Rite Aid

Have you ever lost your faith in humanity? Has someone or a nameless, formless, feckless group of someones ever capriciously broken your heart, kicked you while you were down, stolen your wallet, and then posted pictures of the whole thing online? That’s happened to me, and it’s awful.
My most recent run-​in with an uncaring fellow Earth-​dwelling biped (no need to call him human) involved the surreptitious stealing of my wallet while I was seated next to a stranger on a bus. Just before he pickpocketed me, he politely asked me to pull the cord for him, and I did. He then expertly robbed me, flirted with some girls on the way out, and disappeared into the night. It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that I realized my wallet was gone. When I called to cancel my debit and credit cards, he had charged at least $ 166 on each one, charges that I’m still fighting a month later even though I reported the cards stolen – not missing, stolen – right away and even though I filed a police report the next day. I still don’t have a non-​expired driver’s license. And I lost dozens of stamp cards and probably a grand total of $ 74, give or take, of associated free food.
What does this have to do with the Rite Aid on Canal Street in the nameless medium-​sized shopping center in King City? Absolutely everything.
Not long after having had my wallet stolen, I was driving to San Francisco from San Luis Obispo. I often stop in King City just because it’s convenient and because I know where things are. The Rite Aid is large but always has plenty of cashiers, so my stops usually don’t last more than six or seven minutes.
Anyway, I bought some sunflower seeds and something else I don’t remember and got back in my car. The drive up the 101 was pretty uneventful, and I decided to try for dinner someplace I’d never been near San Jose. I parked my car and began cleaning out all the road-​trip refuse. Everything was in order, but when I reached for my replacement wallet, it wasn’t there. I dug through and around the seat of my car. I looked in the little baggy of trash I had just filled up. I went through every place in my car I had been since stopping. But my wallet was gone. I knew I had used it in King City, but not since then. Luckily, I had $ 40 in cash in my backpack, but I was really starting to freak out about having my wallet stolen again.
I called the Rite Aid in King City to ask whether anyone had turned in a black wallet. The employee who answered said he didn’t think so because he had been working all afternoon and hadn’t heard about anything like that. I didn’t take no for an answer and demanded to speak with the manager. The manager looked in the safe, and there was my wallet. He wouldn’t give me details, but I kept identifying and he kept verifying details that only I or a well practiced Svengali could know. I was completely relieved, but also annoyed. I wasn’t about to drive all the way back to King City, and I just wanted to eat and go home, which I eventually did.
I called Rite Aid again the next day and spoke with the heroine of this story, a manager or assistant manager named Izzy (sp?). She assured me that she would mail the wallet back to me as soon as she could. I told her she could use the cash in it to pay for the postage, but she told me that wouldn’t be necessary. That Monday evening, I called the Rite Aid to talk to Izzy again. The employee I spoke with – whom I also believe was the person who turned my wallet in in the first place – said Izzy had already left work. Do you know whether she mailed the wallet yet? I asked. Yes, she was on her way to the post office from work, she said.
When I got home from work on Wednesday, my wallet was waiting for me in a big envelope. Everything was there: my replacement debit card, my replacement credit cards, my expired license, the $ 52.07 in cash! Yes, ladies and gentlemen who actually read to the end of my reviews, the citizens of King City, California, and the employees and assistant managers and managers of its Rite Aid are so honest, so downright decent that they don’t steal things that don’t belong to them even when they have golden, scot-​free-​guaranteed opportunities to do so.
Izzy is a princess. She deserves to make way more money than she does. So do all the employees here. I will always lovingly patronize this Rite Aid on my way up and down the 101, and you should too. If you see Izzy, say hello and thank you for me.

Huge. Clean. Nicely-​lit. Well-​stocked. Friendly employees. Prompt service.
Okay…that’s all great. But, the best thing was that I got a PE t-​shirt for the local King City High School Mustangs. That is awesome! I wish more cities sold stuff like that.
Great job, Rite Aid!

Shameless satisfaction of reviewing a never reviewed before Rite Aid! Awww Yeah. Stopped here to get cold beverages on the way home from San Luis Obispo. Full selection of bottled Starbucks coffee drinks for my guy… they even have the Thrifty Ice Cream in ½ Pints and gallons in a freezer.
I used the bathroom in the back, but only because I had someone guard the door. Something about bathrooms in the back of grocery stores and drug stores– they scare me.
Anyway, employees were super nice and asked more than once if we needed help finding anything, in a genuinely nice way, and they had lots of veggie starts in the front for all your spring gardening needs. Not a bad pit stop in KC!