I write this review as an ex-employee of the particular branch (080, locaded on Des Sources in DDO, next to the Bank of Montreal). Now, you also need to know that before working there, I had previously worked nearly 6 years for Jean Coutu as a Stock Clerk in Montreal, then in Quebec City. Therefore, I would say that I have a strong knowledge of how things should be run in a pharmacy. My opinion is that the store employment's practices act as an introduction to their genreal characteristics. It will help potential customers realise how they treat employees which should be important, because I think that happier staff is more likely to help out customers. Furthermore, the level of knowledge the staff has on average is crucial, as they will assist customers in the store. I will conclude by talking about practices directly affecting the customers as well.
To begin with, the manager in place when I worked there had the worse morals and ethics I had seen in any person managing others in a common goal. However, he worked extremely hard and spent 6 to 7 days working every week to ensure everything followed plans and from I have gathered, he did not get paid more for his over-time. This also means that without him the store could not function. It also means that most employees had no clue how things were supposed to go. They would simply listen to his orders.
While working there, I assisted to a mandatory meeting for which I was not paid (which is against the law). I only had one paid break a day for 15 minutes and an unpaid lunch period. In all of the years I had worked in pharmacies, I had not heard of any competitor that paid only one break a day. At first, I helped preparing the new store (it was moving). During that time, I had 2 paid breaks, but when the store opened, they would only allow me one. No one had formally informed me and eventhough I had received the empoyee guide stating the minimum norm for all the pharmaprix was only one break, I did not pay any attention to that. I told myself: "if there is a change and they decide to modify the break schedules to the minimum Pharmaprix accepts (which is probably the minimum the law accepts as well...), they have to let me know at some point, or they would be acting in a dishonest manner". Well, they never told me and I never got paid for the second breaks I took during probably around 3 weeks.
Also, I had been hired for the Assitant-Manager position, but I was told, I would change job once the store opened, working as stock-clerk at first. It never happened, because they had hired someone else and they knew I would not accept a permanent stock clerk position. Whenever, the manager would not be satisfied with an employee's work or contribution, he would put his hours down. An extremely small number of people got the full time they were promised. The Manager would say to those individuals, prove yourself to me and I will consider giving you more hours. I am sure anyone can imagine the level of anxiety the employees felt not knowing if they could afford their rent this month or feed all the mouths of their household. Obvidously, the genreal level of motivation went down drastically and people started to quit (which was probably in the initial plan). Bascially everybody was paid minimum wage, when at Jean Coutu the hiring salary for any position is above minimum wage. There is also a week end bonus at Jean Coutu and you get paid you full day if you stay later to serve a customer or don't have time to take a break. Pharmaprix (at least that one) would instantly disregard these factors and give employees the strick minimum they could possibly get away with.
While working there, I witnessed times where customers asked for a discount to which they were entitled to because there was a mistake on the price. In the 3 months I worked there, I don't remember seeing a customer getting that discount. I was well aware of the law because I had spent a whole 45 hours University class on it the previous year.
Many employees had no or very little knowledge of French: the ONLY official provincial language. Hence, francophone customers should expect that it could be difficult to find a member of staff speaking French. Even, the printed information for employees was in English only, when the language used in the workplace sould be French by law in Québec. However, if you are more comfortable in Arabic, you will be happy to know that a relatively large proportion of the staff can fluently speak Arabic. I also noticed that prices were higher. For example, I found an item that was sold $23.99 at Jean Coutu that was sold $25.99 at Pharmaprix. You have to know that you will get reward points faster than at Jean Coutu, but you cannot use it in other stores (to my knowledge). On the opposite Air Miles is also accepted at Rona, IGA, Shell, Sports Experts, Boston Pizza, Iris, etc). I would in any case advise you to stay away from that specific branch. (no more space) read more
