Walgreens

This is the second Walgreens I went to pick up my prescription and I am shocked by the poor customer service and delayed services. I usually use CVS and I will be sure to continue doing so because of how poor this experience has been.

Aaron was okayish

This is the single worst Walgreen’s at customer check-​out I’ve ever been to. I’m a slave to it because I live across the street, but in the 7 – 8 times I’ve been here I’ve never gotten in line and gotten through the register in less than 5 minutes. This really destroys the convenience value of a drugstore and is especially frustrating when several staff members seem to be floating around doing nothing. They get one star for having a fairly well-​organized store but I always leave this place in rage because of the slow lines.

How does Walgreens stay in business? The place has the ambience of a mortuary. Going through the door into the store is utterly depressing. The staff always seem to be overwhelmed by boredom and despair. The lighting is grim. There’s a display of t shirts, etc. near the entry that is in constant disarray. I’m getting myself down just recalling these things to write this review. Maybe this Walgreens would seem cheerful in North Korea, but come on! Let the sunshine in, Walgreens. I wish a CVS would open in Inman Square.

12÷10÷13 NEW UPDATE: First of this month went to buy some 12-​oz Keebler Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies to find two with expired dates, and two with very good advanced dates. I bought the good ones, and pointed out the bad ones to the cashier, but really there is no hope.
11÷12÷13 UPDATE: Today, the day after Veterans Day, the DeLish Sea Salt Kettle Chips on the shelf have a «Best Used» date of August 2013. Other chips had a September 2013 date. Pointed it out to a worker, but there is little hope.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
There is a major problem with this Walgreens with expired items being on the shelves.
Olive Oil = expired.
Kraft Mayo & Miracle Whip = commonly out-​of-​date.
Hershey’s Chocolates = new packs of candy mixed in with packages one full year out of date.
Eggs = always have a very short date (soon to be out-​of-​date).
Frozen convenience food items = some in date, some out-​of-​date.
Sadly, this issue has been ongoing. As the many store managers quickly change, and regardless of store receipt surveys being completed — the out-​of-​date stock problem is a never ending frustration at this Walgreens #2 945.
For any food item, it is best to pick the package that is new looking and not store-​warn, and always look at the expiration dates.
Paper goods are the one sure thing at this Walgreens (the only paper item to avoid would be yesterday’s newspaper).

I was sick and asked the woman behind the pharmacy counter for Nyquil, one of the most popular over the counter drugs of all time. She had no idea what I was talking about.

This is a full-​service pharmacy located on 16 Beacon St.
The staff was very helpful and very nice.

Excellent pharmacists who provide great advice and lower cost alternatives.
The best pharmacy ever!

Easy in & easy out. Never too crowed, water seems to be always on sale, large cosmetics section.
Plenty of parking spaces, down the street from Iman Square.

Leave it to Walgreens to come thru for me once again!!! About a week and a half ago I was sooooooooo cooooooollllllddddddd and I needed an extra blanket but I wanted a plug in electric blanket throw. I searched and I found one at Target, 59 bucks so I thought I would check Walgreens and they had one left and sold it to me for 15 bucks! Now my toes and all are toasty warm!
Walgreens has such a strange ans wonderful wired no sense of reasoning selection of random items for the home and such and I just love it because you never know what you will find!

I really like this Walgreens. I think that the people in Walgreens are very helpful when you need them all the time, very plight, store is very clean. Pharmacy in there are so nice too me, call me when everything done like my medicine, my son’s stuff, daughter stuff and as well my husbands too. All around I just love my Walgreens.

the pharmacy staff is the best! they are super helpful. even when it is so busy, they will take the time to contact your insurance and help you work things out so that you can get the medication you need to get better. they are always pleasant even to the most annoying customers. and i have seen a lot of those while waiting in line. this is the only pharmacy in cambridge or somerville i will get my perscriptons filled at.

They don’t have King Magazine anymore, but this place is still the best. It has the weirdest combination of stuff anywhere– toothbrushes and sandals, t-​shirts and cotton balls, lawn chairs and small containers of Ben and Jerry’s. Chances are if you want it, this Walgreens has it. The other great thing is that their pharmacy department is really good — the pharmacist (Harry? Henry? I can never remember…) is so efficient, so on top of things. He’s the kind of guy who actually reminds you (privately, of course) that taking antibiotics while on birth control could result in, well, a baby. I totally appreciate this about him.

Normaly I don’t use this pharmacy because of it’s location, but after a doctor called a cold medication in for me I headed down the street to Inman
On a first pass this place is everything I hate about commercial pharmacys. 99% of the stuff they sell is crap. Who buys holiday ornements and dinner for a family of four at a pharmacy?
But as I waited for my prescription I noticed one of the pharmacy techs talking to an elderly lady. He was amazingly patient and kept repeating instructions to her until she understood. At no time did face show fustration. Only concern. He truly cared about this customer and wanted to make sure she stayed healthy.
1 star for useless junk all over the place.
2 stars for amazing service.

I am aware that I referred to this Walgreen’s as my arch-​nemesis in my earlier review of the local Foodmaster… and in terms of securing laundry quarters, it still is.
For some reason, the best most of the staff can do when I ask if I can get two dollars of my change in quarters is grunt, point at the change dispenser thing that spits out coins at you so they have to do less work, and grunt again.
I have deciphered this routine to mean, «No.»
There was one time a dude gave me some, but I think that’s because he showed up at my house on some kinds of drugs the night before during a party claiming he had been hanging out with the guys upstairs, but they just went to Hong Kong (the bar, I think, not the country, but who really knows), so our party looked pretty dope, yo, so he’d chill wit us. Needless to say, when I needed quarters, he sure hooked a sister up.
But, I digress. A couple of the staff here are helpful and acknowledge your existence when you need help with something… like getting razor blades, which aren’t locked in a rubix cube jenga (®) pandora’s box thing that you can reach into yourself like they are at CVS, but require you to push a button that signals the intercom to announce that help is needed in hair removal… but most of them just grunt a lot and avoid making eye contact.
Another strike against them is they don’t sell lemon juice, a major buzzkill when you think you can pop over for that ingredient essential to your late night French 75, since Johnnie’s closed at 9.
In their favor, the Airborne is often on sale, and they appear to be dog friendly. Or at least no one has noticed when my rooommates or I have brought Woofie with me on a quick jaunt across the street to purchase some drug-​store type items.

Everything moves at the pace of …
slow…
in Perfect apparently. It rarely if ever fails to take twice if not three times as long to conduct any wort of purchase at this store, a cancer i find that infects many Walgreens locations. This place is certainly NOT for the hurried or impatient!

It feels so random to be writing a review of Walgreen’s.
So I am a big supporter of buying local and always trying to shop «mom and pop». But I also give myself a little slack when I realize it’s just not possible to do ALL the time.
When I need some random doo-​dad like a cheap picture frame or emergency breath strips, instead of immediately heading to CVS I try Walgreen’s first.
Here’s why — Whenever I walk into CVS I always feel like I’ve stepped into a corporate market research 2-​way mirror social experiment. They are always changing, and improving, and tracking, and promoting… oy, I get tired of it. I just want a cheap picture frame. I just want a pack of gum. Leave me alone! I don’t want to sample and sign up and consult with the roving make up people. (Harvard Sq. location — «Do you have any questions about any products?» «No…I ‘d prefer to shop for lipstick and razors anonymously, but thank you»)
Anyway…I like that Walgreen’s stays the same — for better or worse.
If I can’t find exactly what I was looking for I usually find a reasonable substitute.

They always have my script ready, no matter how little time I give them to fill it (10 minutes? you’re sitting in our parking lot? come on in we’ll have it for you).
On the flip side of the coin, the people that staff their non-​pharmacy registers make me want to cry with impatience. There is this one woman who will talk and talk and talk while she’s ringing me up. I just smile politely because I can’t always understand her. She is not all that great at multi-​tasking, so while she’s talking, she will be looking at me mid-​ring-​up. Oh my god who wants to spend 20 minutes in line at WAG? Also sometimes their gum is stale.

Is it me or are all Walgreen’s stores that just sell the most random stuff, along with your home, medicinal, and photo needs? I am always shocked at the random crap they sell. Want a Grey’s Anatomy Trivia Game? They got it. What about a hoola hoop. Yeah, that’s there too. What about a toy wiener dog that plays Low Rider by War and dances? CHECK! And it’s a bargain. I love a bargain, but is it all really necessary? I think not. All the stuff besides the normal stuff you’d purchase in here is stuff you’d throw away almost immediately after purchasing because it’s all craptastic.
However, this location does have a good beauty section, as well as a decent array of tabloids, which is essential for any good drug store. I dunno if I would suggest buying a paper here, as the one posted was from two days ago.