Duane Reade

Gave it one star as this Duane Reade location has Closed!

I stopped by at 1AM, this morning, to pick up some basics. Now, when I stop by a drug store in the wee hours in the morning, I don’t expect a red carpet welcome, but what I experienced was the polar opposite. Maybe the worst service I’ve experience in a long time.
The employee I’m talking about can’t be named because he didn’t even wear a uniform or a name tag; just a half untucked, wrinkled green shirt, and an equivalently wrinkled black pants. He was a very large, not cleanly shaved, Hispanic guy. I’ll call him «Mike.»
After I grabbed my purchases, I went to the empty counter. Mike came to the counter after a while and purposely went to the register adjacent to the one where I placed all my items. Pretty rudely, without explanation, he told me to move my toiletries to his register, which I did without his help, while he stared at me, with disdain. Yes, disdain, seriously. After he rang me up, without his asking if I had a Duane Reade card, I pulled my card out, asking him if he could scan my card. Instead, he stared at me like I was wasting his time, and pointed to a scanner that was right next to him, but far from me, and told me to scan it myself. I did. To make matters worse, when I was leaving, he smirked at me, amused that he gave me horrible customer service.
Worst service, ever. Mike’s overall attitude and demeaneor made me feel very unwelcome in the store, like an intruder, actually. Sorry to bother you guys at Duane Reade, I won’t do it again.

Staff is the most cordial of all Duane Reade’s I have been too!
Youz guys Rock!

Duane Read places are always like this! Each store is different…
This one look like a grocery store. the merchandise and the wood shelves… I felt like the deli on the corner of my home…

I’m sorry to see that Stephanie L. had a bad experience here, because even though it’s smaller, and not as updated as other Manhattan Duane Reade locations, it happens to be my favorite. The staff is friendly and funny, and all-​around helpful, and the shelves are always well-​stocked. I typically stop in to get cash (they have a Chase ATM), a soda or water bottle, and sometimes even a funny card for a co-​workers’ birthday.
There are a few regular staff members who have started to recognize me and make conversation, which really makes me feel like Duane Reade is employing the right people, because it clears the stigma of the giant drug store chain being worse than the local, independent store.
I agree that the pricing kind of sucks, but at the end of the day, the service and organization of the store makes up for it.

duane reade is the worst. it’s like they did a bunch of market research on everything customers would care about and did exactly the opposite of that. the line is always infinity long even though there’s like no one in the store, a roll of toilet paper costs $ 500, there are none options for anything.
just remember: every time you go to duane reade god kills a kitten.