The stores are always conveniently located, often in multiple places within short walks of each other, and we have found them ideal for meeting our travelling needs. In fact there is a Walgreens located within 5 miles of 78% of all Americans. Now that is convenience!
Over the last 30 years of visiting the USA, we have spent thousands of dollars in Walgreens stretching from Anaheim to New York City to Chicago to Atlanta to Nashville to Memphis to Orlando to Miami and many other cities in between. Walgreens had a reported net income of $3 billion in 2023, so they are clearly doing something right!
The Walgreens at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, wasn’t far from our motel, but because of the Amtrak railway we had a bit of a detour to get there, a walk at just under a mile.
We visited early on the morning of Saturday August 3, 2024, before we were due to depart for a day at Portland, and picked up some Fiji Water priced at $2.29 each or the ridiculously good offer of 2 bottles for $3.00.
What a bargain!
The young associate serving us was friendly and called us “boss” as a term of endearment - and it was nice to meet a friendly worker in Old Orchard Beach (a rare occurrence we’d found on this trip).
While in Walgreens we eyed up the impressively premature range of Halloween greetings cards and made plans to come back and purchase some that night.
Eight hours later, as dusk was approaching, we returned and stocked up on Halloween and Thanksgiving cards to the tune of around $40.00. They are generally not available in the U.K. so we wanted to make the most of this opportunity. We also purchased a cold 6 pack of Blue Moon to enjoy on the balcony of our motel, a bottle of Tito’s vodka, some candy and a 50th anniversary jumbo Archie comic at $9.99.
Our purchases came to $72.48.
At the cash register, the team member kindly bagged up our items in a large brown paper bag with handles. We made sure to adjust the contents, namely the Tito’s went in our rucksack and the Halloween cards and comics were moved on top of the Blue Moon bottles so that the condensation on the sides didn’t wet the delicate paper items.
Not long later, the Halloween cards were soaked! The handles on the Walgreens paper bag snapped! The bag hit the sidewalk and the majority of the Blue Moon bottles exploded, soaking our purchases.
What a disaster!
Frustratingly we were seconds away from our motel and were passing a bar where the loud noise of the breaking bottles made everyone jeer and whoop. How embarrassing!
We couldn’t believe that Walgreens would give their customers flawed bags that couldn’t do the job they were intended for.
We returned to the store (another mile walk) with all the damaged items and lined up to speak to a member of staff. We politely let them know that their defective bag had caused damage to the things we had bought.
Did they care?
Not one bit.
The team member said that the paper bag should have been carried from the bottom and that they tell customers that. Of course we hadn’t been told that. We said so and tried explaining that the bags clearly weren’t fit for purpose but the team member wasn’t budging and offered no consolation.
After a near 3 mile walk in 78% humidity, we returned to our motel room disappointed in Walgreens and feeling let down by a company which we had given decades of custom to.
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| We walked this route 3 times during the Walgreens paper bag debacle. |
📌 WALGREENS
15 Saco Ave., Old Orchard Beach, ME 04064
🌐 www.walgreens.com
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