4 out 5 managers to be fired or demoted to $12.50/hour shifts

Dire warning to all Rite Aid managers. A pilot has been going on in Huntsville Alabama since before Thanksgiving. This pilot has been extended to Chattonooga Tennessee already. Each district will have only 3 or 4 multi-store managers. All other managers are being given the chose of an 8 week severance package or demotion to a $12.50/hour shift manager job. Sounds crazy, but it is true. Today a meeting was held and it was stated that this program is the future of the company and is slated for rollout chain wide.

We here in Northern Virginia want a future for Rite Aid but truly wonder if it will turn more into a Walmart-like customer experience if this program goes forward. The high ups call for great customer service and ask us all to respond to a survey and for the most part they have not a clue what real service is and we do not have the stones to rate them the garbage they are.

Tired Manager wrote:

Dire warning to all Rite Aid managers. A pilot has been going on in Huntsville Alabama since before Thanksgiving. This pilot has been extended to Chattonooga Tennessee already. Each district will have only 3 or 4 multi-store managers. All other managers are being given the chose of an 8 week severance package or demotion to a $12.50/hour shift manager job. Sounds crazy, but it is true. Today a meeting was held and it was stated that this program is the future of the company and is slated for rollout chain wide.

did they give any specifics such as store volume? i heard that it will only affect stores that are doing in the area of $10,000 a week or less. pleasee let me know

Also Tired Manager wrote:

We here in Northern Virginia want a future for Rite Aid but truly wonder if it will turn more into a Walmart-like customer experience if this program goes forward. The high ups call for great customer service and ask us all to respond to a survey and for the most part they have not a clue what real service is and we do not have the stones to rate them the garbage they are.

Have to agree. The associate survey is a joke. And, they cut hours and leave a skeleton crew and expect top notch customer service. We try our best, we want to provide great customer service but it's impossible. I know people who go home crying after a shift due to the stress.

A conference call was held today. It was revealed that the Southern division will be divided into two parts; value and non-value. The value stores will have the multi-store format, these stores will be in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Tenessee, and South Carolina, volume will not matter. Moreover it was stated that this is the future of the company. I would wager that affected stores will get the announcement before March 1st. It is here, and I fear that this will be the final straw for this company.

tired manager wrote:

A conference call was held today. It was revealed that the Southern division will be divided into two parts; value and non-value. The value stores will have the multi-store format, these stores will be in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Tenessee, and South Carolina, volume will not matter. Moreover it was stated that this is the future of the company. I would wager that affected stores will get the announcement before March 1st. It is here, and I fear that this will be the final straw for this company.

Are these stores you refer to the "Sav-a-lot/Rite Aid"s? I'm in the south, not in one of those stores. From what I hear all the business these stores have is in the grocery. So much for pharmacy. As usual, all kinds of rumors floating around. Just have to wait and see. With jobs being the way they are even a bad job is a good job.

These are not the save-alot stores. last year the "value concept" was rolled out in the Huntsville Alabama District. After the stores were remodeled, the multi-store manager concept was piloted and most managers were demoted or fired. The pilot then moved to Chattanooga where the managers were fired ahead of the remodels. Now the program is being rolled out to huge group of stores. It has been funny to me how there has not been more outrage to this point. I think it is coming soon. I do not know who I feel the most sorry for, the managers who are losing their jobs or the ones who have to run 5 stores. These multi-store managers are not mini-DM's but actually have to fully run all the stores with only three shifts in each store. They have to do schedules for 5 stores, ad ordering for 5 stores, planograms for 5 stores, etc. These managers are working themselves to death and only received token raises, 5% at most. This is a bad deal and no one seems to care.

Why does everthing have to be top secret..does anyone know it this is going to happen in New England..as they are redistricting up here???

With only one week left in the fiscal year, many questions will be answered in the nest few days, weeks. Each year we move towards dismantling the role of the store manger. Small, purposeful steps to eliminate the classic drug store manager at Riteaid. Firstly small group of managers made hourly, nextly larger group made hourly, then small group of multi-store mangers, coming soon much larger group. What is the end game? Even if the concept of multi-store managers fail, my supposition would be that we never see the old manager brought back, but just a slightly higher paid shift as the new manager. I see this as Union breaking without the Union. Here is the crux, with our margins in the tank due to wellness plus the only option left is major payroll cuts. Stores are already so under cut there is only one way left to go.

tired manager wrote:

With only one week left in the fiscal year, many questions will be answered in the nest few days, weeks. Each year we move towards dismantling the role of the store manger. Small, purposeful steps to eliminate the classic drug store manager at Riteaid. Firstly small group of managers made hourly, nextly larger group made hourly, then small group of multi-store mangers, coming soon much larger group. What is the end game? Even if the concept of multi-store managers fail, my supposition would be that we never see the old manager brought back, but just a slightly higher paid shift as the new manager. I see this as Union breaking without the Union. Here is the crux, with our margins in the tank due to wellness plus the only option left is major payroll cuts. Stores are already so under cut there is only one way left to go.

Got the news yesterday when I went to work. We are not part of this value store business. The was it was explained to me these value stores are "dollar store" types. From the stores they picked in our state it seems they picked stores in depressed areas,probalbly low volume. But something Rite Aid powers that be don't address are these "couponers". These woman come in, clear a shelf of a product and walk out paying under a buck and getting ups rewards on top of it. When the cashier/manager try to limit these woman call corporate we get a yssm to give that person a $25 gift card. How can you make money when you are giving away merchandise and giving gift cards? I watch these people stand outside the door Sunday morning like wolves. And when they leave in 1 hour we have nothing on the shelf for the paying customer. Hence those people don't come back because "Rite Aid never has anything".

Only entire districts can go value because ads are completely different. High volume stores in districts that go value will also go, there is no in between. The big problem here is that the stores within the value group that are not in depressed areas will have their sales seriously hurt, moreover, the margins are furher reduced. While stores are showing sales increases in this value concept, margins are terrible and we as a company get farther away from profitabilty not closer.

Tired Manager wrote:

Only entire districts can go value because ads are completely different. High volume stores in districts that go value will also go, there is no in between. The big problem here is that the stores within the value group that are not in depressed areas will have their sales seriously hurt, moreover, the margins are furher reduced. While stores are showing sales increases in this value concept, margins are terrible and we as a company get farther away from profitabilty not closer.

I have to disagree about entire districts going value. For sometime now we have had different ads for different stores. Also some stores are offering $3.99 prescriptions and stores 20 miles away are not. The value stores have been split off to form their own region. I have been told from a front store manager that she has run into the problem of people complaining that the prices at the Sav-a-lot/RiteAid are different than her store. She was told by corporate she could not match price. Now we have these value stores in the mix. I say RiteAid is postioning stores to be sold off.

What the real plan is we at store level are never told....we can only hope they have a plan. For the past few years it has not looked like any plan was in place except for new ways to cut payroll in the stores while asking for improved customer service.
Now they are doing new value areas in the south while adding payroll in the VP and DM areas....
I have never seen a VP or DM ring customers up or unload a 2am truck before....I doubt I ever will and this means that the added payroll is not customer driven.

Sometimes it seems Rite Aid is always "desperate measuring". All the time coming up with gimmicks that just make them seem desperate. As far as all this "value, nonvalue, Sav a Lot stuff I still think they are positioning stores so that they can be sold off in groups. Who the lucky or unlucky staff will be remains to be seen.I read in the Wall Street Journal WalMart is planning on opening small mini walmarts called WalMart Express. Maybe they will buy one of Rite Aid new districts. Doller General is in the mix too. Who knows.

If that is the plan, to sell off some districts as groups to Walmart or Sav a Lot then great but this kind of small purchases cannot save the company or pay down the debt significantly. To make a big number out of the small stock price the company must sell off entire regions or west coast operations.

I had expected Rite Aid to go belly up 3 years ago. Somehow they keep plugging along. I think that is their business plan - just keep plugging along. Of course, by doing this I see the new CEO Stanley double his salary from $2.5 to $4.5, nice huh?

gee I can lose money easily too, that should be worth a couple mil. If they want to do right by all the employees then freeze all bonuses and raises until the company posts a year profit.

While they are at it they should put on more employees and give more hours. Don't they realize people don't like walking into a store with no one around? I can't tell you how many times I've seen people standing at the front register looking around for someone to ring them out. I just don't get what they think.

tired manager wrote:

These are not the save-alot stores. last year the "value concept" was rolled out in the Huntsville Alabama District. After the stores were remodeled, the multi-store manager concept was piloted and most managers were demoted or fired. The pilot then moved to Chattanooga where the managers were fired ahead of the remodels. Now the program is being rolled out to huge group of stores. It has been funny to me how there has not been more outrage to this point. I think it is coming soon. I do not know who I feel the most sorry for, the managers who are losing their jobs or the ones who have to run 5 stores. These multi-store managers are not mini-DM's but actually have to fully run all the stores with only three shifts in each store. They have to do schedules for 5 stores, ad ordering for 5 stores, planograms for 5 stores, etc. These managers are working themselves to death and only received token raises, 5% at most. This is a bad deal and no one seems to care.

i feel like i must know you tired manager. i am one of those multi store managers and yes it is tough. i wondered why no one had been talking about this whole episode. now i know where to look. my main concern is customer service and how we can provide superior service. also, the concern for associates does not seem to be there anymore. very concerning.

note: the new program has smoothed out.. we just need a few tweaks to make it better. stay tuned.