“Walgreens has been the store that my family used to go to pretty much every day when I was a kid. There's this feeling of whenever I go into the store that I can remember being with my parents and being a kid going around the aisles, trying to pick the cereal with the most sugar. Now I come to Walgreens a couple times a week, and bring my kids to continue the tradition.
It's basically just a one stop shop for everything that you need on a weekly basis. Usually there are some very good discounts and a lot of different selection for the standards like pop, chips, and frozen food. There are some discount flyers that I use so before I even go to the store I know what deals are available (I'm always on the look out for chocolate milk discounts).
Probably the best thing about the store is that it's on the way from work to home and I never have to go too far out of my way to pick up something. My son has a weekly prescription and it's nice to come into a store and always see the same pharmacists, pick up the prescription easily, and then do some shopping for the essentials.
Walgreens is a staple to Amerian culture in my eyes. I've seen so many people come and go at the stores over the years, and it's nice to see so many students and young people working hard and helping people find the things they're looking for.”
“The interview process for joining the Walgreens team is pretty straight forward. All you have to do is just walk in and submit your CV (or you can do it online) and then just follow up. Most of the stores are usually looking for new employees so just keep following up. You go in for an interview and it's just a chat with the manager making sure you're a nice person and that you can work hard.”
“Raises are very rare to get at Walgreens, mostly they're given out on a yearly basis and don't necessarily reflect how good of a worker you actually were during the year. Best way to get raises is do your job and don't make too many waves. Be friendly with the manager and just stay consistent. If you really want a raise you have to ask and be persistent.”
“Walgreens offers a pretty standard insurance benefit package for health and vision which is a nice bonus of working for them, although it's only given to their full time employees. We also get a free bus pass for coming into work which I really find useful (get to use it even when I'm not coming into work which is nice), and we also get a discount for things in store which really adds up if you buy a lot from them.”
“I'm sure you can get the feeling, from all the reviews you see on Indeed and Glassdoor that either say they love the people they work with or they hate them, that the environment of Walgreens really depends on the people who are working there. There definitely is an overarching corporate feel, but in the end it really comes down to the people.
I've seen a lot of people come and go over the years that I've been working here and there have been some great times with teams filled with co-workers who have become friends who later became family. Those years the environment was so positive I would actually be looking forward to coming to work to chat, hang out, and help people out.
Often times though there are times where a couple really negative people who hate the job put a complete dampener on the environment. When one person is toxic and is constantly complaining, it's difficult to keep a positive environment no matter how hard you try.
In the end we're really just a cog of a bigger machine which sometimes is either super noticeable (like when the upper management makes changes that we can't fight back and don't make sense), or it's like coming in to a community to help out your friends.”
It really depends on the store you're working at but at my store we're asked to do way too much work in a short amount of time, and I often end up staying at work after my scheduled time because there's too much to do. If you're unlucky and working in a store like mine that's so understaffed, you'll have to be running for the entire shift while still being expected to give top customer service (which, hint.. is impossible).
I really like the people that I work with. Most of us are doing something on the side or have a whole life that isn't about work. Walgreens is definitely in the customer service industry so it's kinda like working at retail. Because the work we do isn't really high end you don't really get much egos so you get to work with kind and down to earth people.
This is honestly one of the pros and cons of working at Walgreens. You're assigned a section, but you're expected to be working and helping out the other sections as well. It makes a more collaborative environment and it's fun to learn what every section is doing so you know how the whole store is run, but that also means that if someone on the team doesn't pull their weight, management holds everyone accountable.
“Our company in Halifax was acquired by Walgreens a few years ago and I slowly watched as their promises for how they could help us become a more efficient company were never fulfilled and forced our company to eventually fold into bankruptcy.
The original acquisition had promises that they would share their logistic software, products, partnerships, training, and experts to help us become a more efficient store and be able to run an even higher profit then we were seeing.
Even in the first few months I noticed that we would barely get any messages from them. They didn't follow up on our emails, waiting days to reply to voice mails, and you could tell that they seemed to genuinely not care about us. Month over month we didn't see any experts come in, or any positive changes to the company. All we saw was a reduced amount of money coming in to support our staff.
I left about 6 months after the acquisition, but a couple years later I heard they had to fire everyone because they couldn't support their costs. Being acquired by Walgreens is like being a speck of plankton being eaten by a whale. In the end the Whale doesn't really care.”
Walgreens is the United States largest drugstore chain that provides health, beauty, and general products to their customers. Witha goal of being a central part of people's lives and integrating in the communities where they live and work, Walgreens provides the most convenient, multi-channel access to goods and services, and pharmacy, health and welllness services for their customer base.
Founded in 1901 by Charles Rudolph Walgreen, and currently led by CEO Stefano Pessina, Walgreens has its headquarters based in Deerfield, United States. Walgreens is listed in the Fortune 500 company list as having the 37th largest revenue of American companies, being the 3rd among food and drugstores. With over 235,000 employees and 8000 stores spread out across all 50 states as well as Canada and Puerto Rico, Walgreens is a dominant company in the retail pharmacy industry.
With Walgreens having so many employees and so many locations, there are constantly positions available to join the Walgreens team. The majority of these positions are for pharmacy technicians, customer service representatives, beauty consultants, cashiers and managers, however the company is also hiring for sales associate, operations, human resources, and data entry roles. There are over 11,000 jobs available on indeed for working at Walgreens and over 19,000 jobs available posted on glassdoor.
Positive reviews from employees report enjoying: the central locations, the free bus pass, the sometimes fun coworkers, ability to trade shifts between employees, the ease of going to school while working at the company, and the feeling gotten from serving patients.
Negative reviews from employees report being frustrated with:: the annoying customers, the high dependency of needing a good team for the job to be good, the unrealistic performance metric design, the heavy emphasis on what employees do incorrectly over what they do well, the feeling of being a faceless number, the out of date and constant training videos, the constant budget cuts, the low staff morale, and the high amount of work for the pay.
Walgreens has 4 core values that drive how the company interacts with both its customers and its employees. These core values are the main driving force for how the company will continue into the future. These core values are:
- Honesty, trust, and integrity. Understanding that the underlying relationship with all of Walgreens stakeholders is core to its success, Walgreens treats all customers, shareholders, suppliers, and communities served with honesty, trust, and integrity.
- Quality. The core factor underlying Walgreens success as a company is based on their ability to give consistent and reliable service, advice, and products, across all of the companies channels.
- Caring, compassionate, and driven. Delivering a great customer experience is at the core of what makes Walgreens successful. The strive to give high quality patient experience through outstanding service and a desire for healthy outcomes.
- Strong community presence. Walgreens was able to grow through its own community by developing relationships with its neighbors. Now, the company is focusing once again at providing services, expertise, and personal engagement with every Walgreen team member and customer.
Why are you interested in working at Walgreens?
How have you guided a team member who wasn't on the same page as you in the past?
Name time you had to work with someone who ws difficult to work with. How did you handle it?
Tell me a time in your life where you had to make a hard decision.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years.
Tell me about a time where you went above and beyond customer expectations.
Walgreens was originally founded in 1901, a drug store on the corner of Bowen Ave and Cottage Grove in Chicago that was owned by Charles R. Walgreen, Sr. Walgreens was a local hit, having grown to over four stores in Chicago's south side by 1913, and becoming 20 stores by 1919. The company grew to overwhelming success in the 1920's when the alcohol prohibition hit and alcohol was illegal to sell at bars, but legal through prescription which was sold by Walgreens.
With continued year over year growth Walgreens had become over 397 stores by 1930 with annual sales of over $4 million US, which can be mainly attributed to the prohibition era. 4 years later the company had almost doubled, reaching over 601 stores in 30 states. Charles Walgreen Sr. died in 1939 and his son Charles R. Walgreen took over the chain. In the early 50's Charles Walgreen retired and Charles Walgreen III took over the company, modernizing it and switching to barcode scanning. After a few years he too retired, and the company moved away from being a family run company.
The company continued to grow through acquisitions, acquiring MediMart from Stop & Shop in 1986. In 2006 Walgreens acquired Happy Harry's in Delaware. In 2008 they acquired 20 stores in Puerto Rico from Farmacias El Amal. In 2012 the company bought a 45% interest in Alliance Boots for $6.7 billion. These acquisitions have continued year over year, and the companies growth is highly attributable to this.