASTIC place to grow because they seek out the potential and see value in every employee. I've made more progress pursuing a management position there in 6 months than in over 6 years at SDM.

Also. Don't eat the food - Most of the stores I've seen / worked in don't follow their rotation/expiration guidelines. They often fail to monitor the endcap freezers (the ones not remotely monitored by Sandcastle). And they don't train their merchandisers on food handling techniques. I've seen more mouldy, freezer burned, and expired returns than I ever care to see again, at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Advice to Senior Management – Promote from within - I've been told by your managers that up to 80% of your store managers come from Wal Mart or Home Depot backgrounds, despite that you have an internal "LEAD program." As a corporation who requires top talent to develop and grow your business, you have a responsibility to develop top talent within your organization, and reward the loyalty of your many dedicated employees who passionately work hard to improve your business -despite your embarrassingly low probability of them ever developing a decent career through your LEAD program.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Shoppers Drug Mart part-time for less than a year

Pros – Good first job. If you are a seasoned employee coming from another retail/customer service position be prepared to start at minimum wage, entry level position with little training to a cliquish, favoritism and nepotism type of environment.

Cons – - Excellent training is sacrificed to keep costs at a minimum by working to your shift allowance - no working 5 to 10 min extra to learn a procedure
- Supervisors are not hired as supervisors with people skills. It is a natural progression after working 2+ years. I witnessed a 19 year old coworker promoted to supervisor because she was the longest standing front store cashier in the store
- High turnover

Advice to Senior Management – Keep stores consistent with training, discount availability, refund policy, store shift hours with a central HR to raise questions, concerns, I understand each store is a franchise under the Shoppers Drug Mart banner but it is frustrating for employees as well as customers when we receive inconsistent information. Also stores do not talk to each other.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Shoppers Drug Mart full-time for more than a year

Pros – No PROS ALL AR cons

Cons – Pay is bad
Hrs changing everyweek
Management

Advice to Senior Management – Hire experienced management pay more so the staff dont quit respect your employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Shoppers Drug Mart part-time for less than a year

Pros – discount (including murale), uniform (anything so long as it's black)

Cons – felt more like a security guard than sales associate, hours, dis-jointed training, high turnover

Advice to Senior Management – hire full-time loss prevention support - don't rely on your own people

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Shoppers Drug Mart part-time for more than a year

Pros – meeting a variety of new people and making new relationships with them
30% off regular price (which is marked up considerably)

Cons – FSM is unreasonable and says that school comes first but denies the fact that he said that during a meeting. They also use intimidation to get what they want and since you cannot complain they take advantage of that. They complain about work not getting accomplished when you are working so hard that you barely take any breaks to finish the work. No sense of appreciation towards the work that employees do. They count everything and use it against you like when you ask for a day off they bring it up that they gave you a day off to make you work a shift/day that you do not usually work. Pretty much one of the worst experiences that I have had since I was an all around worker ( cashier, receiver, supervisor and merchandiser).

Advice to Senior Management – You need to give credit to employees where it is deserved and treat your employees with respect and actually follow the CORE values as many FSM say they are doing this, but they work their part timers till they are physically and mentally tired. Having more meetings with the employees will help to voice their concerns

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Shoppers Drug Mart

Pros – Gain some Linux and POS experience

Cons – No time off .. ask for some and get fired

Advice to Senior Management – Give better life /work balance to employees and contractors

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Shoppers Drug Mart

Pros – staff discount
flexible schedules
free damages
easy to transfer between stores

Cons – infinity project
hours cut
no health and safety

Advice to Senior Management – please hire people who knows what they are doing

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Shoppers Drug Mart

Pros – 30% discount to employees is the only advantage

Cons – The work schedule is not given in advance, the Store Manager accuses of long breaks before doing her homework. There is no water dispenser for employees. Lot of gossip. In short the worst place to ever work for.

Advice to Senior Management – Do your homework before accusing any employee. Provide the work schedule at least a week in advance.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Shoppers Drug Mart

Pros – Discount, coworkers are nice - mostly.

Cons – no opportunity to grow
no positions to move up into
no raises (other then cost of living)
no encouragement to grow
kept in the dark with upper management decisions
"culture of fear"
no accountability

Advice to Senior Management – How about you focus on encouraging the growth of employees and stop kissing upper managements butts? you're not perfect or half as great as you think you are. Try doing some of the work rather then just taking credit for it.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend