Walmart VS. CVS/Pharmacy

I have 2 job offers. One from CVS and one from Walmart.
I am
-Certified Pharmacy Technician
-no experience
-part-time
-in college taking pre-reqs for pharmacy school.
-I was offered 10/h from CVS. I am unsure what Walmart will offer.

Which retail company is better to work for? On average who pays more? Does anyone have any experience with both of these companies?

pick cvs if you want to get paid more as a pharmacist since they offer the highest salaries now.

pick walmart if you want a job that is a little less stressful (really depends on the store) when u are finally a pharmacist.

Looking for a full time Pharmacy Technician position, I have 8 Years exoerience, seems as though no one is hiring right now, however I will keep searching, anything within 20 miles of toms river NJ is cool.

I have worked for CVS for the past 3 years and have found them to be a good company to work for. I have worked at two store, one non-union and one union. I hate the union, so if you can find a store that is non-union, I would pick that one. The insurance with the union is pretty good, but raises are impossible and the workers don't care about how hard they work. The health insurance from the non-union store was really good and it was really in expensive. As for Wal-mart, I don't really have any idea, but I would rather not work for them.

Starrynite in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania said: I have 2 job offers. One from CVS and one from Walmart.
I am
-Certified Pharmacy Technician
-no experience
-part-time
-in college taking pre-reqs for pharmacy school.
-I was offered 10/h from CVS. I am unsure what Walmart will offer.

Which retail company is better to work for? On average who pays more? Does anyone have any experience with both of these companies?

I have never worked for CVS, but I did work for walmart and I absolutely did not like it! I am no stranger to hard work but the people who own that place have no regard or remorse for human life! Try CVS, you would probably be better off.

Only work for walmart if you are incredibly desperate! They are not the nice happy go lucky store they pretend to be(only to the customers are they nice) I know I used to work for walmart. They have been putting honest small time stores out of business for many years and they will continue to do so as long as people continue to shop at their stores. Watch the movie "The high cost of low price".

i worked at walmart and i hated it young lazy ass techs, over worked and stressed out pharmacist, then you will have to deal wit, " where r the telephones located" or " y isnt vicodin, xanax, adderall, and oxycontin "oxys" located on your $4 list? ohh yeah and my favorite, rhe other employees like cashiers who dont work in the pharmacy gettin an attitude b/c the didnt get "transfered" over to the pharmacy got outta there as soon as i could. you should try to get into an indpendent pharmacy i am and love it 9-6 4 days a week one sat a month closed on sun only rx's no assistant managers who dont know nothing about pharmacy only me and another tech a day

There are too many typo's in this forum and not enough real experience for anyone to give good advice. Do what you think is right. I would go with the 10/hour first. Either company will probably make you miserable, at least go with the higher paying one.

Joe in Elmira, New York said: There are too many typo's in this forum and not enough real experience for anyone to give good advice. Do what you think is right. I would go with the 10/hour first. Either company will probably make you miserable, at least go with the higher paying one.

spoken like a true walmart/ cvs sucker

Joe in Elmira, New York said: There are too many typo's in this forum and not enough real experience for anyone to give good advice. Do what you think is right. I would go with the 10/hour first. Either company will probably make you miserable, at least go with the higher paying one.

What this means is that if you have to choose between only walmart or cvs, then choose cvs. If the pay is higher then that is one upside. I worked for walmart 4 and half year's ago and it was a miserable experience. I have never worked for cvs so I dont know what it's like working for them but working for $10 an hour sound's alot better than working for minamum wage at walmart.

i found a pharmacy tech shcool $649.00 for 12weeks vs walgreens(i think they offer for free, but you have to work for them) i don't like having the feeling that i owe someone so i think i will pay $649.00 /class is 1 night per week and there is a payment plan. since it appears as if the drugstores & walmart aren't the places to start then where? hospitals? kroger, marsh, or any other large food chain stores? i eventually want to go to pharmacy shcool, just testing the waters as a tech to see if pharmacy is for me. also, what places would be nice enough to hire a newbie with book experience? thanks in advance for the advice

daniellejudith in Indianapolis, Indiana said: i found a pharmacy tech shcool $649.00 for 12weeks vs walgreens(i think they offer for free, but you have to work for them) i don't like having the feeling that i owe someone so i think i will pay $649.00 /class is 1 night per week and there is a payment plan. since it appears as if the drugstores & walmart aren't the places to start then where? hospitals? kroger, marsh, or any other large food chain stores? i eventually want to go to pharmacy shcool, just testing the waters as a tech to see if pharmacy is for me. also, what places would be nice enough to hire a newbie with book experience? thanks in advance for the advice

if at all possible PLEASE try not to pay for the pharmacy tech classes it would be a waste of money, walgreens paid for my class (which r free) and i wasnt obligated to still stay with them and work. I would personally try to get into an indypendent pharmacy u do things more manually but to me u get better expirence

What license is required for a pharmacy tech in Florida? How many hours of classes? etc

I don't trust people with improper grammar and spelling with my drugs, nor anyone who doesn't know the difference between "there, their, and they're."

Dear DJ pauly derp, just because some people mix up their grammar like their, there,their and they're doesn't mean that they are ineducated. Sometimes it just means that they are typing fast and they don't give a crap if it's correct as long as they get their point across. There are all my there, their and they're correct...you're just being ignorant

If you're going into pharmacy, any tech job is a good job for the experience. You can work hard and eventually get to walgreens or the hospital. But you have to start somewhere.

I heard Walgreens is one of the highest paying companies out of Cvs, Rite-aid, and Walmart. I know they pay their techs $20 plus an hour

I hope they take me in for a internship and hire me after if that's the case! lol I'm out in the Inland Empire too so geez I hope I can find a walgreens in the colton area

Well I have worked at Wal-mart pharmacy for a little over a year now, and I get about 10.50 an hour. But I have a friend that works for the CVS in town and he said that some of the techs there get 9.45 starting out. It is definitely true that CVS gets more business and recommendations over Wal-mart. But the one perk that you get from wal-mart is the employee discount card.

MY walmart pharmacy overworks me and is trying to schedule me to work when I have SCHOOL and their management is TERRIBLE, managers dont give a crap about you, they only want to keep their district managers out of their hair. Seems like CVS sucks too based on the replies here and they keep us on hold for like 8 minutes on average for transfers. I recommend you just try walgreens but I heard there only hire within. Plus walmart you have to wear their brainwash uniforms and no white coats to keep you warm :(

you get the discount card 3 months from your hire date and you dont get discount on the most important thing...
FOOD

Since we are trying to recycle our plastic we have found it very hard to remove the labels from the prescription drugs we take from wal-mart on those one in the blue flat plastic (which I perfer they be put in a bottle) I have to soak them in soapy water to be able to remove most of it. However Walgreens is real easy to remove and it will all remove at one time. Is there a chance that you all could change to a label that can be removed easy. I am sure you all support recycling since you carry products made from recycled material. Thanks

Feh in Burnsville, North Carolina said: CVS is HELL right now - upper management has always been penny-pinchers, but thanks to the recession they've taken it to a new level! Raises capped at 2%, full-timers limited to 30 hours a week, the Loss Prevention gestapo working even harder to find things to fire people for...

You might have good luck landing a job there...I think they're TRYING to fire or make as many 'senior' people quit to replace them with minimum-wage newbies.

Of course...I've talked to people that hate Wal-Mart as much. Just maybe not QUITE as much.

If you're intent to go to pharmacy school...FOR retail pharmacy - then don't put too much weight on all the negativity because you NEED to get a taste of what it's like firsthand. Go wherever you can get a job to actually try it first.

And go here too: thepharmacyalliance.com/

Cvs Didnt limit full time hours. I managed for 8 years. My tech always got 40 hours. The 2% raise was a 1 time deal. My lead techs have been there 10 to 26 years.

Starrynite in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania said: I have 2 job offers. One from CVS and one from Walmart.
I am
-Certified Pharmacy Technician
-no experience
-part-time
-in college taking pre-reqs for pharmacy school.
-I was offered 10/h from CVS. I am unsure what Walmart will offer.

Which retail company is better to work for? On average who pays more? Does anyone have any experience with both of these companies?

Take the CVS job. My techs love their job!!!

talk about cranky people! Medicine and retail are a bad mix. Jobs that pay well in the US are harder to come by. If you don't like your job, do something about it! As for trying to be helpful....try improving yourself before you try to help others.

As for the truth, it all depends on store level management. They can make or break a good employee very quickly!

does anyone know what is the starting wage in CVS as pharm tech. here in southern cal.? i am doing my externship and the manager think i am doing exceptional well, but i heard they only pay around $12 to start.? can someone confirm this.? much appreciate.

Here in NC, regardless of experience,all newbies got min-wages:$7.50. Yep,yep, you've heard it right. They said they will raise to 8.40 (?) after 3 months of training (?). Anual raise 1.5% cap. I've also heard complain about the cutting hours of FT staffs.

Wal-Mart's starting rate is $8.9/hr.

Working conditions, depending on the store. But they all have 2 things in common: understaffed and overworked. Every techs at CVS hate drive-thru window (weather-dependent-back-breaking duty)

As for the big-fish-little-fish syndrome, CVS is just as bad as Wal-Mart. They pop up at every corner in every town. Soon, there will only 2 big corps: CVS and Wal-Green (i.e. Wal-Mart and Target).

For those who want to take the Pharmacy Tech Certification Course via online u can check this website: www.texashealthtech.com

I'm registered in the state of Missouri as a Pharmacy Technician How can I go about Transferring my license to the state of Florida??

Tanya in Upland, California said: I heard Walgreens is one of the highest paying companies out of Cvs, Rite-aid, and Walmart. I know they pay their techs $20 plus an hour

Man, I wish I live in CA then lol...I've been a CPhT for over 10 years, and became employed in retail pharmacy at Walgreens after working in hospital pharmacy for many years. I started out at $9/hour, and now make $10/hr after obtaining my Oklahoma license..Top end pay here is $12/hour as Senior Tech.

Iowa pays pretty good too.... ive been in the walmart pharmacy as a tech for 3 years and make over 12

Im looking for internship with CVS or walmart as a Pharmacy Tech I finish the program with Penn Foster looking for internship can someone help me please

I have worked for both. I began my pharmacy career at Walmart and soon learned that it was an absolute horrid decision. I soon changed jobs to CVS and stayed there for years until recently. (I left because of co-workers not because of the actual business)
Hope this helps.

Demetria79 in Mckeesport, Pennsylvania said: Cvs Didnt limit full time hours. I managed for 8 years. My tech always got 40 hours. The 2% raise was a 1 time deal. My lead techs have been there 10 to 26 years.

Ah, if it was only a one time deal, why are they still only doing max 2%? 2011 was 2% max and hell, they still haven't given me all my back pay from that "raise" ...a year later. They are cutting corners to save money in other pharmacy areas too, not just pay. Though they are very stingy on pay for techs. At least here, other states may vary I suppose.
I've never heard of capping full time hours but I wouldn't put it past cvs in order to save money (since that is what they are all about now.)
Why are they starting people out at $9/hr with zero experience, but their techs who have been there 3+ years & know how to do everything (and definitely do EVERYTHING) are making like .45 cents more? REALLY? :\
I absolutely love my store & the people I work with, but as for the corporation I don't think they're doing things right to the pharmacy employees (or even front store). Without us doing all the hard labor they'd have no big paychecks to pay for their luxuries.

I know this is off topic, but does anybody know how to start a thread on the forum page? I have been trying for a little while and cant figure out how to do it.

I know this is off topic, but can anyone tell me how to start my own thread on the forum page? I have been trying for a little while but still cant get it.

I know this is off topic, but can anyone tell me how to start my own thread on the forum page? I have been trying for a little while but still cant get it.

Starrynite in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania said: I have 2 job offers. One from CVS and one from Walmart.
I am
-Certified Pharmacy Technician
-no experience
-part-time
-in college taking pre-reqs for pharmacy school.
-I was offered 10/h from CVS. I am unsure what Walmart will offer.

Which retail company is better to work for? On average who pays more? Does anyone have any experience with both of these companies?

This is irrelevant to your question, but I am trying to be on the same path as you. I am 21 and I am currently in community college - pharmacy is my major. I want to start working as a pharmacy technician. How did you prepare for the certification test? What tips could you give me? I would appreciate all suggestions

I've worked for CVS for half a decade now, and I would love to tell you it's very labor intensive! They will drill you on every aspect of the pharmacy experience. In other words, if you are willing to learn at the cost of high stress and danger, choose CVS. They will prepare you for your job as a Pharmacist in the future. As for Walwart, i also hear bad things but as of recent, Rite-aid is the worst! Good luck!

I've worked for CVS for half a decade now, and I would love to tell you it's very labor intensive! They will drill you on every aspect of the pharmacy experience. In other words, if you are willing to learn at the cost of high stress and danger, choose CVS. They will prepare you for your job as a Pharmacist in the future. As for Walwart, i also hear bad things but as of recent, Rite-aid is the worst! Good luck!

I just gOt hired in pharmacy and am only getting $8.10 an hr from cvs. They said in a month or so I will go up to $8.90. Totally not worth the pay.

Joe in Elmira, New York said: I have never worked for CVS, but I did work for walmart and I absolutely did not like it! I am no stranger to hard work but the people who own that place have no regard or remorse for human life! Try CVS, you would probably be better off.

thats the same hting i thought when i went form working in walmart pharmacy to cvs... but it may be worse believe it or not.. im beginning to think that getting a job in retail pharmacy is just a dark tunnel with no light at the end :/ im desperatley looking for a hospital job but no luck so far.. i dont know how many more days i can go into work before i have a mental breakdown

Gargo in Red Oak, Texas said: thats the same hting i thought when i went form working in walmart pharmacy to cvs... but it may be worse believe it or not.. im beginning to think that getting a job in retail pharmacy is just a dark tunnel with no light at the end :/ im desperatley looking for a hospital job but no luck so far.. i dont know how many more days i can go into work before i have a mental breakdown

Retail pharmacy is a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it. It's so hard to get into hospital pharmacy without previous hospital experience. If I knew back when I went to school for PT what I know now, I would have run as fast as I could. If anyone wants a career in pharmacy and is young enough, then become a pharmacist. That's the only position in pharmacy where you can earn a decent living.

Just got hired @ cvs, hopefully it goes well, 10.50 starting 11.** after training. cant complain but i think mail order pharm. is best bet instead of retail pharm.

I work at walmart pharmacy as a xertified pharmacy technician and its such a mental strain that its hard to focus on details. I get in trouble for this is as I have adult add. any advice would be appreciated.

Joe in Elmira, New York said: I have never worked for CVS, but I did work for walmart and I absolutely did not like it! I am no stranger to hard work but the people who own that place have no regard or remorse for human life! Try CVS, you would probably be better off.

I work for CVS! The pharmacist that hired me was massively abusive. She would yell at me nonstop and not train me. At one point she paged me over the loud speaker. I guess it was so bad that the store manager yelled at her & told her it was bordering on Harassment! I found another store and they were not different. Now I found a 3rd. & they like what I can do so well that they don't want to train me for the rest.
They are just as bad as anyother company. You need to find a good group of people to work for not a "good company".