Nick Smucker – Store Associate Co-Op

My name is Nick Smucker, I’m currently working at CVS as a front store associate. We are a pharmacy and retail corporation. I don’t get to work in the pharmacy due to my age but I hope to eventually if possible. Although, I’m not sure how much longer my stint at CVS will be. I have my own business in photography and graphic design and I plan to grow that as much as possible once I am done with school.

The Co-Op program has been awesome for me because I get to leave at 10:15am and start working at 10:30am. My days mainly consist of working as a cashier, that is my number one priority. I actually have a ton of fun checking people out because I get to make conversation with a lot of different people. I have met a lot of awesome people working at CVS. When I am not checking people out I am usually doing one of five things. Putting away red carts, putting away trucks, pulling/putting up tags, checking outdates, or forward facing. Putting away red carts consists of putting overstocked items out periodically. At CVS we have special discounts that keep the customers coming back and buying, so every Saturday we pull down our old sale tags and put up the new ones. Whenever I have nothing else to do I check outdates while I forward face, I basically just pull all the products to the front of the shelves and check their dates.

While I like working at CVS, I hope to become a graphic designer and photographer. I am constantly adding to my portfolio. Through co-op, I did job shadows and learned it is very hard to find a job as a graphic designer/photographer. I am currently looking into colleges but plan to take a gap year to give myself time to think and research about my future.

I have actually grown so much at CVS. When I first got the job, I didn’t know how to feel because I was very socially awkward and it required a lot of talking and working with people. One of the main reasons I wanted this job was to help me become less socially awkward. I constantly am having conversations with people at CVS and now I am a completely different person when it comes to my social skills. I am very grateful for CVS and I plan to continue to grow and give them everything I have until life chooses another path for me.