Duane Reade

Shantelle was amazing! this duane reade was just like any other duane reade however stood out because of shantelle. she was so helpful and pleasant and quick. my aunt needed very specific make up and shantelle went above and beyond. it was great. shes great.

This is the WORST, most incompetent pharmacy staff (pharmacist included) that I have ever encountered. They have forgotten to scan in my prescriptions (told me that I never submitted them, until the actual paper scripts were miraculously located), lied to me over and over about having ordered a drug that I found out 15 days later (I need to take it daily) was never ordered. They try to blame doctors and the insurance companies, but all through this I had been in touch with both, and knew that it was not them. They would tell me that things were ordered and to come back in 3 days, only to then say «I’m ordering it now» They say that I need a prior authorization for refills, when the insurance company tells me that the pre-​authorization is valid for a year for all refills. BTW, this is all in the ONE MONTH that I have been going there. I had to go nearly every day for 2 weeks to even try to get them to address that I didn’t have my meds. I am transferring all of my scripts to a pharmacy that is farther from my place, just to avoid this insanity. I have been to many other Duane Reades in NYC, and they were fine. AVOID THIS ONE LIKE THE PLAGUE.

If you’re going to require an employee password to print instant photos, there should actually an employee there to help you do it. The only person I could find was the cashier and she just kept telling me to wait. Stupid and unnecessary waste of time.

Some really friendly, personable staff… some just going through the motions. But well-​stocked aisles, most with a healthy selection of options, some lacking, speedy enough check out, wasn’t fought when I mentioned one item which didn’t ring up at the same price, love the dual entrances, clean, and a good option in the area.

I bought some salsa here last week and got food poisoning! I checked the container later and it was way past it’s experation date. Like, way way past. If you shop here, inspect everything before you buy it. TOTALLY GROSS.

Why bother having cashiers on both sides if one is closed??? There seems to always be a line here that moves slowly. Also inventory seems to never be in stock.

This pharmacy is the worst, they routinely mess up my prescriptions. One time I even had the pharmacy department grill me about why I needed more of my pain medication. They had messed up a new dosage prescription my dr had called in and tried to refill the old one. Since it was too soon to fill they gave me dirty looks and grilled me about why I needed it. I had to explain to them about my medical condition and after explaining for the 3^rd time that I had a new dosage after having seen my dr that day. It finally clicked after I felt belittled. I only use this place since its the only pharmacy close to my office and I can’t get away from my desk for long. Every time my dr calls in a script they can never find it.

Reasonably big store that was clean and simple, easy to find the drink I wanted and then… well, waited inexorably long in line to check out. Not sure if someone just got stuck writing a check or something, but they need to have more of the people up-​front helping with self-​checkout or issue resolution.

The pharmacy at this particular Duane Reade has some of the nastiest, rudest people working at it that I’ve ever encountered. On three separate occasions I was told that I couldn’t have my prescription filled because:
1 the doctor didn’t specify dosage (this was for freaking ear drops, all you have to do is look on the internet). They said they’d call my doctor «in a few hours» but I had it filled in 15 minutes by walking the six blocks to the next Duane Reade over, even though they assured me that «no one would fill it.»
2 the doctor wrote through on of the numbers of the day of the month. They said this was because it was illegal to change a date on a controlled substance but it was the DAY of the month! It changed the date by about three days! And the pharmacist smirked at me as he told me, and refused to call my doctor and confirm it.
3 my insurance card was invalid, which caused me to finally lose it because I’ve had the same card forever. They kept insisting I needed to call my insurance and get a new one. It took about half an hour for them to figure it out and they finally admitted that they had updated their computer system recently and that was why my info was lost, although they didn’t even say they were sorry about the wait or the heart attack they gave me when they came clean.
In none of these cases were they even remotely polite, and in fact seemed to take obvious pleasure in messing with me. And I’m seriously a nice person with zero attitude! They suck so bad and are so mean that I’ll never go back to them, but they are the closest pharmacy to where I work so it’s really unfortunate. I have never written a review on Unilocal before but that’s how bad they are, it drove me to join!

This is one of the larger Duane Reade stores I’ve spent time in. They did a big renovation a year or so ago and now this place is huge. You can enter and exit the store on 58^th or 59^th streets. The layout is a little odd but they have tons of stuff. The selling points for this store are the huge drink wall, great chip selection and a fast pharmacy. The downside is the lack of greeting cards (not a great selection at all) and the frequent long lines at the cashiers on 58^th and 59^th Streets.

:ding-​dong: «did you hear that sound? that means you need to buy forever stamps…»
I’m sorry we all know Duane Reade is literally taking over every street corner it can but don’t harass me in-​store constantly about buying STAMPS. I got it!
This location is my go-​to. The staff is very nice, from the Manager (female, who told me she could look up my card by phone number) to the regular staff who also is very sweet and doesn’t make a face when I ask them to do it. They also always remind me of the customer service entry on my receipt… I sware I will do it someday…
This location literally spans a city street but has everything on one floor despite the awkward layout. Located between 59^th St. and 58^th. So wether yer at Lavo or the Web/​Tao yer covered.
There may be a line toward the downtown exit but it always moves quick. Customer service here is always present even when I’m deciding on a pack of mints or bag of pretzels.
2 thumbs up!

Wow, these places are on just about every other block! The selection and quality of items here was great. It was super convenient to run to any one of these stores to grab what you needed. Prices were inflated, but I found that to be true to all of NYC.

This NYSC is right near a branch of NYSC I’ve been visiting lately. It makes it super convenient to pick up a drink before or after my workout. This has definitely gone through the recent modernization that most Duane Reades are going through and it looks great. Everything is laid out nice and clean and items are easy to find.
While I don’t really hold it against the store, I have to say that the poor cashier that helped me out was one of the saddest guys I’ve seen working a counter in a while. He had this amazing mix of looks on his face that kind of looked like falling asleep + bored out of his mind at the same time. When people finally got on his line he perked up a bit and was quite friendly.
As others have pointed out, this store cuts through the block from one street to another which makes it a nice midpoint to walk through. There is a Chase ATM as well. I found both these features quite useful.

We were walking by this store today and CVS no longer carries the brand of shampoo my husband uses, so we looked here and they *did* have it. The store is well laid-​out, CLEAN, much bigger than it appears from the street, and the cashier was a really friendly young guy.
(Update on 8÷9÷14): We went there today and they had another hard-​to-​find item. Also, the cashier was a *very* friendly woman.
(Update on 5÷29÷16): We went there today and both cashiers were very friendly. Also, this store has a terrific selection of cards.

One of the nicer and cleaner DRs in the city. I come by here quite often as it’s the closest one to my work. I love that it’s all in one floor but it’s all nicely spaced out because the huge space they have. They have check outs at both entrances (one on 58^th and another on 59^th) but more often than not they both have lines. You are better off checking out at the pharmacy and they usually have a couple of people working there.

Damn these seem to be everywhere in NYC! 99cent green tea, nothing else.

I’m not sure if this is the right DR since there’s one that just opened not too long ago. For the grand opening, they has 2 dudes stand outside dispensing cranberry juice and coffee out of a backpack like device! Pretty awesome. They also handed put scratch cards which saved us $ 5 on our purchase. We bought store brand tylenol, eye makeup remover, and makeup pads doe $ 11. The prices were on the higher end but the scratcher deal helped. The store was brand new and the workers were helpful.

This brand new store is a combination of Sephora, Food Emporium, Staples, Barns and Nobel, CVS… A little bit too fancy for D&R but maybe it’s just the future one in current reality.