CVS

Rude employees at the front had to finish their conversation before acknowledging me, no restroom.

Yeah, the store it has a little of the city feel. I’m recently returned to the area, found basics on the shelves. I’ve read past reviews, they must have new management now because people seem to be working very hard to be helpful. Sometimes? manager is out front helping lines at self check-​out. Pharmacy was busy but everyone there was helpful, took time to explain. Called pharmacy today for info and person was kind enough to look up referral and give me a phone number.

The pharmacy at central is very slow and the staff is rude. There is a female pharmacist that has been been rude to me on multiple occasions. Will not be returning.

I do think the layout can make it difficult to find items, but I have found the staff nearly always polite and helpful. Even when I refuse to use the self-​checkout because I cannot stand the nagging artificial voice (and I resent the loss of jobs.)
As for those who are uncomfortable when confronted with local representatives of the wretched of the earth outside the pharmacy doors, I am appalled at your nasty remarks, your utter lack of compassion. Shades of Dickens… scenes from the 3 Penny Opera… dammit, have you not one ounce of empathy? (And is this misery the fault of the store?)
I smell classism and racism in such reviews.

Come here one day, and it’ll be clean and staffed with younger, friendly pharmacy workers. The next day, and you’ll see this location out of stock with blunt and disagreeable cashiers. Every day, it’s surrounded by a welcoming committee of bums.
First step: Walk the gauntlet. Oh, the homeless guy opening the door for you makes you uncomfortable? Well, just to make it better, there’s a Dunkin’ Donuts under construction next door, obstructing the sidewalk. All the addicts get to mill about that much closer to the entrance! The doors are right near the bus stop, and for some reason are also surrounded by an enormously busted sidewalk (missing bricks, odd puddles — good luck handicapped!).
Next step: Navigate the store. ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance some crazy lady will start screaming about falling, and will then demand a cashier be her personal shopper while she loudly talks about her need for a stockpile of depends. This happened while I was there. That was my reality.
Final step: Either brave the pharmacy line, where you’re sure to learn some great personal details of your fellow shoppers, or alternatively, you can head towards the exit and the nice teenage CVS employee will direct you to a self-​checkout machine that will NOT recognize that you put that packet of icebreakers in the bag on the damn scale.
So, yeah. Homeless, rude staff, lack of parking, it smells. Walgreens across the street, ya’ll — or better yet, the Rite Aid in the Whole Foods parking lot down the street. Avoid this place if you can, outside of a quick trip for their large selection of drinks.

As far as cvs goes, this one is super janky. It smells like body odor and urine, like really bad. None of the employees speak English and the register is frequently unstaffed. Not to mention that the corner its on is flooded with hobos and panhandlers. It is so uncomfortable to go there. I would rather go further away to another pharmacy than go here. It’s so dirty

Worst pharmacy I have ever experienced. The pharmacy is slow, inefficient, and rude.
You can be told things will be ready the night before, and the next day they are not ready. «15 minutes» turns into an hour or two. And this is not when they are busy. It’s when they are goofing off, joking laughing.

The CVS pharmacy in Central Square Cambridge is the worst I have ever experienced. They are slow, disinterested, and often seem confused. In contrast the Walgreen’s pharmacy right across the street as well as the CVS in Harvard Square are fine.
Did I mention they are slow?

Every person except two who work at the pharmacy is completely incompetent. I have ran out of essential prescriptions with no notification that I was running out. My doctor and all other health professionals that I spoke to said to transfer my prescription because of their in professionalism.

The customer service at the pharmacy here is really awful. I do not need misinformation, eye rolls and «b*tch» muttered under the breath at me when I try to get a medication (and no, I was not being a b*tch). I can’t even believe that I was treated this way. I will never go back to this location again if I can help it.

I would give this CVS negative 6383 stars if I could. Their pharmacists are rude, unhelpful, and seem to enjoy making the prescription refill experience a miserable one.
They have weird policies that I have never heard of for any CVS ever and I watched them turn away about 4 customers in front of me for various reasons when trying to fill a prescription, and then (surprise!) they turned me away. Rude, rude people.
Definitely switching to a different CVS. Or better yet, Walgreens.

Avoid at all costs. This place sucked before they had automated check-​outs. They had very few check out staff and there were long lines. Same with the Harvard Sq. store. Now, with those ½ broken automated machines, it’s hell. I would love to have sat in on THAT corporate meeting. «How can we cut staffing costs?
««Well, why don’t we start cutting staff in our busiest and most profitable stores?»
Buy your stuff on amazon and save money and your sanity. And go to walgreens for your scripts.

After reading the reviews, I really doubted that a CVS could be this bad.
It is. It is that bad. Awful layout, careless cashiers, dirty, you name it. Two stars because it still functions as a place of commerce and it’s in a good location.

I’ll sum this up in one sentence Forced automatic check out system.
Was it really worth it to make a few more bucks to layoff employees. shows CVS doesn’t care about me.

I truly dread the one day every 2 months I have to come here for a prescription but usually it isn’t half as bad as I expect. The worst part of using this CVS is getting to the door. This block could benefit from a well marked holding cell. Once you’re inside the store it’s fairly easy to manage the shopping experience as long as you avoid the front end cashiers and follow the instructions on the scanning machines.
Don’t. Press. The Wrong. Key.

So much potential wasted. This could be a FANTASTIC store with its huge selection, hours and location if it wasn’t for the fact that the area outside is filthy and occupied by a mix of homeless /​crazy people, too much of the ever-​rotating staff is rude and most of the regular patrons are extremely irritable, slow-​moving idiots. It’s been this way forever and CVS doesn’t care.
It’s a horrible store and I get stressed out just getting near that hellhole.

Kinda dirty, which I could forgive in Central Square, but the staff are also rude as heck. I asked a manager to let my little girl use their restroom (she had a kid emergency at Starbucks, and theirs were out of order) and she was a total hosebeast to me about it. She told us that she «couldn’t leave what she was doing» (which was putting stickers on items) to escort us, and when I told her it was an emergency she said that I was being so rude that I didn’t deserve help.
There’s reason to put up with that kind of thing; there’s plenty of other stores in this area.

I love that places like this in Boston think they can get away with being dirty by saying «it’s an old building.»
This is not true… It’s a hole, and SUPER hard to find parking around.

Oh my! There are so many negative comments here. Guys, come on, it’s CVS in Central Square. Super convenient and open 24 hours.
Let me explain why I love this location:
— HUGE: This store is huge, man! It has a variety of lunch items (sandwiches galore) mixed with your regular CVS crap.
— SELF PAY: Let’s face it, sometimes you don’t want to talk to a cashier because you are embarrassed about what you’re about to buy. Maybe you’re getting tampons for your girlfriend. What about the time you had super bad gas and needed pills for it. Who can forget the time you had major hemorrhoids! And you, over there, I know you like to cross dress and love getting your make up. No fear, friends, you can keep your headphones on and check yourself out at the kiosks.
— ²⁴⁄₇: Shamelessly headed back home after a bad hookup and really need that sugary snack to raise your spirits (we’ve all been there). Hey, come to CVS, they’re open ²⁴⁄₇ and have a plethora of options. My go to item are the Hostess cupcakes.
— PEOPLE WATCHING: We all do it (and if you follow my reviews you know how much I love people watching) but this location provides top notch entertainment for the Central Square crazies.
–PHARMACY: Here are my expectations for a great pharmacy: I’m not here to make any friends, engage in small talk, or receive the «best service ever.» In fact, I just want my stuff to be ready on time, tell you my name, pay then leave. This is exactly what I get from this CVS, it’s great, really!

Great, a place where the bums of Central Square can hang out for 24-​hours a day. And no humans at the front to shoo them out of the store. I have to be honest, I dig the spacious front part of the store, but despise the awkward corner where you can either peruse the house cleaning supplies, As-​Seen-​On-​TV shite, or shop from a shoddy selection of sympathy cards.
Dear CVS, could you have found a more random location for your cards? They may as well share an aisle with the Depends.
And to speak to the lack of humans at the front, I think this CVS has increased their humans in the Pharmacy. This is key so they can assign one pharmacist to deal with the angry welfare/​medicare patients who are picking drugs up for a friend, another to take on refills, someone to do the filling of the Rx, and the other to check people out (like me who likes to stock up on grocery goods before paying for Rx, hence avoiding use of the always-​broken auto-​checkout).
This is one of the most spacious CVS’s around and I like that. Plus, the pharms are phriendly enough and their staff seems slightly more competent than those at Walgreens across the street. And with all the extra bucks I get for all my purchases, at least it feels like I’m getting a deal (even though I’ve observed cheaper prices on occasion at the place across the street).
Note: Pharm only open til 10 PM on weeknights.