Duane Reade — Local services in New York

Abandon all hope ye who enter. First off, there are a few employees there who are super nice, so it's unfortunate that the negatives of this establishment outweigh the good by a mile.

1. The Prescription counter is is a mixed bag. Some nice workers, and other won't even look up at you. But one things for sure, there will be a line. A long one.

2. Everything is locked behind cases unless you want a soda. You have to get lucky and find and employee to unlock what you need. Usually, they're unlocking other areas of the store, so it's generally a waiting game.

3. Most of the shelves are empty. It looks like they're going out of business and this has been like this for at least 3 years.

...and drumroll

4. THE WEEKEND HORROR EMPLOYEE. There's a middle aged black women, thin and wears a hair net. She's always bickering behind the counter, and every time I'm there, she's super rude to the customers. One example: Someone kindly asks for a bag after she processes the order, and she responded " You need to tell me before I ring it up because now I have to go back and charge you 5 cents". This, followed by a sigh. She's done this bag routine with others.

Another time I walk in, and she's getting into a loud, nasty disagreement with the nicest women who works there.

Now today, I happen to be the lucky one on line to get madame personality. First thing I do is ask for a bag to avoid her meltdown. She processes the items, then reaches for a bag, while I wave my CC over the terminal. She sees me wave it and says, "sir, I haven't completed the sale yet, you need to wait - I only have two hands, I'm not an octopus".

Yep, without fail. she managed to find something to get angry about, so in a fairly loud tone I say "Calm down, nobody's rushing you!". She then mumbles under her breath as the card gets approved and I grab the bag out of her hand and exit this...

Had to transfer a prescription here because Rite Aid shut down. I received a text message that they had received my prescription and that it would be ready soon. Then they ghosted me. There is no record on their web portal of the prescription and I haven't heard anything more from their system.

But the worst part is their hold music. My god, their hold music... the hold song is a thirty second song that is the same three second piece repeated ten times and then a voice assuring you that your call is important. That's it. Over. And over. And over again. I'm sure this violates the geneva convention somehow. And to top things off, if you manage to endure this nightmare for seven minutes--and let me emphasize here: seven minutes means you have listened to that three second loop more ONE HUNDRED TIMES--you then get kicked to an answering machine that I'm sure no one will answer.

I haven't even gotten my prescription yet and it's already a nightmare. Please vote to fund healthcare in...

The security guard at this store made me feel very anxious, while looking around the makeup isle the customer assistance went off saying something like “there’s a costumer in need in the cosmetics isle” I don’t know why, because I didn’t touch anything- was just looking but as I continued looking- the security guard came whom might I add didn’t look like one but obviously was one by the way he was suspiciously staring at me the whole time at the store and how he was just sitting on a chair near the pharmacy near the front entrance.. He didn’t ask if I needed help with anything, he just stared at me- It made me feel quite threatened honestly when I didn’t feel I had done anything to deserve his suspicions.. I deal with anxiety and having him, a grown man just staring at me, a teenage girl, made me feel very nervous.. But besides him...