Rexall PharmaPlus – Carlingwood

PharmaPlus has been an institution for years but finally has some competition, and just in time too. They were so bad at filling prescriptions, making mistakes, that they actually caused physical harm (painful but thankfully not permanent) to my mother; I actually had to report them to their district supervisor.
At the time, I found out that they were fielding reports of problems from other and under a private internal investigation. I checked with the College of Pharmacists and nothing had been reported to them. I urged my mother to make her report more official but she refused, and i was unable to make a report on her behalf (all reports must come from the patient involved, as their medical information is needed for the investigation).
What aghast me most was their callous attitude: I kept hearing excused that it was not their fault that they misread her prescription and was giving her ¹⁄₃ her dosage. The manager didn’t care that she was in pain, crying and sick, because she had been going for weeks unaware that her spray was reduced. I had had mistakes in my prescriptions before but I could see my pills were different before I took them, thank goodness. Even with my repeatedly bringing them back with errors and finally this, you cannot have any understanding that you are making mistakes and no compassion that you hurt another human being with your lack of care in your profession?
Amidst the complaint, we left for another pharmacy and were shocked at the care we get somewhere else. We actually even said once «you mean you give real advice?» And the pharmacist said «this is standard and what I was educated for. You should have been getting this all along.» Many thanks to the District Pharmacist for his suggestion of where to move to! After growing up at Carlingwood, we had no idea what it was like to be cared for, to have pharmacists warn us of interactions, etc.
I still hear stories of bad service from this pharmacy, and know some neighbours who are making the switch now that viable competition exists. Of course, it has been several years: I only know the manager certainly was not taken away within the first year of my complaint and I have barely so much as bought a Bandaid there in two years, though a former employee told me was she was let go it was just as bad (consider the source). I am unaware if the investigation ultimately led to a change in management, but it hadn’t for years and other staff pick up management’s bad habits.

I log into Unilocal and it says «You’ve checked into Carlingwood Mall # number of times, What keeps you coming back?» and honestly, I don’t know!
The mall is just horrible. A step-​up from Lincoln Fields I suppose (review to come if I ever check-​in again), but I’m disappointed each time I come. It starts off as a great balance of clothing stores for my wife, and a department store (Sears) for whatever it is I’m looking for (standard issue pants, shoes) and we always seem to walk away empty handed.
The Sears seems like you have to be anywhere but actually shopping to get any help, and they seldomly have a great price when I try to go comparison shopping when I finally find something I like.
The food court consists mainly of non-​chain restaurants — the kind even a seasoned Unilocaler stays away from. The stores of the mall make it so difficult to pin-​point the demographic they are aiming for. The layout is poor too.

Carlingwood Mall is my favourite mall in Ottawa, not because it has exceptional stores, or looks fantastic or anything like that, but just because it actually has a good variety of stores and can be one-​stop shopping.
You won’t find any high-​end stores here, but it has lots of regular stores. It has a grocery store (Loblaws), a drug store (Rexall Pharma Plus), a dollar store (Dollarama), a Bulk Barn, lots of clothing stores, lots of shoe stores, lots of jewelry stores, a post office, a small food court, a luggage store, a Grand & Toy, and a Sears. You can also get your nails done, your hair done, go to the bank, and workout at the gym. It really is one stop shopping.
The mall is also a big oval (with some small offshoots), so you can never really get lost.
There are lots of elderly people who frequent this mall (I suspect it is because it is close to a senior’s apartment building across the street). It is something that I’ve noticed much more than at any other mall. When I take people from out of town here, they made the same observation. It’s not good or bad, just noteworthy.
Anyway, Carlingwood Mall is not that large of a mall but it has all the basics that you need. 4 solid stars from me!

I still really like this mall for its convenience however it is a mall catered to seniors so if your looking for a seat close to Tim Horton’s good luck. The seniors come in early have the own seats «reserved» and are there for hours they get quite upset if anyone is sitting at their tables. I don’t mind though because I’m generally in and out. I have been shopping at Pet World there since acquiring at turtle from another store. The last couple of times I inquired about food the lady didn’t know anything about it and I tried to return something before and another lady told me to come back another day she didn’t know anything about doing returns. I think I will stick with Big Als in Kanata they are great only out of my way.