Pros
Decent benefits and health programs for its employees. Depending on the management, store culture can be positive. If you pursue a career in Pharmacy, you get more options for advancement and better pay. Time and a half pay for those who "volunteer" to work holidays, plus holiday store hours are not as crazy as other retailers.
Cons
Where do I start? I have been working for CVS for over 10 years, and have seen the company go from a place that cared about their employees to one that only seems to be focused solely on making a profit. Customer service is just a means to an end, designed to get the customer in the store and spending more (as the varied posters in our break room will attest to). Unfortunately, that doesn't reflect in the running of the store itself since the most profitable stores seem to be the least equipped to handle the volume of sales. Apparently they are trying to incorporate new programs that determine when the busiest times of the day are, and help the managers schedule accordingly. HOWEVER, they continually cut back hours so that it's practically impossible to hire the staff needed to run the store. And then there's the e-mail collections. Employees are FORCED (as in, we will be written up and have hours cut if we don't) to collect a certain percentage of customer e-mails per week. These e-mails result in coupons, and surveys that the customer can fill out about our service and store. What customers don't know is that ONLY 5/5 reflects positively on our store. Anything else is a negative mark. The customers can also leave comments, and there's nothing like walking into a store and reading about how the sidewalk outside had gum on it or the shelves (in the middle of our busiest day) need straightening or the employee was too chatty or not chatty enough,,,,*facepalms* So, for Cons: * Understaffed - many times it's just a cashier and manager running the store. * Low pay - you start at minimum wage and raises are tiny. Or, you could be like me and have worked for the company long enough to "hit the top of my pay scale" which means you don't get any raises at all. * Only career opportunities are in Pharmacy. For front store, the highest you can go is Store Manager. * Forced to ask customers for e-mail addresses. * Crazy, almost unobtainable metrics based on customers' opinions. And now a new program is being used to measure individual performance via surveys as well. * Incredibly high stress * Insane shifts due to new scheduling tool. One day I could be working 4 hours, the next day I could be working 10 hours. * You need to ask off almost a month in advance for any Dr's appointments, family events, vacation, etc. because of the way scheduling is done. Also, you end up working most weekends and almost all holidays. * Retail teaches you just how low people can be, from the shoplifting grandma to the druggie who holds up your store to the manager who screws you over and forces you to work every holiday for over a year. If you work retail, expect your faith in humanity to be crushed completely.