Walgreens, my enemy

walgreens

I needed batteries. That's all. Just AA batteries. For my radio.

You see, I forgot to get them at Safeway. It was the third day in a row that I had forgotten to pick them up and I didn't want my BF to beat me (ha ha, j/k lol dear heart--please don't hit me!!). So, after leaving Safeway, I decided to walk straight to Walgreens. They have sales, right? Surely batteries would be cheaper there. I anticipated a simple transaction.

I was about to be disappointed.

I walked in, knowing they keep the batteries behind the cash registers, and proceeded to walk to the "line." You see, Walgreens has a handy sign that says "Line forms here" or something equally helpful. However, tonight, the patrons of Walgreens had formed a line down the Halloween candy/greeting card aisle. It was 3-4 people deep, and the cashier had made no effort to dispel these people of their false reality that they were actually in THE line. In fact, when I walked to the aisle of the One Holy, Apostolic and True Line, there was no one standing there. So, I huffed my disgust at these people's inability to read a simple sign and walked around to stand in the Reformed Line.

Customer #1 of this line gets helped. Then Mr. Cashier decides to help the customer who has tried to restore order at Walgreens by standing in the "correct" aisle.

This is when all hell breaks loose. Dude in front of me says, "Hey, we're in line here," while Cashier says, "The line starts over there."

Oh, so this is the famed customer service of Walgreens that I've heard so much about! As Cashier attempted to dismiss the line of customers (which was standing directly in front of him in case you were wondering), I couldn't hold my tongue. I let him know that the line had clearly formed here (where I was) and that I actually walked around to this aisle because this is where customers had been lining up.

His response: "I can't argue with the sign."

My response: "Then I can get what I need at Safeway."

And off I went, back to Safeway, where Energizer AA batteries were on sale. So eat that, Walgreens. And why don't you just try training your employees to have a modicum of authority, of engagement, of simple awareness of what is happening in their stores. This could have been so easily fixed. Instead, this one employee soured me on your whole company for the time being.

What's that worth to you?

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