Pros
-The stores are all very clean & maintenance is kept up to date. -You meet & work with many great people in the store, and end up becoming a small family. -You receieve a pretty good employee discount (on non-sale items). 20% for regular merchandise, 30% for CVS Brand merchandise. -If you kiss ass or know someone high up, you can be promoted pretty easily. But if not, expect to be at the same position for a long time. -The Employee uniform was recently updated from an old/ugly 'robin eggs blue' shirt, to a navy blue polo with red accents. -There's a store basically in every town, so there is a very good chance you will not have to travel far to get to work.
Cons
-Starting pay is terrible compared to other retailers. Cashiers/Crew Members are capped at $8.50/Hour to start. And, just as an example, I started as a Shift Supervisor at $11/Hour. A Cashier at Lowes Home Improvements in our area starts off at $12.50/Hour. -Yearly raises have been decreased drastically! When I started 5 years ago I used to get 6%... last year they were capped at 3%, and this year 2.5%! -The payroll hours have been cut so much that there is sometimes only a manager and cashier working in the store at a given time. Due to the payroll cuts, some stores in my area actually started to lay-off employees because they didnt have enough hours to give out. -"Do more with less". I think this is CVS's favorite quote! Take away employees, but add an insane amount of work to get done on top of it. But, as per the district & regional managers.. "The work better get done, and if it doesnt, we will relieve you of your duties and find someone with cheaper pay who can"..and.. "If you dont like it here then leave, McDonalds is hiring down the road". -Employee morale is terrible, and the turnover rate is incredible. Everyone in this company is so stressed out and the employees at the regional offices are all on their toes because they never know whose next to be axed (fired). -CVS is NOT an employee friendly company. Anyone above the DM (District Manager) position could care less about you. And god forbid you have an HR or payroll issue.. your on your own! -CVS is on a firing spree... from what I've heard from people they are trying to rid the company of any highly paid employees. They'll find the smallest reason to get rid of you and hire someone cheaper to do the job. They'd rather cheap pay over experience. Within the past year they eliminated the Regional Photo Manager & Cosmetics position company-wide. In addition, they fired our Area Vice President, Regional Manager, and Loss Prevention Manager as well.