Walgreens

This review is for the pharmacy. Please do yourself a favor and walk six blocks south to the much better Walgreens pharmacy @ California. I’ve never experienced such customer «service» and complete lack of compassion at a pharmacy in my life. A couple of months ago, my regular Walgreens (1524 Polk St) was out of stock of what I needed to have filled, so stopped by this location instead.
I had just been discharged from the hospital after having back surgery. I was in obvious pain and distress and not really in any condition to endure what happened. Apparently, my doctor failed to correctly complete my Schedule 2 prescription form for pain medication; he didn’t check one of the boxes for quantity and didn’t have the date in the right spot. The pharmacy assistant said it couldn’t be filled and I’d need to go back to my doctor. I explained that I’d just been discharged from Marin General Hospital and there was no possible way I could physically make the trip there and back, can someone please help me. Kim, the pharmacist on duty came over and looked at the Rx and tossed it back at me and literally yelled at me saying it couldn’t be filled because the box wasn’t checked and the date was missing. I handed him all of my hospital discharge paperwork that showed the date and the medications being prescribed including quantity, could be PLEASE just contact the hospital or doctor? He continued to speak to me in a very loud demeaning manor, completely humiliating me in front of the crowded waiting area (HIPAA apparently doesn’t apply here). He said there was NOTHING he could do until the prescription had the correct information on it. I was in excruciating pain and now was crying, yes crying, in public. Thanks, buddy. I stepped away and asked one of the onlookers to borrow a pen, checked the corresponding quantity box and added the date myself, which wasn’t legal, but at that point did not really care. A couple of the customers in the waiting area tried to comfort me and seemed disturbed by his behavior. I went back to the counter with my «completed» prescription and the assistant said it’d be about 30 – 40 minutes. Kim, the pharmacist, then YELLS, «For, HER, it’ll be at least an hour». Compassionate AND professional, double threat!
I formally complained to Walgreens and was told Kim was just following the law. Yet, when I looked up the CA law, pharmacists are empowered to make changes/​adjustments/​corrections to a prescription as long as they consult and confirm with the prescriber. So not only was Kim rude, he was lazy too.

THE WORST PHARMACY IN THE CITY… this particular location… there is never a good time to pick up your prescription, if you call you are on hold whenever for at least 10 minutes… they just are clueless there… people lining up waiting for 30 minutes!!! have your Dr. call it in elsewhere.

The manager told me he wouldn’t accept returns from me, I asked why and he replied BECAUSE I DONT WANT TO (he yelled at me). I left crying and a white man tried hitting on me saying «he can make me feel better» don’t go there it’s horrible and the manager is rude, idk how he got that job

I was assaulted in the Walgreens parking lot, by a white man. The manager (also white) me also being white. shrugged his shoulder about it and said. «Oh. Well» THIS WALGREENS IS NOT SAFE I WAS ASSAULTED IN THE PARKING LOT

So miserable. They take a long time filling perceptions and play torturous dreary music. The advertisement breaks at least have the cute guy from northern exposure’s voice and ccr. Everything is twice what it should. You can’t even waste time and shop.

Glad it’s nearby. Decent stock of items.
Pharmacy has gone far ft downhill in last several years. Lines for pharmacy are ridiculous. They used to at least have an extra window so you could drop your prescription off. Now, you have to wait in full line (often a very time consuming and slow moving line) just to hand them a piece of paper… all to wait in line again later to pick it up. I’ve lived in neighborhood and gone to this Walgreens for 13 years. Significant change for the negative.

It’s hard for a retailer to impress me so this is a well earned five stars. This review is for the pharmacy service. I’ve been going to this Walgreens for the last year and I am consistently impressed by the service. Everyone is super friendly and goes out of their way to make sure that you have what you need. Yesterday one of the pharmacists hunted down a medication that was out of stock and called me back to let me know he had found it. Today, the pharmacist asked me if I knew I could get the same product at a lower copay and traded it out even though I had already been rung up. Definitely recommend this pharmacy team!

Terrible experience repetitively at the pharmacy. They can’t seem to get my monthly prescription to autofill, even though I patiently go through it with the clerk every time. So I wait. Last evening, same story, but was picking up a prescription for LASIK with urgent need. I’m told to wait but they have the order. So I wait, in excess of the allotted time, then wait for 10 more people to be attended to. When I reach the counter, I’m told I need to go to another pharmacy to pick up my prescription (which I should have been told initially), and they can’t fill it now because they’re too busy. Thankfully, the pharmacist saw me waiting this morning and got me going 5 minutes prior to opening… Makes up for a little bit.

Walgreens is a walgreens is a walgreens in my opinion. They had the cosmetics/​household items I was looking for and the cashier was very consciencious.

I love this Walgreens! It’s my other home away from home. The people here are very helpful and nice. 90% of the time they have what I need and if they don’t they can usually tell me where I can get it.

its hard to review a walgreens as they are everywhere in sf but this walgreens is pretty cool in my book. they always seem to be fully stocked with their items and its pretty easy to find the stuff that your looking for no matter what it is. the staff are pretty quick about helping you unlock something or help you find something.
the only thing that i seriously hate is that everything seems to be getting put on lock down. i’m sorry people but my damn deodorant doesn’t need to be under lock and key (quick people are trying to be hygienic, lets lock it up and have them sound the loud alarm if they want to buy it)
jasper that is usually is hanging out in front is pretty cool too.

An adequate pharmacy and drug store, as they go. I’ve gotten prescriptions filled there for the past nine years, and bought junk food, sunscreen and birthday cards there. The staff is nice enough, and the store is generally well maintained. If there’s space in the parking lot next door, and you’re a driver, that’s a real added convenience on Russian Hill.
I have to comment, however, that it’s impossible to shop at this Walgreen’s without being assailed by panhandlers who quite literally set up a little camp adjacent to the bus shelter at the store’s exit. If I were the proprietor of a retail business on Polk Street, I think I’d be more vigilant about my customers’ shopping experience and persistently enforce San Francisco’s existing panhandling ordinances. Not really sure whether or not to hang this on the managers of this particular Walgreen’s location, but it’s a minor annoyance, if only in the sense that the panhandler at that location is as much of a fixture — more so, in fact — as many of the businesses on the 2100 block of Polk Street.

This is a very good Wal by the averages. It is well-​stocked and has good staff. They even had a white person working there once. You don’t see white people at many jobs for no other reason than you don’t. I remember this Wal as the place where once had a young white guy worked there. It is a very nice store and very easy to find everything and staff always makes all the difference. It somehow feels like it is super clean though all Wal are. In think the lighting and the floors create that effect which is an extra bonus. I don’t know where people park but doesn’t matter here. They do a good job here.

there a lot of walgreens in s.f. this is the only one i’ve seen with a parking lot (30 minutes limit)
late saturday afternoon, parked, dashed in, got some herbal supplements and left.
everyone was very helpful, smiling, and cordial.
store isn’t that cramped either. there’s a line up system to pay ala fry’s. so cool!
i’m definitely a fan!

When I lived a few blocks from this location I would literally come here 1 – 2 times a day. I love their selection of cards, cosmetics and cereal.
When the lines get long, they usually call for backup, so your not waiting too long. Its also cool that they stay open until 12am. I have since moved back to the east coast but this location will always be my number 1.

This review is definitely overdue, but I feel compelled to share what amazing customer service I experienced here. It was about 2 years ago — I was stuck in my bed sick as a dog with food poisoning. I knew I should eat and drink something but I could scarcely put my head up let alone walk down to the grocery store to get supplies. I assumed the fetal position most of the day, breaking out of it only once to grab my phone when my parents called from back home in Michigan and tell them the situation: can’t move, can’t talk… pain. They wished they could help but, after all, they were two thousand miles away.
After we spoke, a few minutes later my Dad called back to tell me that someone was coming over in a bit and I needed to answer the door when they came. Interesting I thought. followed by «how in the world am I going to stand upright and answer the door?»
About an hour later as my Dad said — the doorbell rang. When I opened the door — there stood the manager of this Walgreens store. He had taken my Dad’s order over the phone and brought it to me in person. Gatorade, saltines, chicken noodle soup, water… all there in my little care package. I tried to tip him but he wouldn’t accept it. All he said was — we hope you continue to use our neighborhood Walgreens. Living in a big city like this, I was blown away by this kind of personal customer service and true care and dedication to helping people in the neighborhood. Since then, I’ve been a loyal user of this Walgreens and am truly grateful to have such wonderful people in this world in my own neighborhood. Thanks Walgreens!

This is a review for the pharmacy. Specifically for the head pharmacist who has been in his job for many years there. I don’t recall his name, but this lovely man played a crucial role in helping my mother get access to a critically important drug when her insurance company denied her access to «Fragmin,» a vital, non-​generic blood thinner, absolutely essential to keeping her alive and clot-​free while fighting cancer.
The chief pharmacist was appalled, as we all were, at how callously my mom’s «reputable» insurer treated her case — disallowing access to the drug without any medical review when she had JUST suffered a chemo-​related clotting scare. (Long story short: blood thinners do vary in effectiveness — to cancer patients undergoing chemo, the variations are life and death issues. She needed this specific drug). Her non-​insured cost would have been $ 12,000 per month. This proud, middle class lady was forced to sell stuff around the house to make the payments. But that changed when she revealed her dilemma to the pharmacist.
The Walgreens staff was directed to fight, argue and negotiate with both the insurer and the drug company. Head pharmacist fellow negotiated an «insider’s price» for my mother — directly with the drug company. The insurer was a giant, right-​wing, evil empire pain in the ass. We had to fight them with my mother’s oncologist. We did get concessions eventually, but it was the negotiation from Walgreen’s head pharmacist at this location, with the drug company, that made access to Fragmin possible for my mother… LONG before the insurance battle was won. They barely gave an inch, in fact.
I owe this pharmacist gentleman a debt of thanks. My mother lost her battle with cancer a couple of months ago, but the Fragmin helped prolong her life — clot free (and so stroke free) — for almost three years. It WAS essential to her. She had three years with her lovely granddaughter because of chemo and the supporting medication that fought off the bad side effects, like blood clots.
Until I have a chance to thank him in person — and I will — I will thank him here. Thank you, PharmD Head of Walgreens Pharmacy/​Polk and Broadway (smiling gent with reddish hair and moustach). You are a hero to me — and were to my mother as well.

What can you really say about Walgreens… everyone has been to one, and they’re all pretty much the same. This one’s no different.
Here are the goods:
1. Not typically too crowded at all, I can usually get in and out quickly
2. Prices are decent.
3. They have a fair selection of «random» stuff, that I seem to have a need for
Here are the bads:
1. They have this stupid system where you have to put your feet on the clown shoe drawings on the floor, like a crappy amusement park ride. There ends up being a single file line of people down the candy aisle (done on purpose? don’t ask me…) and it just seems like poor design. It bugs me every single time.
2. Typically, this one particular woman rings me up, and she is lifeless. I mean devoid of any sort of emotion whatsoever. I’ve attempted to get her cracking a smile, or even direct eye contact, but alas — no such luck.
Overall, it’s a typical drugstore, that I frequent for the odd purchases that Real Foods and Traders can’t satisfy.
P. S. — totally forgot to talk about Jasper! Easily one of the nicest homeless guys in the city, he’s usually outside, and almost always greets me with a kind hello, a smile, and sometimes a song. This guy literally brightens my day when I talk to him, and he makes my trip to Walgreens better.

So I’d like to know why a manager who I know has worked at this store for years, never knows where anything is in this store. And why would we not restock the shelves in the pharmacy department before December 31^st when everyone and their uncle wants to use up their FSA money?!
On the other hand, the rest of the staff here is super helpful and nice and the hours are convenient but I could do without the annoying panhandlers that are there at all hours.

I’m not sure if many of my friends from the Unilocal’s Holiday Party noticed something unusual on my forehead.
«Yes, I had a „third-​eye“ (pimple) on my forehead.»
If I didn’t get that ugly pimple, I would’ve got more action done with the ladies at the holiday party.
The following morning, I went to go to the Walgreen’s, which is not far from my crib, to pick up some odds and ends. Then I went to skin care section and bought a small tube of Clearasil «Vanishing» cream with «Maximum Strength, baby!»
It’s on sale for $ 3.99. Just what a 37 year old man need to get rid of his zit.
As I made my way to checkout counter, the clerk scanned that sale zit-​cream, then she looked at the zit on my forehead and said, «You definitely need it!»
«Gee, thanks for the unnecessary sarcasm!»