A woman alleges in a new TikTok that Rite Aid refused to interview her for a job after she showed up using an ice pack for her severe toothache.
In the video, which has over 36,000 views as of Tuesday, Kat (@kat71766) shares her experience as she sits in the Rite Aid parking lot the following day, preparing to go back in and attempt to interview.
“I’m back at the Rite-Aid I went to yesterday when I tried to do an interview, and I was holding an ice pack,” she begins. “I said, ‘I’ve been having excruciating tooth pain, and I really need this ice pack right now. Is there any way I can do the interview with the ice pack?’”
According to Kat, the Rite Aid employee refuses. “They just deny me the right to do the interview right then and there because of the fact that I was having extreme tooth pain,” she says. “I was like, ‘Sorry, I’m really just trying to get part-time work right now, and this is the only time I have available this week while you guys are available. So is there any way we can just do the interview real quick?’ And they’re still saying, ‘No, sorry, we’re just gonna have to reschedule when you can feel better and not have the ice pack.’”
Kat hopes she can go in and interview the next day, even though she doesn’t have a scheduled interview. “So I’m going back in today to see, ‘Hey, I was in here yesterday. Can you do an interview with me right now? I have my gel ice pack today with me. Is that a little bit more appropriate than the bag of blueberries I was holding?’”
She decides not to hold the ice pack this time.
“I’ve still been in ongoing pain on and off throughout the day, except I’m gonna try and push through it,” she says. “I just took an Advil, and I’m not gonna hold the ice pack, and let’s see what they say this time.”
Kat says that on the day of her scheduled interview, she was experiencing tooth pain so severe that she was “sweating and shaking.”
“Literally, if I didn’t hold an ice pack on my mouth, I felt like I was gonna faint,” she says as the video ends.
@kat71766 Let’s see if not having an ice pack works #fyp #jobinterview ♬ original sound – Kat
In the comments section, some viewers assured Kat that she was better off not interviewing with Rite Aid.
“Girl trust and believe you dodged a bullet,” one viewer began. “Rite Aid is MISERABLE and will use and abuse you every chance they get.”
“I work with Rite Aid management and I’ve never met a manager that isn’t a nightmare,” a second person wrote.
“Babe! Rite Aid is naaaaawt it,” another viewer offered. “I worked there for 4 years and it was the most miserable time of my life lol. And they just filed for bankruptcy?”
According to Reuters, Rite Aid indeed filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2023. The company sought to “close underperforming stores, sell its pharmacy benefit company Elixir and resolve over 1,600 lawsuits alleging it fueled the opioid epidemic by filling illegal or suspicious prescriptions.” As part of receiving an additional $200 million bankruptcy loan in December 2023, the company agreed to mediation to address the concerns of committees representing junior creditors and the plaintiffs suing the company for opioid-related claims, including ignoring “red flags” and filling “medically unnecessary” prescriptions. Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS paid $13.8 billion to settle similar opioid lawsuits.
In an update to her original video, Kat says after returning to Rite Aid the day after her scheduled interview, she was informed that they’d already hired someone for the position.
“I was like, ‘I was just here yesterday, less than 24 hours ago; you what?” she says.
“They definitely didn’t hire someone else, they were just being nice and didn’t want to hire you because of the ice pack first impression,” one viewer wrote bluntly in the comments of that video.
Another person suggested, “Instead of complaining, consider it a blessing in disguise.”
Other viewers were more encouraging, one writing, “Sounds like not the best work environment. Hope you feel better.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Kat via TikTok direct message and Rite Aid via email for more information.
