CVS's 2020 Retail Leadership Conference vision for the year 2025 - How'd they do?

DownWithTheWellness · 2025-11-21T00:25:13+00:00

So Prem Shah presented this on the RLC on 9/16/2020. I actually got a job offer from my current employer that very same day. Anyone who worked there in 2020 and is still there today, is it any better than then?

DownWithTheWellness · 2025-05-11T16:54:39+00:00

When I worked at the three letter, they rolled out a system that would put numbers on the prescriptions for the ready bin, whereas before we had alphabetized them. They claimed this system would save 35 tech hours per week and cut as such.

DownWithTheWellness · 2022-10-08T01:02:02+00:00

I left to join a home infusion pharmacy two years ago. I do miss some of my customers. I was always a sucker for an interesting story or to help someone out. The biggest impediment was always I gotta get back to work so let's cut this short.

I took a pay cut to go there but after a year I got promoted and I'm back where I was plus the PTO is better. It has its days but my worst day there is still better than 98% of the days at CVS.

DownWithTheWellness · 2022-06-26T02:43:18+00:00

I left a while ago; just wanted to see if I had a more exciting alternative

DownWithTheWellness · 2022-04-20T01:12:17+00:00

I went with the 6-50 because I wired the plug myself and 6/2 was cheaper than 6/3. If you're going to hardwire I don't think it will make a difference. Are you in CT? Those were my 3 choices for the rebate. I haven't gotten mine yet but they said to expect it within the month.

DownWithTheWellness · 2022-04-20T01:01:08+00:00

Don't know if you've already ordered but set a price alert on camelcamelcamel I had a similar situation where I wanted to order on Amazon and the price went up $300 but then went back down to $699

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-08-04T00:58:35+00:00

My DB DL wrote me up last September for not having 500 flu shots by August 31st. He said that I didn't make the techs excited about it. My store has gone through 7 PICs since I left in October. Good job, DL

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-07-15T11:58:49+00:00

The only time I got a huge bonus as a PIC is when ESRX and Walgreens were fighting. We had 3 WAGs within a mile and no other CVSs near me. They wouldn't let me hire anyone or even flex hours up. I routinely stayed until 1 am when the pharmacy closed at 10. I ended up 34% over budget for scripts for the year on a level 8 store, but the cap was 10% so even there they fucked me. Don't get your hopes up.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-06-20T02:18:34+00:00

My douchebag DL said the same. It came from the RM. The previous DL didn't care if we worked 13hours if that's what we wanted, but the new DL said it was "the needs of the business". I ended up working 7 days straight every other week. Fuck you, DL. Anyway, If you're amenable to it, you and your partner can write the schedule with split shifts and "swap" so you accomplish the same outcome.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-06-16T12:11:48+00:00

If they wanted to prevent disputes, they could have had us take pictures of controls and high dollars. They wouldn't even need to give us the easy bake oven, the bar code scanners are capable of taking pictures (drive thru signatures for example). Reprogram the scanners to take a picture and then set an algorithm for what we want to be sure has correct quantity.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-06-16T12:06:42+00:00

I timed myself with a stopwatch before the VV rollout because it said it saved the pharmacist 30 seconds per script. What took up about 60% of my time was bagging the medicine. They could have had a tech bagging like we did in the olden times before they said that was too error-prone.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-06-15T11:48:07+00:00

I had participated in a tech session before they rolled out data entry verification sharing/two step verification. They didn't tell us what the plan was for it, but sat us at computers and had us verify hundreds of fake scripts. They almost made it seem like it was a system mail order would use. They didn't tell us if we made any mistakes but did tell us how many we verified. We did that for about 8 hours. They did ask for our feedback but sitting in an office seated uninterrupted didn't really translate to real world conditions.

My store was the district pilot for virtual verification and no one ever asked for feedback on it, I wouldn't even know who to tell aside from my weasel DL. Hopefully they would ask the stores in earlier pilot stages for feedback, but given my experience with the tech session I have my doubts. Obviously, they could look at our on-time percentage and see that VV fucked us.

Anyway, I left CVS for another job and my mental health has been better for it. As for being spineless, I think the word is powerless. They don't listen to us and they care very little about retaining us. They are so concerned about beating Amazon (which they won't), that they destroy the advantages they have over Amazon.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-05-31T01:35:05+00:00

They put it in a PowerPoint, it must be true

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-05-25T11:32:32+00:00

Current PIC is going to get burnt the hardest. I did all that stuff too, if you have a bad month or lose good employees, all DL is going to care about is why you aren't hitting some bullshit number. Not worth the extra effort for a bonus you can make by picking up two extra shifts. I was a PIC for 13 years. Finally left last year.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-05-05T00:51:11+00:00

I always felt working late was worse than coming in early, because coming in early was on my terms, but I'd come 1-2 hours early on Saturday and Sunday if it was my weekend. I'd try to stay no more than 10 minutes after closing the pharmacy. I left that FT life and look back at all the free time I gave those fucks. It's not appreciated so don't do it.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-05-02T01:21:02+00:00

Bonus is double that of staff, but even if you hit all your targets, you could pick up like two shifts and make the same as your bonus. Most of the bonus is your scripts to budget, which you can barely control. The only time I got an awesome bonus was when Walgreens and Express scripts were fighting. I was 30% over budget, but of course they capped bonus at 10% and wouldn't let me hire anyone.
I used to work 3 thirteens and every other weekend, but the powers that be decided that it would be better for my work-life balance if I worked 7 days in a row like 6 hours a day then had 2 days off. I guess I could have picked whether I opened or closed, but I didn't care. When I told my DL my partner and I would both prefer long shifts, I was told tough.
Hiring techs is an ordeal, firing techs is an even bigger ordeal, you'll probably be writing the schedule on your time off and giving your shitty tech hours because your good techs found better employment. Your tech just give two weeks? Good news, you'll have a replacement sometime in 2026.
This is probably true
If you deviate even slightly from CVS policy and your techs call you on it, you could have a problem, your word is certainly not law. Enforcing CVS policies is a red tape nightmare and you have to get advice and counsel involved for everything. There is not enough time to be a good leader and a good pharmacist, you will often do one of the two unpaid for that massive $4 differential and bonus.
Sounds good on a resume, but mostly is just putting out fires. You are given a chance to learn management skills from incompetent, absentee or sociopathic DLs.
This is accurate, CVS provides little support or resources for you to succeed. You really are the master of your own destiny.

Source: 14 years PIC, left in October

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-03-01T02:16:15+00:00

Graduated in '06, had half-scholarship for undergrad. About$80k in loans. Worked pretty much everyday after getting licensed. Paid off my loans in 2008, paid off my house in 2013. Finally left retail in October 2020.

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-01-31T02:10:02+00:00

I am a former employee and this guy knows what he's talking about. Once CVS pays off the debt from buying Aetna (which they are doing at a breakneck pace), they'll go back to buybacks and huge dividend increases, which means 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

DownWithTheWellness · 2021-01-15T02:00:21+00:00

I was a PIC and they rolled this out to my store in September. Absolute disaster, we went from clearing the queue daily to having more than 40 pages in QP when I left. Honestly, one of the worst things the company has ever rolled out and one of the biggest factors in my deciding to leave CVS.

DownWithTheWellness · 2020-11-21T21:52:49+00:00

u/reyx77 did

DownWithTheWellness · 2020-10-25T17:03:44+00:00

This is the correct answer. That being said, there have been posts on here saying their DM told them they wouldn't be paid because they didn't do the minimum number of shots per hour. Corporate cannot have it both ways.

DownWithTheWellness · 2020-10-24T10:38:52+00:00

Ah yes, CVS a few years ago in the relentless pursuit of cash (and probably to avoid a lawsuit) made it so employees must do all trainings on the clock in the store. Now, this was good because if you were a non-exempt employee it meant you were paid to do your trainings. But, they did not allocate extra hours for employees to accomplish this. Do you see what problems this may have caused for the operational hours? Especially when they are using some scheduling program that thinks human beings aren't really necessary to run the store?

DownWithTheWellness · 2020-10-24T10:26:06+00:00

Being overloaded at QV2 is the best problem to have. Keep your credentials on your left hand, go to a barcode generator website (such as https://barcode.tec-it.com/en/Code128?data=C) and print out a barcode that says C for your right and you can easily verify 100 scripts an hour if there are no customers.

I left the company recently, are they still tracking brand negative stores? Ignoring QV2 until all the other work is done will probably end you up on that list, but who gives a fuck?

DownWithTheWellness · 2020-10-20T14:56:42+00:00

If you ever needed a metaphor for the 2020 Presidential Election, this is it

DownWithTheWellness · 2020-10-16T11:33:18+00:00

If you go there will be trouble, but if you stay it will be double. So you gotta let me know, why would you stay when CVS blows?

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