Pros
Walgreens was my first job, and I worked as a Beauty Advisor in the Cosmetics section for about a year and a half. I recently quit due to the stress. But: -Most of my co-workers were AWESOME. I made some real friends from this job, and there was a definitely a "We're in this together" mentality there. -Most of the managers were cool. There were about five there, and most were pretty understanding and nice about things. -The work was fine. On a normal day, I spent my eight hour shift stocking the shelves with beauty products and unpacking totes, plus chatting with co-workers if they were working nearby. Oh, and tags once a week (which I hated, but it wasn't a big deal). I liked the work for the most part because it was steady and something to do. I'm a big introvert, so I liked being able to focus on doing something by myself. I wasn't super excited when I had to mainly work the register, but most of the customers were nice. Just typical "How are you? Good! Have a good day!" chat. There are some jerks, but aren't there always? -The breaks were fine. One 15 minute break, and one 30 minute lunch break. You can leave the area for lunch if you want too, not bad at all. - It isn't hard to move up here. I knew employees who got promoted to the Pharmacy or even offered store management positions because of their hard work.
Cons
-The sales expectations. You are expected to ring up a certain amount of people and money in Cosmetics everyday, and can get yelled at if you fail to meet the expectations for more than a few days. Which, while it sounds fair, can be extremely difficult and STRESSFUL because you can't MAKE people buy cosmetics items or even ring up with you. You can pressure them and make suggestions until the cows come home, but this usually just leads to them getting irritated and leaving. Yet most of the managers just didn't understand that. -Saturdate. The once-or-twice-a-month event that makes all Cosmetics employees want to cry. You must sell a certain amount of specific items that day, and it's ALWAYS something extremely random that nobody cares to buy, or else it's just plain expensive. Example: Sell at least six of these $25 perfumes. This day forces you to be that annoying and pushy salesperson who customers hate. There were multiple occasions where I had to buy a Saturdate item for myself just to help us reach our goal. -Our main manager was extremely discouraging and stressful. He wasn't too bad until Walgreens started going downhill recently, and I assume that most main managers aren't as bad, but ours would constantly yell at us and berate us if our sales weren't doing well or if we hadn't sold many Saturdate items by the time he talked to us. The stress because of this was unbelievable, and was the reason for my leaving.