Duane Reade

The pharmacy staff here is incompetent and it is frustrating aside from Anna, the one pharmacist who is friendly, efficient, and well spoken. Try to go here when she is working — everyone else is pretty useless.

I like how they have a big clearance section at the lower level but check out is slow

This pharmacy is terrible. They simply don’t fill things on time. When I showed up for my prescription they vaguely said it was «coming up». I don’t need my pharmacist to be cheery but I do expect them to have things filled a day after a script had been called in or, if they didn’t do their job and fill it, to properly communicate wait time to the customer.
You’d do better to make the trek down to the rite aid on grand. Open 24 hours, properly staffed, and I’ve never shown up and had to wait for my prescription. Definitely switching back for the remainder of my time on the LES.
I have had good experiences with the check out staff when I needed to return something. They were kind and let me return an opened product that didn’t work properly even though the process was time consuming/​irritating for them.

Sometimes I can’t find what I need here. But I did notice that they sometimes have some outrageous clearance items like organic apple sauce for a few cents or soy sauce; the sales can be as high as 90% off! Keep your eyes peeled.
Convenient location to get the latest movies to rent from Redbox. I haven’t had any issues here. Make sure you sign up for the texting program for free rentals!

Anna who works in the pharmacy re opened the pharmacy to give me my pills during a time I really needed some compassion. She is the best store employee I’ve ever dealt with and would make me go back to this location just to see such a jobs professionsl

Your neighborhood DR nothing more and nothing less!
Pretty good selection and divides in two floors.
Just now they are under renovation November 2014 so probably after it they will be even better.
Also a Redbox rental machine in there.

There could be no one in the store and you would still inexplicably have to wait on line for ages.
This location seems to have an energy magnet that saps all energy and will to live as you enter.

This surprisingly-​not-​that-​bustling DR was a great centrally located spot for a Redbox pickup. In decent shape, and never had to deal with staff.

The Duane Reade pharmacy on Delancey street is unreliable and the older pharmacist is unhelpful and very rude. They will tell you your medication is ready to pick up in 30 mins but when you get there an hour later it’s still not ready. I wouldn’t recommend this pharmacy if you want to get in and out fast. Also they are not the best to communicate with when it comes to insurance problems.

I go to this Duane Reade all the time. I’ve always found the employees unobtrusive and inoffensive – I’m the type who likes to be left alone when shopping, and usually just go up to employees if I need help.
They usually have everything I need. They’re good in terms of home goods, beauty products, and food, but their stationery and paper supplies are lacking.

Oh, Duane Reade. I lived down the street from this location for a while and let me tell you, this place is SURREAL. The customer service is astoundingly bad — the employees are apathetic, rude, and — for some reason — downright mean! No particular bad experiences… just the horrible mix of dread, shame, and vague thrill when I walked in there another time because I was too lazy to go anywhere further from my apartment and had to buy nailpolish, Doritos, and Sam Adams.
OH! It’s worth mentioning that there is a Redbox*, right inside the front door. Woo!
*At least it was there about a year ago — I moved and never went back. So if you go and it’s not there or it isn’t working, fellow Unilocaler, I apologize.

Employee’s are not knowledgeable. If you know what you’re looking for and don’t need help. This place is sufficient enough

I tried to go in with my fiancéé on 8÷10÷12 at 9:45 PM and the security guard and store manager were on the other side of the door giving us the cut throat sign that they were already closed & when we asked to let us in since my fiancéé was I’ll & we knew what we wanted they just laughed at us. Never again just go to the 24 hour Rite Aid on Grand & Clinton.

I Wish this Duane Reade was not so close to my apartment.
They never have anything stocked and the employees and managers seem to have no idea when or if the things they rarely have will be back. I have gotten the line from a manager «I’m not sure if we carry that anymore, but maybe it will be on a the truck that delivers tonight.» For instance I have been there several times a week for the last month a standard replacement razor blade and finally just had to buy a whole new razor of pretty much the only one they had in stock the whole month.
I generally have no problems with shopping experiences at other duane reade’s throughout Manhattan but this one is downright awful.

Not one to ever review pharmacies, but there is one cashier in this particular Duane Reade that makes you want to come in for the sheer entertainment alone.
Lina, the supreme customer service agent that checks out each customer at the counter, is as sprightly as she is speedy. She is so animated and cheerful that I’d hire her based on her charisma alone. And she is like a bottomless pit of DR knowledge; knows what’s on sale, what’s not, recommends other brands that have better prices, and ends each customer’s transaction with the same farewell –
«Thank you, have a blessed night, and be well well!»
Love this entertaining little fireball.

Convenient and has a big variety of stuff but there are always people fighting or screaming in there? I guess it’s not there fault but it’s a little crazy. Not well stocked and pricey (
here I come) but it does have a video box and snacks so plus for that.

Okay, let me just put this out there — I rarely leave reviews on stores, especially chain pharmacies. Come on now.
For starters, this store is a zoo. The majority of the employees are so rude and ignorant. They are rarely ever doing their jobs. They are always in the middle of the aisles, talking amongst themselves, cursing out loud, not working, being rude to customers and blurting out all kinds of their personal business — Literally causing a public disturbance. They truly make it an uncomfortable environment.
Secondly, this Duane Reade never restocks anything! If something is out of stock, it will be… For months. From vitamins to nail products, the shelves will remain empty. How do they expect to maintain a customer base? I really don’t understand.
Lastly, since I’m in the area often, I thought it would be wise to drop off a prescription that I had to fill at this particular location. Mistake. The «pharmacist» is a nice man, very friendly and polite, but they are SO slow! If I go in and request a refill (mind you, it will be something like a birth control pill which is an automatic, pre-​filled package), they’ll tell me to come back a day later. One time, they even told me to come back two days later! In my opinion, that’s extremely unnecessary.
I gave this store several chances, I’ve come to accept that it is just a total mess.

The only thing good about this Duane Reade is the location! Everytime I go into this location it is beyond disgusting and the staff is more concerned with promoting their non existent rap career. Why they feel everyone wants to hear them belt out some nicki minaj I do not know.
They are always low on stock. The cashiers always chit chat back and forth while you check out. I feel as if I know them and all of their boyfriends personally now.
CVS and Walgreens are the better choices for sure!

WARNING: ANGRY RANT INVOLVING GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF POOP RELATED ACTIVITY
I’ve vowed as of tonight to never shop at any Duane Reade again if I can help it… and I’ll tell everyone I know not to as well.
If you know me, you know it takes an awful lot for me to wish ill upon a fellow human being.
Yet after the experience I had tonight at this Duane Reade on Delancey St., I find myself unable to stop thinking about how much I really really hope that the manager of this place ends up pooping on himself in public sometime in the not too distant future… preferably in front of lots of people. Because basically, that’s what that manager seemed to wish upon me tonight.
I was on the subway heading home from Midtown with my wife, mother, and baby. Although I had had a GI premonition that something was wrong when we hopped on the F coming back from midtown, it wasn’t until we were about to reach Delancey/​Essex that I realized I had a full-​on emergency on my hands.
Faced with the unpleasant prospect of explosively pooping myself on a crowded train, I abandoned my family and hopped off the train. Somehow, I managed to make my way up the platform, out the exit and up the stairs without letting rip.
I try McDonald’s on the corner. FAIL; 2 guys ahead of me in line and I know I’m not gonna make it. I race out to the street and see a Popeyes two doors down. I walk in just as a 12-​year old kid — a frantic look on *his* face — opens the door to the only bathroom in the joint. I’m too slow to knock him to the ground and steal the key and can tell by the look on his face he isn’t going to be done in time. Back out onto the street again, and I see Duane Reade at the end of the block. At this point, I’m having trouble walking.
I walk into the Duane Reade and head straight to the first open register.
«Do you have a restroom? I’m having a serious emergency,» I said to the clerk, my eyes mad with desperation, my teeth clenched with gut pain.
That clerk, god bless his soul, read the situation and understood. He turned and said to the manager two registers away «Can he use the restroom. He says he’s having a emergency.»
The manager looked over at me and said, «No. There’s a Starbucks two blocks away that has a better toilet than ours.»
«2 bloc— there’s no way I can make it.»
«Well, there’s a McDonald’s down the street»
«I tried, but the line is too long»
«Well, I’m sorry.» And he went back to what he was doing.
«Please, if you need me to buy something, I will. Whatever. Please just let me use your toilet.»
«No.»
There’s an awkward moment of silence as I grip onto the counter for dear life trying not to crap myself while the 3 guys at the register look at me in horror (at the time, I thought in sympathy, but in retrospect, I wonder if they were just afraid they would have to clean up if ended up doodooing all over their floor).
«…Do you have any Pepto Bismol?» I ask.
«Yeah. Downstairs. Aisle *xyz*,» says the world’s most heartless shift manager.
«Downstairs?! I can’t make it downstairs.»
More awkward silence. Then, I swear to god, my intestinal tract made this sound like a massive avalanche in the distance and everyone’s eyes got real wide… everyone, except of course, that a-​hole manager.
Realizing I was getting nowhere and needed to move on, I moved one leg, then the other towards the door in the most pathetic and obviously «I’m about to sh*t-myself» walk you could ever hope to see. And no, I wasn’t faking or exaggerating. What did the manager do? Nothing.
I mean, really? I can understand you have rules to enforce, but what kind of an inhuman bastard does that to another person? So maybe their little bathroom might not have smelled very good for a while afterwards if they let me use it, but if that manager had been able to find even just a pinch of holiday spirit goodness in him to let me use their john and not SH** MYSELF IN PUBLIC FAR FROM HOME, I would have been forever grateful and held a soft spot in my heart for Duane Reade and its employees for years and years to come.
But, thanks to their awesome manager, never again. And lest you think my treatment was a one off, read the other reviews here, and you see it’s part of a larger pattern of contempt for customers and customer service at this place.
Anyway, after this venting, I feel better, but still want that manager to crap himself. Also, I’m never leaving home again without at least 2 Pepto-​Bismol tablets on me if I’m headed someplace more than 3 stops away.

In order to save time, I figure I’ll just drop my Rx here rather than CVS… ummm the worst decision I ever made.
Not only did they tell me they would have to order it on Monday but when I came back on Monday the younger Pharmacist told me I had to activate my card. No where did my card say I have to activate it and so I came back again telling them no, and to fill my Rx.
The older Pharmacist told me 30 minutes… I actually waited over an hour and finally was like umm… what’s up.
The Pharmacist actually couldn’t find my Rx and didn’t even bother to tell me this until I told him just forget it and give me back my Rx.
THEY LOST MY RX — WTF!
He said the other pharmacist must have put it in a «special place» — does special place mean lost?
PHARMACY SUCKS like hell but the people upstairs are always friendly.