Walgreens

Steve Bosso is an exemplary Store Manager – compassionate, kind, warm, funny, extremely helpful, and most personable. I hope that Walgreens realizes how lucky they are to have such a fine person managing their North Berkeley store. And for those of you who have a zillion complaints, just see Steve and I am sure he will brighten your day, as he did mine.

This is not the Walgreens I grew up with and used to know in beautiful Downtown Berkeley. This location used to be a JC Penney. Then it was Ross Dress for Less («Ross»). When Ross closed, the space was empty for quite sometime when Walgreens moved from their location across the street (currently occupied by Target Express) in order to get more foot traffic from AC Transit passengers waiting for their bus to pass the time – why ever not?! (Rhetorical Question.)
Other then a larger space and a makeover, Walgreens is giving Target Express and CVS a run for their money. There is more room to have a variety of takeaway food options such as sandwiches, salads, sushi, among others. There is a refrigerated case wall of various beverages. And they sell the requisite selection of products at Walgreens. Even souvenirs, Berkeley High School and Cal gear. They even have an expanded make-​up and skin care section with knowledgeable associates.
One thing that has not changed is there is traffic management for Berkeley High School («BHS») during the lunch hours. They only let a certain number of BHS students in.
One of my former classmates from the community college works at Walgreens. She is a recent college graduate with aspirations to go to law school. One of her family members – whom she has not seen in ages – informed me she was back from the East Coast after graduating and returned to working at this Walgreens location. We went to see if she was there and to surprise her. She was not at the cash register so we went to see if she was working in another part of the store. I spotted her hiding behind racks of candy, I caught her profile. Her relative wanted to surprise her, so he advised me to be quiet in a conspiratorial way. So it was fun to watch him go up to her and surprise her. I waited for my cue to surprise her as well while watching them hug. She was surprised when she saw me as I greeted her with these words, «Long time, no see.» And she gave me a hug as well, the look of surprise on her face was priceless. When her relative and I had to depart, she told me to come visit her at Walgreens. I advised her that I would be back. I shall return.
Cheers!

An interesting tit-​for-​tat customer service at this location. Here’s the story: Raining season came and is still around. I’ve bought so far 6 umbrellas, from different locations, Walgreens, Target and Andronico. I had to throw away the one from Andronico because that thing was useless. I bought three from Walgreens. And the sixth one, the one that finally pleases, is from Walgreens. First two umbrellas I bought from this Walgreens. I did not like them. So I returned them both. Within 10 days. So it’s not abusive. A manager (Maria, who always acts like she doesn’t even want to be there) there basically just accused me of buying umbrella for the raining season and then returning them when it’s over (this was a while ago). So I told her, that comment was dumb: A) The raining season is not over, B) I bought a better one also from Walgreens, and I showed it to her, and C) Excuse me, how can you prove intention?
She basically said flat out: «It’s my opinion. Freedom of speech.»
Let’s see. Walgreens trains their employees to accuse people and then hide behind «freedom of speech»?
I’m sick and tired of hearing idiots lecturing me about freedom of speech. A lot stupid conformists who try so hard to be anti-​PC keep hiding behind this amendment without realizing what it actually says. FREEDOM OF SPEECH ONLY WARRANTS IMMUNITY FROM POLITICAL OPPRESSION; IT DOESN’T WARRANT IMMUNITY FROM CRITICISM, WHICH IS ANOTHER FORM OF FREE SPEECH.
It’s just because you can say it doesn’t mean your comment is immune from being judged. Sure you can say «Mexicans are rapists,» but that doesn’t shield you from people calling out as a lazy and opportunistic racist. That doesn’t mean people are not allowed to judge your content. Freedom of speech allows you to make stupid comments; it doesn’t shield you from being called stupid, because of your comments. (Umm, hello, her comment basically contradicts the fact A), but I guess facts don’t matter to people like her.)
But I guess that kind of naïve, high-​school-​drop-​out understanding of freedom of speech does explain why this obese creature still works at Walgreens. Freedom of speech.
I have to give it up to Walgreens, in a region where you have Safeway, CVS, Target (all are less expensive), you decided to hire these nut jobs.

The staff at checkout can ruin any customer’s experience. Buyer beware! In typical bait-​and-​switch fashion, yellow-​tag discounted products are charged a different higher price 3 out of 5 times. My cashier today was a reasonably conceited gentleman who is an absolute misfit in consumer services. In a hilarious turn of events, he generously issued a refund for the products I returned, to the customer who shopped after me. Apparently, he did not want the inconvenience of performing two transactions and asked me to leave my return items with him while I shopped for more stuff — glad this guy is not a surgeon for if then, he would have got your kidneys and heart mixed up. What wasn’t funny was his attitude — he blamed the other customer for his own mistake and eventually me for coming to return an unopened incorrectly billed product. He looked around aimlessly with no intention to control damage, hoping that I would pay & leave forfeiting my refund that he gave away to another patron. Fortunately for others waiting in line behind me, an on-​demand cashier springs up in the cosmetics department where the understandably-​about-​to-​be-​impatient are rerouted while a matter-​of-​fact but polite and visibly unimpressed manager reluctantly subs in for him to fix things. An apology is offered by the manager who quickly fixes things but hands the reins over back to our hero who then fiddles with the payment screen and asks — «What is your street address?». Great — Why not my blood group and SSN? Having had enough, I chose to give in whatever information he wanted to end this and make the quickest exit possible.
As a regular shopper at this store for years, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting things about who they hire. While observing that there have been a few exceptionally nice and competent employees, the general trend is that their recruitment pool is limited to some of the rudest people on the planet and often, recent immigrants to the country who are alien to the culture and business practices in the United States. On one hand this practice keeps costs low and provides an opportunity for deserving newbies in obtaining an easy introduction to gaining people and language skills, but on the other, degenerates the quality of customer-​experience that the retail consumer is used to when enabled through folks who’ve no business being in customer-​service in the first place.
For what it’s worth, the only good things about this store now are its location in the middle of Gourmet Ghetto, availability of parking in two lots on either sides of the store regardless of the time of the day considering how public parking can be competitive around here and the general cleanliness of the store.
This is my neighborhood Walgreens. It is also the perfect case-​study for steadily deteriorating customer service. I’ve been shopping here for years and at one point of time considered it my default stop for any quick purchase for a variety of products ranging from personal care products, office supplies and over-​the-​counter drugs, even an occasional bottle of milk and what not. Sadly, no longer so.

Called pharmacy to ask about a side effect of my recent prescription. Staff was insensitive to my concerns and did not provide any other resources I could get answers from. Very disappointing for a well-​known pharmacy.

It’s a huge ripe off to take passport photo here! I came here to get 8 passport photo which should be $ 12.99 + 0.39×3 reprint. The guy charged me $ 12.99×4 with tax. The lighting in the shop is so dim, the photo even didn’t turn out to be good.

I came here with my brother when helping move him into his apartment for Berkeley. It’s your one-​stop shop for all the necessities — cleaning, essentials, supplies, food, etc.
It’s in the middle of the Gourmet Ghetto so if you looking to run errands, then grab a bite to eat, everything is within walking distance.
Friendly staff!

This review is for the Walgreens pharmacy department. Stephanie was so welcoming and accommodating to my rather complex pharmacy account set up. Walgreens will send you a text when the prescription is ready, for some reason I didn’t receive one. Stephanie thoughtfully called me to check in. The whole set up experience was manageable due to great staff support.

This Walgreens is convenient and has the best drugstore makeup selection I’ve seen outside of Target. Some of the items are in weird locations — for example, men’s razors and shaving creams are in the makeup section.
The pricing on their grocery items is very strange — most of the items match the price you’d find at Safeway, but then random ones will be marked up like crazy. For example, a bottle of Frank’s hot sauce that costs $ 3 at Safeway costs $ 6 here, like they think people won’t notice.
Staff are nice but the lines move really slowly. As someone else pointed out, I think this is because their card reader makes you go through more steps than usual. Swipe, no I don’t have a Walgreens card, swipe, no I don’t want to donate to homeless child lepers with leukemia, swipe again, no I don’t want cash back, sign, no I don’t want a receipt. They should really streamline the checkout process.

The lines here are too long.
The people who shop here are stupid. It takes them too long to figure out how to pay. Just swipe your credit card through the machine. It’s not hard.
I am not coming here gain and recommend that you do not come here either. It is an infuriating waste of time.

This one star is for the dumb-​ass incompetent manager (Tapas) who publicly humiliated the cashier and then decided to reboot all the registers and asked us to wait for 10 mins. Walgreens OS!

Everyone who works here has been super super nice. Really friendly and helpful and always smiling. It is makes for kind of a wonderfully surreal drugstore shopping experience. The happiest place to pick up those random household items you need!

I have spent 40 minutes today just trying to call in to this store to see if an urgent prescription is ready. The phone system only reluctantly and slowly connects you with a live pharmacist — it wants you to use its automated system — and twice it has disconnected me while I was on hold, once after I’d finally passed through the long hold and had actually reached a live person (who had put me on hold again!)
The store not only has a bad phone system, but is undoubtedly understaffed. And one of the pharmacists here, a few weeks ago, gave me a flu shot that, for the first time ever, actually hurt — she claimed it was better to put the needle in up and down slowly!

The store had only a few milk left last Sunday, so I grabbed the last horizon milk. The carton seemed swollen for some reason, but the expiration date said it had more than two more weeks to go. I took it to the cashier and asked him if that carton is normal. He said that’s just the way it is. I bought the milk and drank about a glass, which tasted a bit too creamy but did not smell funky. And soon after 10 minutes I felt sick and threw up twice. Until now my stomach still hurts.
I drink milk regularly and never threw up before. Fu ck this store, I got jobs tomorrow and its perished milk is making my body sick as f uck.

For those of you that remember this Walgreens use to be the Elephant Pharmacy whereas I’d prefer a smaller health food store over Walgreens because it use to be EP I still had the health food store kind of vibe. Maybe that’s why I like this Walgreen’s. Plus, since it is Berkeley they did have more of a natural selection of cosmetics than usual. Big store, you will find what you need plus it’s right across the street from Philz so I was set.

This review is just about the pharmacy. This was by far the most frustrating pharmacy experience I have had to date. The woman who was entering in my information got my last name wrong, did not listen to my full address, made up a zip code, and did not ask for my phone number. After 15 minutes getting my information in the system I was told that my prescription would be ready in an hour.
I gave them an extra hour and when I showed up they had my first name wrong. Then they told me that they hadn’t filled the prescription because they don’t have the dosage I needed and they needed to call the doctor’s office to get approval to up the dosage of my medication. I told them that my doctor would not authorize the dosage increase, nor would I, and to give me my prescription back.
Save yourself the headache and go to the CVS a few blocks up the road, also on Shattuck. They had the medicine I needed, it took about 5 minutes to enter in my information, and it only took 10 minutes to get my prescription filled, including the time I spent having a consultation with the pharmacist.

I’m always willing to drive a little extra to get to this Walgreens. It’s my favorite Walgreens! Plus the cosmetics area is separate from everything else and it’s every woman’s dream!
My only reason for not giving 5 stars is that they usually seem to only have a few employees working which means long lines and no one to help you if you can’t find an item or have a question.

DO NOT buy the Walgreens chocolate chip cookies near the front of the register because they taste awful. Otherwise, Walgreens sells plenty of goods. I am well-​known here for buying CTC (Cinnamon Toast Crunch). They sell em in the perfect little cup size where you can enjoy it without feeling fat and ugly.
I don’t recommend buying the pre-​made sandwiches doe. Walgreens typically has sales following major holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween where they sell so much candy. You shouldn’t eat that much candy though because when you eat sugar, you tend to crave more sugar. The sugar treadmill is unrelenting. Don’t hop on it.

It’s a frigging 5-​star drug store!
I can’t believe I’m writing this… it’s a big bright Walgreens and with nice pharmacists and minimal checkout lines. This store stocks virtually everything you can imagine finding in a drugstore and more… including food, yes, food. And the staff is so friendly, it’s kinda weird.
It’s like this is the luxurious, top-​of-​the-​line store in the Walgreens chain. It’s the Lexus of drugstores. Really! Did I mention that there’s plenty of parking in the lot? So bring your Lexus, or Toyota, on down here and check it out.

One of the nicest Walgreens I’ve seen. It’s clean, has big aisles and is fully stocked. I didn’t see too many employees but the ones I talked to were friendly and — shockingly — happy.
There’s a huge «Grand Opening» banner outside, so congrats I suppose on doing it right!