Walgreens

Super close to brown line Chicago stop.
Has several item categories the walmart express across the street doesn’t have.
People are pretty nice here. It’s pretty spacious, clean and well lit. Good big convenience store to have. Better lit than the walmart express nearby.

Right off the bat, I will say that I am a fan of CVS– even the generics– over Walgreens any day of the week. In a sea of Walgreens listings on Unilocal,I am psyched that I was able to find the exact location that I wanted to review (thanks, Elizabeth T. for posting the helpful pictures). I stopped in here yesterday for a beverage and some sort of snack to tide me over for an evening meeting. The beverage selections were lacking, as I had my eye out of a fizzy water (think: Pellegrino in the plastic bottles). I finally went with a Fiji water (fyi, .32 more expensive than at CVS – I have officially turned into an old lady, now noticing and much less writing about such things). Beverage selection made, I turned to the snacks and was confronted with shelves upon shelves of crap that was poorly organized, to boot. The store overall seemed dirty, especially the floors. In fact, while waiting to check out, I smelled a distinct tinge of urine, then on my way out saw a worker with a mop bucket, confirming my worst suspicions. Checkers were lackluster, at best and there were WAAAY too many «Nice!» Walgreens-​branded items standing in where I would have expected to see non-​generic counterparts. The funniest part of the experience came when I saw a slab of gooey butter cake, marketed as «St. Louis style.» under the Nice! imprimatur. That stuff looked like it had been run over several times by a truck, way past its sell-​by date with nothing gooey about it. I probably won’t be back here, even under duress.

This is my «go to» Walgreens for several reasons.
1. Close to home
2. It’s clean
3. There’s never/​rarely a wait at the pharmacy
4. Cashier lines are short than most*
* BIG PET PEEVE… there are 5 registers and 1 open register. There are 10+ people in line and 5 other Walgreens staff members on the floor stocking or simply chatting to one another or texting on their phones. Open the darn registers and ring up our stuff!
The block is a little sketchy but with new restaurants opening nearby, it feels a bit safer

It’s a pretty standard Walgreens. There’s no clear area for a waiting line. You kind of just have to wait next to the fridge to get to the register.
I bet there’s some competition from the Walmart express down the street.

This is definitely one of the better Walgreens I’ve been to. Always well-​stocked and very friendly staff!

Before there was Walgreens in this neighborhood, there was NOTHING. This section of River North had a bunch of art galleries and a Starbucks and little else. Now there’s a big bright Walgreens.

This review is for the Pharmacy. The Pharmacy staff is great. I have been using this as my pharmacy for about 2 years now and have always had very pleasant interactions with the staff. They go above and belong, contacting your doctor for you to ask about refilling Rxs.

Not sure what to write about walgreens… but this one was good. Plenty of things, especially stuff to buy at the check out line. BUT the cashier was sleeping or something and RUDE.

I don’t feel ambivalent about this Walgreens, which is a positive sign.
When I put my prescription in online it’s always ready on time. The women at the front registers always make small talk and they are super nice.
Their card selection doesn’t suck, which is nice since I am always buying last minute cards.
There’s not much more I could ask from a Walgreens. There can be a seedy element out front, but what can ya do.

I know, weird to write a review for a Walgreens, but I try to take note of every new place I visit and give it the once-​over and see if it’s worth writing about.
I liked this Walgreens — and I’ve been to several in the Chicagoland area. This place was very clean, shelves were in order, and every employee I encountered (including the pharmacist standing at his little window) smiled at me and seemed to somehow convey that they enjoyed their job and enjoyed helping customers. It’s weird to get that vibe sometimes, you know? Like you just don’t expect it at some kinds of places, but there it was.
Found what I needed rather quickly but wandered around to see if there were any good sales going on. Well, rather to see if the good sales I knew were on still had some product left because the other Walgreens I’ve hit this week were out of the sale items by Tuesday. Sure enough, they still had a supply, which was nice.
The cashier even bothered to make friendly smalltalk with me while ringing up my purchase — which is much better than the «glowering at you until you fork over money and then ignoring you until the receipt has printed» treatment that exists in some of the other Walgreens in the city.
The only thing that kept it from a 5^th star is the bum situation right outside. I understand that drugstores and chain locations are prime locations where people emerge with change from their purchases, and I understand that in the two-​block radius I wandered after exiting the Brown Line station I encountered at least 5 bums asking me for change — but the least you can do is periodically shoo them away because it’s bad for business to have people harassing your customers and/​or scaring away potential customers.