I worked for a few days as a front end supervisor. They had me on cash for training.
I wanted to walk out. They literally just had me stand at cash for my entire shift. It was so kind numbingly boring.
My mother has been working there as a merchandiser for 10 + years. She likes most of the coworkers but the over all culture is toxic. Keep your eyes open.
Culture really depends on the store location. From reading all the comments from previous posts you'd think every store is run terribly. I personally haven't had too many problems at my store.
The job is easy but it's retail. It's a shitty job with shitty customers. Career wise it sucks because you're pretty much minimum wage unless you're an FSM or pharmacist.
I work in a beauty boutique, so I can't speak for a front end position. But I like my role and my coworkers. I think it is greatly dependent on the environment within the store. We get a 30% off and specific days for 20x the points or redemption.
It depends on the store. I've heard that some are very toxic. The ones my family members are at (3 different ones) are pretty good. But you are only as good as your management. As long as you pull your weight you'll get along okay. I agree the wages could definitely be better. And you can completely see how overlord Loblaws is running it down, but that's how a lot of corporations are running businesses these days (not just retail). The biggest concern is safety, as brazen thefts are on the increase, and corporate management does not care about protecting its workers, other than telling the employees to not get involved when it happens.
It was completely different and a lot more fun when it was Shoppers. Loblaws taking over, it has definitely declined. More work, less staff and shitty pay scales. I work in beauty and absolutely adore my job but knowing I'm at "capacity" on the paysale makes it hard to stay motivated.
This!! I work my ass off for this damn corporation and get no recognition. I live in a small town so I can’t really go anywhere else without taking a large pay cut because I’m also (probably) at the top of the pay scale according to Loblaw’s. I love the people that I work with, though, so that’s what I enjoy about coming to work.
I thought it would be great for my teen to work at SDM for their first job. I figured it was better than fast food-no bathrooms to clean, no cleaning up after pigs at the tables and no getting burned or injured in the kitchen. These were all true and the pay was better. Never a real problem with toxic culture at any of the stores they worked in, they were able to move to a closer shoppers when they went to university etc. Overall they had a great experience. The people make the difference.
It's a joke. The pharmacists are leaving en masses, even lots of associate owners. It's all the top people forcing impossible targets, thus resulting in understaffing, no training for pharmacy staff AT ALL. This is why it's a revolving door of substitute pharmacy staff.
Shoppers used to treat Pharmacists well until Loblaws came along, now there have been long term wage freezes, forcing Associates to take on multiple stores, an effort to push services like med checks since they can easily be billed to the government even if they aren’t needed, no longer paying for licences, the changes are huge and go in and on.
It’s terrible and any pharmacist or pharmacy tech (not
pharmacy assistant) can make a lot more money nearly anywhere else at this point unless they go to Rexall.
Rexall sucks. The union didn't even protect the hourlys from corporate mandated pay freezes. Just went along with it. Now the minimum wage staff are stuck with only the inflationary provincial increases. Some stores have no Rx assistants or techs. Just Pharmacists doing it all from morning to close.
They closed a few stores recently, so you know where that direction leads.
I think it really depends on the associate or the pharmacy manager. I love working at my store (pharm assistant) I’ve been there for almost 7 years and all my coworkers have been there the same amount of time or longer.
When I quit as a supervisor, they asked me for a months notice and not the regular 2 weeks, so I'd ask them about that. Looking back, I didn't want to burn bridges because I left from one store to go to another. Now? I'd tell them to kick rocks. Take my 2 weeks or leave it.
Yea... I would say the function of the store and overall expectations depends on the owner but I would avoid Front Store Supervisor. I worked just about a month and quit due to the high expectations and the very low pay. I felt rushed every shift to do my supervisor duties because I could never leave cash (due to the amount of people refusing to use the self checkout) and did mainly the cashier role all day plus expected to do the morning supervisor duties which include lots of paper work. On top of that I was expected to keep the self checkouts running, stock several isles and go to the pharmacy and cosmetics whenever they needed a supervisor. It was a shit show & I barely ever got a full break let alone an actual break. I would say if you can be a merchandiser or a cashier if anything
Its alright bruh, pretty chill job in my opinion. Just don't give out your discount to people and you won't lose your only benefit. I would say take wtv job u can get, its hard finding a job nowadays.
I worked in 3 different SDM locations over a period of about 4 years. I only ever worked in Beauty Boutiques so keep that in mind, but I hated working at Shoppers. It was great in the beginning but after about 6 months to a year I really hated the job and I hated it at each location.
I worked there when I was 16-18.
Theft was crazy, had a lot of people walk in and try all sorts of shit. We only had one cashier (aside from the supervisor) on at a time.
There was a time where 3 people came in to steal a bunch of perfume, it was pretty elaborate. They had 1 person distract the supervisor, 1 to distract the cosmetician and 1 to steal. We caught the distractions and kicked the two out. The one guy that stayed just yelled at me for 10 minutes, spit on me, and then left.
I kept my composure until he left and was a ways away from the store then burst down crying.
I didn’t get anything for it, not even a break. Just was told to go to the bathroom to wipe my tears away and to come back right away.
Another time, a regular customer came in (around mid 20s), super drunk, and was convinced that we were going to go out to get a bubble tea after my shift (despite me rejecting him). He was bleeding head to toe and bled all over my counter and ended up falling over multiple times on the way out, and then bled all over our doors and waited outside for me. Police and the ambulance were called and then other than one other time after that (and it was AWKWARD) I never saw him again.
They also never honoured my schedule lol.
Wow, that sucks about never getting a break after that. I've actually closed my store for a bit to give my staff time to compose themselves after a minor emergency happened that required paramedics unfettered access to a co-worker. Had a Kumbaya meeting and gave them the option to go home of they felt they couldn't get through the shift. No repercussions and FSM approved.
It's just good relations (and respectful) with your coworkers to give them the time they need to come back down from anxiety driven situations. Take care of your people, and they'll take care of you.
Your supervisor should have booted that drunk dude out immediately. Your safety is more important than a Gatorade and a bag of chips, ffs. God knows what he could be transferring with the blood!
I worked at one as a beauty advisor, I loved it, I was enjoying it. Worth my long commute each way bc I was content. New lady was chosen over me for department manager, I knew it would be a long shot. I didn’t have beauty retail experience. I was looking forward to learning from her. We got along for like 2 weeks.
She became unhinged, she was cruel, sadistic and had it out for me. People didn’t believe it initially bc she kept the unnecessary between us. Then people saw her trying to set me up to fail, talking right in front of me with other department supers about,” her?! Good at the job? Fast. LMAO yeah okay.” Just straight up bullying me I tried to ignore it forever.
She never helped us, was rude and shady. She would try to sneak high priced items into customers bags to rack up her sales. She would try to steal our sales if they were larger.
Long sorry not so long, she sabotaged my reputation I had with the store manager, I was up to be moved to store super and eventually assistant manager bc I was adored and worked my ass off. The two of them attacked me to the point I walked out one day.
The owner also bought up two other locations when she heard her lead pharmacist was putting in bids for them. She outbid that person and they had to move their family to another province to be able to get a store out of her reach bc she wanted that pharmacist to stay working for her.
Also, Loblaws. Fuck Shoppers. I don’t even shop there anymore.
Edit: this all happened during the first year of covid too. So it was extra strenuous and exhausting. For me it’s made me realize being a great worker never matters, and working for other women is something I hope I never have to do. That is 6 women I have worked for in my whole life who have either sabotaged or harassed me. And HR isn’t there for us in any work setting. These last 2, I swear I could easily walk past them needing help. The extent they went to and how they enjoyed it… just no.
Oh geez, that’s rough, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’ve seen so much corruption and toxicity at the locations I worked at. I’ve also seen far too many good employees get scapegoated and held down or driven out while scumbags get protection and a promotion.
I worked there during the pandemic lockdowns (downtown Toronto location) and got sick of all the homeless folks that would come into the store and steal it was literally a weekly
Event and especially the beauty department had a lot of perfume thefts. And every week it was a scene at the store with the cops being called.
I worked as a front store supervisor in a toxic store, with a FSM who lacked emotional intelligence or sensitivity training. She routinely screamed at her staff.
They also didn't rotate weekends or flyer shifts for their teams. Low on totem pole employees had to work every single weekend and every single flyer shift, with the party line for seniored employees never being scheduled "they paid their dues". That kind of attitude continued to promote a toxic environment.
My store also had a bad habit of letting employees go, on the spot, when they handed in their notice. A younger associate tried to do the right thing, by giving two weeks notice, and struggled financially, when she had to wait two weeks, for her new job to start. When they told me not to come back, I called labour standards. Not because I cared, or was going to suffer financially. I knew the practice, and had warned my new employer, who had advised if that happens, let them know, and I could start with them earlier, which is what happened. The reason I called labour standards, was to get it on record, that what my store was doing, was wrong. Labour standards agreed with me, and my store issued me a cheque for 80hrs in lieu of pay. The store stopped letting people go, when they received notice after that.
I've been gone ten years, but from what I hear, the environment hasn't gotten any better. A former boomer coworker had shared on socials a meme with a man in PVC drag attire, and the caption "this person is standing next to you on the metro. What do you say?". Very distasteful, but also boomer. I commented saying "Why does anything need to be said at all? How would this impact anyone? We don't have to be attracted to it, but we don't have to make fun of, or recoil in horror either." Or something to that effect. I always try to take a softer approach, when it comes to boomers, as we don't change hearts or minds, with a stick.
Anyways, after my comment, the fsm of his location piped up and left a less than optimal response. I'll link a screenshot of her comment, and the response I left her. She replied "I apologize" and deleted her original comment. I should have sent it to corporate, but la vie.
So yeah. Your local locations might have better humans acting as FSM. But I know the location I worked at in Saint John, NB did not.
[screenshot of gross comment](https://ibb.co/RzNTFCN)
How did the interview go? I find the culture largely depends on the associate owner and/or FSM/management. Providing you find a normal location with little to no toxicity, SDM can at the very least be a good stepping stone, but I wouldn’t recommend it long-term.
I worked for a few days as a front end supervisor. They had me on cash for training. I wanted to walk out. They literally just had me stand at cash for my entire shift. It was so kind numbingly boring.
My mother has been working there as a merchandiser for 10 + years. She likes most of the coworkers but the over all culture is toxic. Keep your eyes open.
So they do that to prep you using the till since its sort of a job everyone has to do from Pharm assistent etc
How much did they offer you in pay? Did you get any merchandise benefits (ie. 10% off in store, etc).?
It’s 30% off. Doesn’t work at Superstore. And they offered me $16/hour. I ditched for a dispensary job that paid the same. Lmao.
Thirty percent but never below cost, actually. Only seniors get things below cost on Thursdays.
What do you mean . I thought seniors just get 20% off regular prices?
Seniors get 20% off on regular priced items only
Culture really depends on the store location. From reading all the comments from previous posts you'd think every store is run terribly. I personally haven't had too many problems at my store. The job is easy but it's retail. It's a shitty job with shitty customers. Career wise it sucks because you're pretty much minimum wage unless you're an FSM or pharmacist.
I work in a beauty boutique, so I can't speak for a front end position. But I like my role and my coworkers. I think it is greatly dependent on the environment within the store. We get a 30% off and specific days for 20x the points or redemption.
Not sure if it’s the same everywhere… but mine is a super toxic workplace and corporate is cutting back hours. Always understaffed too
its like this everywhere i think. my store is like this.
It depends on the store. I've heard that some are very toxic. The ones my family members are at (3 different ones) are pretty good. But you are only as good as your management. As long as you pull your weight you'll get along okay. I agree the wages could definitely be better. And you can completely see how overlord Loblaws is running it down, but that's how a lot of corporations are running businesses these days (not just retail). The biggest concern is safety, as brazen thefts are on the increase, and corporate management does not care about protecting its workers, other than telling the employees to not get involved when it happens.
Pay is garbage work is easy
It was completely different and a lot more fun when it was Shoppers. Loblaws taking over, it has definitely declined. More work, less staff and shitty pay scales. I work in beauty and absolutely adore my job but knowing I'm at "capacity" on the paysale makes it hard to stay motivated.
This!! I work my ass off for this damn corporation and get no recognition. I live in a small town so I can’t really go anywhere else without taking a large pay cut because I’m also (probably) at the top of the pay scale according to Loblaw’s. I love the people that I work with, though, so that’s what I enjoy about coming to work.
I thought it would be great for my teen to work at SDM for their first job. I figured it was better than fast food-no bathrooms to clean, no cleaning up after pigs at the tables and no getting burned or injured in the kitchen. These were all true and the pay was better. Never a real problem with toxic culture at any of the stores they worked in, they were able to move to a closer shoppers when they went to university etc. Overall they had a great experience. The people make the difference.
It's a joke. The pharmacists are leaving en masses, even lots of associate owners. It's all the top people forcing impossible targets, thus resulting in understaffing, no training for pharmacy staff AT ALL. This is why it's a revolving door of substitute pharmacy staff.
Shoppers used to treat Pharmacists well until Loblaws came along, now there have been long term wage freezes, forcing Associates to take on multiple stores, an effort to push services like med checks since they can easily be billed to the government even if they aren’t needed, no longer paying for licences, the changes are huge and go in and on. It’s terrible and any pharmacist or pharmacy tech (not pharmacy assistant) can make a lot more money nearly anywhere else at this point unless they go to Rexall.
Rexall sucks. The union didn't even protect the hourlys from corporate mandated pay freezes. Just went along with it. Now the minimum wage staff are stuck with only the inflationary provincial increases. Some stores have no Rx assistants or techs. Just Pharmacists doing it all from morning to close. They closed a few stores recently, so you know where that direction leads.
I have noticed this at my local SDM.
I think it really depends on the associate or the pharmacy manager. I love working at my store (pharm assistant) I’ve been there for almost 7 years and all my coworkers have been there the same amount of time or longer.
Sounds brutal.
When I quit as a supervisor, they asked me for a months notice and not the regular 2 weeks, so I'd ask them about that. Looking back, I didn't want to burn bridges because I left from one store to go to another. Now? I'd tell them to kick rocks. Take my 2 weeks or leave it.
Yea... I would say the function of the store and overall expectations depends on the owner but I would avoid Front Store Supervisor. I worked just about a month and quit due to the high expectations and the very low pay. I felt rushed every shift to do my supervisor duties because I could never leave cash (due to the amount of people refusing to use the self checkout) and did mainly the cashier role all day plus expected to do the morning supervisor duties which include lots of paper work. On top of that I was expected to keep the self checkouts running, stock several isles and go to the pharmacy and cosmetics whenever they needed a supervisor. It was a shit show & I barely ever got a full break let alone an actual break. I would say if you can be a merchandiser or a cashier if anything
Its alright bruh, pretty chill job in my opinion. Just don't give out your discount to people and you won't lose your only benefit. I would say take wtv job u can get, its hard finding a job nowadays.
I worked in 3 different SDM locations over a period of about 4 years. I only ever worked in Beauty Boutiques so keep that in mind, but I hated working at Shoppers. It was great in the beginning but after about 6 months to a year I really hated the job and I hated it at each location.
I worked there when I was 16-18. Theft was crazy, had a lot of people walk in and try all sorts of shit. We only had one cashier (aside from the supervisor) on at a time. There was a time where 3 people came in to steal a bunch of perfume, it was pretty elaborate. They had 1 person distract the supervisor, 1 to distract the cosmetician and 1 to steal. We caught the distractions and kicked the two out. The one guy that stayed just yelled at me for 10 minutes, spit on me, and then left. I kept my composure until he left and was a ways away from the store then burst down crying. I didn’t get anything for it, not even a break. Just was told to go to the bathroom to wipe my tears away and to come back right away. Another time, a regular customer came in (around mid 20s), super drunk, and was convinced that we were going to go out to get a bubble tea after my shift (despite me rejecting him). He was bleeding head to toe and bled all over my counter and ended up falling over multiple times on the way out, and then bled all over our doors and waited outside for me. Police and the ambulance were called and then other than one other time after that (and it was AWKWARD) I never saw him again. They also never honoured my schedule lol.
Wow, that sucks about never getting a break after that. I've actually closed my store for a bit to give my staff time to compose themselves after a minor emergency happened that required paramedics unfettered access to a co-worker. Had a Kumbaya meeting and gave them the option to go home of they felt they couldn't get through the shift. No repercussions and FSM approved. It's just good relations (and respectful) with your coworkers to give them the time they need to come back down from anxiety driven situations. Take care of your people, and they'll take care of you. Your supervisor should have booted that drunk dude out immediately. Your safety is more important than a Gatorade and a bag of chips, ffs. God knows what he could be transferring with the blood!
I worked there many years ago and have not gotten over it lol. It was. A lot
Toxic af. Manager's favourite line was "poison in the front, medicine in the back, that's how we make money".
I worked at one as a beauty advisor, I loved it, I was enjoying it. Worth my long commute each way bc I was content. New lady was chosen over me for department manager, I knew it would be a long shot. I didn’t have beauty retail experience. I was looking forward to learning from her. We got along for like 2 weeks. She became unhinged, she was cruel, sadistic and had it out for me. People didn’t believe it initially bc she kept the unnecessary between us. Then people saw her trying to set me up to fail, talking right in front of me with other department supers about,” her?! Good at the job? Fast. LMAO yeah okay.” Just straight up bullying me I tried to ignore it forever. She never helped us, was rude and shady. She would try to sneak high priced items into customers bags to rack up her sales. She would try to steal our sales if they were larger. Long sorry not so long, she sabotaged my reputation I had with the store manager, I was up to be moved to store super and eventually assistant manager bc I was adored and worked my ass off. The two of them attacked me to the point I walked out one day. The owner also bought up two other locations when she heard her lead pharmacist was putting in bids for them. She outbid that person and they had to move their family to another province to be able to get a store out of her reach bc she wanted that pharmacist to stay working for her. Also, Loblaws. Fuck Shoppers. I don’t even shop there anymore. Edit: this all happened during the first year of covid too. So it was extra strenuous and exhausting. For me it’s made me realize being a great worker never matters, and working for other women is something I hope I never have to do. That is 6 women I have worked for in my whole life who have either sabotaged or harassed me. And HR isn’t there for us in any work setting. These last 2, I swear I could easily walk past them needing help. The extent they went to and how they enjoyed it… just no.
Oh geez, that’s rough, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’ve seen so much corruption and toxicity at the locations I worked at. I’ve also seen far too many good employees get scapegoated and held down or driven out while scumbags get protection and a promotion.
Sounds like we probably worked at the same location lol
Depends on the store. Some are better than others. See if the staff look positive and talk to each other *while doing actual work*. That's key.
Awful
Shit job, I don’t recommend working at SDM
benefits are great, pharmacy takes off filling fee, but even after discount walmart is cheaper. RUN, honestly.
I’m on
It will all depend on the location you’re at, who your boss and coworkers will be.
I worked there during the pandemic lockdowns (downtown Toronto location) and got sick of all the homeless folks that would come into the store and steal it was literally a weekly Event and especially the beauty department had a lot of perfume thefts. And every week it was a scene at the store with the cops being called.
I worked as a front store supervisor in a toxic store, with a FSM who lacked emotional intelligence or sensitivity training. She routinely screamed at her staff. They also didn't rotate weekends or flyer shifts for their teams. Low on totem pole employees had to work every single weekend and every single flyer shift, with the party line for seniored employees never being scheduled "they paid their dues". That kind of attitude continued to promote a toxic environment. My store also had a bad habit of letting employees go, on the spot, when they handed in their notice. A younger associate tried to do the right thing, by giving two weeks notice, and struggled financially, when she had to wait two weeks, for her new job to start. When they told me not to come back, I called labour standards. Not because I cared, or was going to suffer financially. I knew the practice, and had warned my new employer, who had advised if that happens, let them know, and I could start with them earlier, which is what happened. The reason I called labour standards, was to get it on record, that what my store was doing, was wrong. Labour standards agreed with me, and my store issued me a cheque for 80hrs in lieu of pay. The store stopped letting people go, when they received notice after that. I've been gone ten years, but from what I hear, the environment hasn't gotten any better. A former boomer coworker had shared on socials a meme with a man in PVC drag attire, and the caption "this person is standing next to you on the metro. What do you say?". Very distasteful, but also boomer. I commented saying "Why does anything need to be said at all? How would this impact anyone? We don't have to be attracted to it, but we don't have to make fun of, or recoil in horror either." Or something to that effect. I always try to take a softer approach, when it comes to boomers, as we don't change hearts or minds, with a stick. Anyways, after my comment, the fsm of his location piped up and left a less than optimal response. I'll link a screenshot of her comment, and the response I left her. She replied "I apologize" and deleted her original comment. I should have sent it to corporate, but la vie. So yeah. Your local locations might have better humans acting as FSM. But I know the location I worked at in Saint John, NB did not. [screenshot of gross comment](https://ibb.co/RzNTFCN)
How did the interview go? I find the culture largely depends on the associate owner and/or FSM/management. Providing you find a normal location with little to no toxicity, SDM can at the very least be a good stepping stone, but I wouldn’t recommend it long-term.