Chemist Warehouse The Palms — Attraction in Christchurch

I am absolutely disgusted and furious about the way my partner and I were treated at Chemist Warehouse Shirley. My partner had just undergone nasal surgery and urgently needed saline solution, so we rushed to this store hoping to quickly grab some and get him back to resting. From the moment we arrived, the experience was hostile and humiliating.

As we walked in, we were glared at by the security guard, who was bizarrely doing stretching exercises right outside the door—already an unsettling and unprofessional start. We went straight to the aisle where the saline should be, saw it was out of stock, and left to go to another pharmacy. That’s it. We didn’t touch a single thing. We didn’t browse. We were in there for barely two minutes.

As we walked out, that same security guard—who had CLEARLY watched our every move—approached me aggressively and attempted to check my bag. Then she followed us as we walked away, like we were thieves. Let me be absolutely clear: we did NOTHING wrong. We were targeted for one reason and one reason only—we are visibly Māori. There’s no other explanation.

The most gutting part of this experience? The guard was African herself, and still chose to racially profile us. The internalized racism and power-tripping behavior is appalling. We were treated like common criminals in front of other customers for simply existing in our brown skin.

This was not “just doing your job.” This was racial profiling, pure and simple. Disgusting. Unjustifiable. And unforgivable.

We will never be returning to this store.

Chemist Warehouse should be ashamed for hiring people who treat innocent customers this way. Sort your staff out and stop allowing this kind of vile behavior in...

Plenty of parking, as it's in a mall. The store is easy to find, and the sign is huge and in bold. When you first walk in, there can be an overwhelming amount of smells hitting you, as the perfumes are at the front of the store. The store is clean but very unorganized, there are often racks of items waiting to be put on the shelf. There is a lot of stock, it's quite overstimulating, the bright white lighting doesn't aid the situation. This store can get very busy. Most items are quality however, I bought a walking stick, which was below average. It lasted a month, then became unstable, and I had to get a new one. The prices are decent, generally cheaper than other pharmacies. Staff are a mixed batch, I've had great experiences with needing to order items out of stock. I've also had horrible experiences with a few staff members, mainly pharmacists. One pharmacist asked me what condition my medication was for and then loudly announced it out loud before I could speak. This made me quite uncomfortable, as people were looking at me awkwardly, I could only describe it as a collective WTF moment.

Monday 8am - 8pm Tuesday 8am - 8pm Wednesday 8am - 8pm Thursday 8am - 9pm Friday 8am - 9pm Saturday 8am -...

I needed some advice on what off the shelf medicine I needed for my eyes. I went up to the counter at the back of the store where there was a row of "Pharmacy Techs" studiously working on their computers. In my opinion it's not unreasonable to ask the techy person what I should be using for such a delicate part of the body. Finally, one of them condescended to acknowledge I was there. Without a smile or any form of welcome she did ask what I needed. Nevertheless I did think she felt she was doing me a huge favour by attending to my basic inquiry. She was indeed helpful in an off hand sort of a way. Little to no customer engagement though. The stocking of the shelves is poor and items are just not replaced. COVID has been over for some time guys so you can restock your shelves. Reminds me of Bunnings with similar stocking issues. In future I will give the Chemist Warehouse a miss and use my local pharmacy for my needs. They may be marginally more expensive but that's OK. they make me...