Duane Reade

It’s your regular Duane reade. I’ve never had a problem finding anything. Clean and bright. Friendly environment. It’s convenient and close for me.

The pharmacy here is atrocious and unhelpful, refusing to fill certain medications or assist the customer in locating a pharmacy that does. I complained to their Consumer Relations, and it took over three weeks to get a half-​assed apology. There are plenty of smaller pharmacies in Astoria (just search on here) that will treat you right and give you a much more personable experience.

This is the absolute worst photo department. The store in general isn’t great, but I’m not sure how you can submit online photo print orders, receive confirmation and pick times, and nothing be ready. And instead of apologies or some sort of acknowledgment and promise to correct the error, the manager just says «oh yeah, the photo girl was out or she only prints once a week or yeah, we don’t have the paper and she forgot to order it.»
This is such a waste of time. Why bother offering the service and why isn’t the corporate office checking on these issues?
Never again. I’ll only support CVS or Rite Aid. Duane Reade sucks.

By far the worst photo department in the whole neighborhood. Photo was supposed to be ready 3 hours ago and still not ready. Never doing business here again for photos or anything else.

By far I would say this was the worst experience ever! The manager is some South Asian Indian or Bengali manager and the most rude and disrespectful man who has very racist remarks on certain types of customers by the way they dress. He blamed a young girl for «trying on» a cosmetic when it wasn’t even captured on any «cameras». He literally made the entire staff keep an eye on me and my friends and called 911 just cuz we were all in one aisle and it was fishy!!! Very very racist of this man. He has glasses and has a beard just so you all are aware of him, I do plan to make an official complaint against this animal.

The loss prevention or security guard was hounding me as I was a criminal. As soon as I came in a dark skin male most probably Indian, with glasses about 5’8−5’11 started hounding me as I had stolen something as soon as I got into the store. Instead of even offering help or even doing another type of deterrence like greeting me, he just hounded me like a criminal. I actually was looking for someone and in my distress to wait for an associate to ask me if I needed help he just stared at me and circled down the aisles back and forth. I will never shop here at this store again. I will stick to the one on Steinway and Broadway which are more friendly and very less racial profiling. I would have purchased more but the way he kept hounding me was just ridiculous I didn’t want to spend another dime the only reason why I still purchased because it was an absolute necessity I needed to get these products. This by far number 1 reason why people don’t shop and why stores lose clients, because of suspicion before a cause. This guy and staff need to be retrained on customer service. Very disappointed with this store and especially that gentleman who actually thought he was on a hot case. Ridiculous. In the end I did purchase what I had to purchase I just hope you speak to this gentlemen about customer service and maybe to greet every so often instead of staring and going right behind you down aisles.

I like this location: conveniently located, clerks have always been friendly.
Unfortunately, my only two pharmacy visits were bi-​polar experiences.
While in both instances the Pharmacy Techs were very friendly, in my first visit, they were able to fill my prescription within five minutes; in a second visit (with only two customers ahead of me) what was supposed to take «ten minutes» (I went shopping in the store), took an hour and ten minutes (I didn’t have that much shopping to do).
It might have taken even longer, had I not stepped up asking «What happened to my prescription?»
It still hadn’t been processed.
I did receive an apology but not an explanation, after asking why it took so long.
I hope this was a one-​off experience…

I have been going to this Duane Reade, as pretty much my main drug store, for about nine years now. The store is always clean and I always find everything I need. The pharmacy is great there. I don’t get my prescriptions filled anywhere else.

I wish I could give this place a negative star rating. This has nothing to do with the merchandise or the prices, it has everything to do with the store manager Harry. He is extremely rude and disrespectful to customers and it seems as if he treats the rest of the staff the same way.
I went in today to return an item I had purchased earlier in the day from a Duane reade in the city. He said since they didnt have the item there that I would have to return it to the original store. I asked if that was a DR return policy and he said no but he didn’t recognize the make up I was returning so he couldn’t do the return. I called the store in the city and they said it shouldn’t be a problem and asked to speak to the manager there. When Harry got on the phone he said well I am not taking the return here this customer has been a stress and hung up on the other manager. I called the other manager back and she herself said he was rude and his actions were unnecessary. I had even offered to exchange the item for store credit to make it easier for them but Harry just wasn’t listening and extremely rude, he walked away while I was still talking to him. I later went to another DR a few blocks away on Broadway where the cashier was extremely helpful and processed the return right away and didn’t understand why Harry gave me such a problem.
I returned to the store to ask him why he have me such a hard time when the other store processed it so quickly and then he called me a liar and started changing his story.
I will never go back to this Duane reade again.
The cashiers were very nice but the manager Harry is a total nightmare.

Very pleased with the pharmacy, both times I had an incredibly short wait and prompt service.
Less pleased with the front checkout, which always seems to be backed up no matter what time of day it is.

It is utterly and ridiculously unbelievable what this store can offer to improve and simplify the lives of busy people. Besides the diverse products ranging from baby wipes to car oil, they also provide a plethora of services all in one shop. You can get your pharmacy prescriptions filled, photographs printed, Blu-​Ray movie rentals instantly in your hands, flu shots administered and banking completed via their ATM machine. Their collection of new movies for rentals is pretty impressive and I am also able to do some grocery shopping here.
What really prompted me to write a glowing review for this place is the quality of their photo prints. It is significantly better than any of the other stores in the area. I actually had our family photo Christmas cards printed here and I was really happy with the results. I initially had the cards printed at another neighborhood store and the images came out underexposed and severely cropped. This store was able to provide me with sixty cards in less than an hour. This is certainly not a true photography lab, but for the price and quality of their prints, I was happy enough to write a review to share my positive experience.
Another wonderful aspect of this store is that they are open 24 hours, making it super helpful and convenient for those who work late hours. The young staff and managers are generally friendly and helpful. The mom and pop stores in the community are still my favorite businesses to deal with but it is tough for them to compete with the diverse products, services, and convenience of this little powerhouse store.

Summary: avoid this Duane Reade or just stop going all together.
I’ve been coming to this Duane Reade for over year now and I haven’t had any problems up until about a month ago. As with many Duane Reades… the lines are long, the staff provides common sense answers — if needed and it’s a overpriced. Up until recently, they just began offering cash back. Gold star! (that’s where the one star came from) Anyhow, this DR has cashiers that go out of their way and try to relate to you by making unnecessary comments about your purchases! Nice.
A week ago, I bought a lighter for my partner (they only had Nirvana and ZZ Top lighters.) I asked if they had a plain one (less expensive.) The guy responded with «no, but you can rip off the plastic picture after you buy it.» reALLY?! REALLY. The future is doomed.
Tonight, I had another run-​in with the same cashier. I bought some tea, night lights, Christmas cards for next year, etc. I emptied the basket and out of courtesy asked «where would like me to place this (the basket?)» He said, «where you found it.» My bad! Then he made a comment about the night lights and asked «is someone scared of the dark?» I didn’t respond, because I don’t need to explain that I may (or may not) wake up in the middle of the night to snack, run full speed ahead into walls… head first, etc. OR maybe it’s because I’m buying them for a family member with Dementia, Alzeimers, etc., because they wake up in the middle of the night… in a panic… screaming, because they think they went blind, because they can’t see anything… because…it’s…dark. Who cares?! Don’t waste my time, try to multi-​task or anything else! Just check out/​bag my stuff!
Upon my return home, I noticed that one of the nightlights (I bought two), were missing. I looked double checked, but couldn’t find it. I called DR and supposedly the dude forgot to put it in the bag. REALLY? I trekked back to Duane Reade (we just had a blizzard), walked in and he was right by the door. Not only did he not apologize when we made eye contact, but he didn’t even say «Welcome to Duane Reade.» (I didn’t really expect it anyway) So for now, I’m going to assume he’s either a homophobe, stoned and/​or even pilfering paid for products from customers at the check-​out counter. Not. Worth. It.

Well, it’s open 24 hours so you can get ripped off in the middle of the night if you want to.
The only possible way to save money here (or maybe not «save», just «not spend as much») is to use the store card and only buy loss leaders from the sale flyer, otherwise be prepared to pay twice what you pay elsewhere. I was paying $ 15 for condoms before my wife found them at another local pharmacy for $ 8. EIGHT!
And I want to relate a recent experience at the store. There is a gentleman who works there, the last two times I was there he was standing at a register doing something on the screen but he waves off anyone who approaches him to check out. He literally wagged his finger at a lady. I assume he is a manager.
On my last visit the line was 5 or 6 people deep and growing. One of the cashiers asks to go on her break, and he (same guy) lets her go without even bothering to look and see how long the line is. The other two cashiers look at each other like «why can’t she finish the line first?» They actually used the intercom to call someone to come over and help them.
How many times do you have to wave people off before you start to think «maybe I should start helping» or «maybe I shouldn’t stand here»?
It shows me that customer service is a low priority at this store, management is just going through the motions.
The only thing saving this from a 1 star review is the cashiers seem friendly and they speed you through check out so you can get out fast.

This review is for the pharmacy (4 stars), specifically Helen Koskinaris (5 stars). She took the time to stay past closing time (10pm) to wait for me to arrive at the pharmacy and fill my prescription. Thank you for the terrific service you provided!

I just had a *wonderful* customer experience with the pharmacy staff (specifically Suzanna or Suzanne I didn’t quite catch her name). She went above and beyond being just ‘helpful’.
Plus, this location has a good stock of cold drinks, snacks, etc. It’s clean. Sometimes there’s a bit of a line w/​only one or two cashiers but generally it’s a fast checkout.

Because they’re Duane Reade, is that why they can charge any price they want? A total rip off! They seem to have kind of good sales every week, but if you look at the price carefully, you will see how they trick you. For example, they marked the price up $ 4 last week, then they put it on sale this week by marking it down $ 4. They are really cunning!
They also got some nerves to price their own brand higher than some national brands. You’ve gotta be kidding me!
Stick with CVS. Stay far far away from DR!

I’ve been visiting this store for the past seven years, it’s the closest drug store from my apartment. The staff is great, always friendly and helpful. The pharmacy is very accommodating.
Recently, this store was bought out by another company but kept the same brand name and I have no problem that… But, what I do have a problem with is that they have doubled the prices on basically every thing since this change happened.
So, if you are looking for a deal — look some place else but if you want nice service and a great pharmacy — I’d recommend it.

Prices have gone crazy!

This place is banging.
Only reason why it get it get’s four stars instead of five, is because the young girls in the pharmacy are snotty and rude. Other than that. this place is BANGING.

Honestly, I waiver back and forth between how I feel about this Duane Reade. What I like is that it’s always clean, well organized, and pretty standard for a DR. However, the check out line can be atrociously long. Usually someone is quick to open another cash register, but if no one take initiative, it can take a painstakingly long time to get out. However, once you get to the front, you usually can get out quickly (though it kind of irks me that rarely a DR employee says anything to me or smiles…).
I noticed that they added the small carts that can be rolled, which was a perk for my errand run today!