I hear Walgreens is pretty bad, too.
Not whataboutism-- this seems to be universal right now?
Not whataboutism-- this seems to be universal right now?
Example: I had an appointment at a doctor's office in a medical office park. By "medical office park" I'm referring to a plot of land with lots of doctor and specialist offices, which are not part of a single chain, provider, or medical group.
During the appointment, I was told to pick up some over-the-counter medication. I noticed that, in the middle of the medical office park, there was a pharmacy. So, I went over there.
There was a single employee on duty, a pharmacist. I was the only customer there. This was around 11:30, so I expect at least one person was at lunch. Though there was work to do, the pharmacist seemed relaxed, not hurried. They asked what I wanted, found it, asked some questions (to identify possible complications), and handled payment.
Since this pharmacy is in the middle of this office park, I expect they are mainly getting business from the individual medical offices nearby.
They usually will have a pharmacy that is largely used to service other providers in park/campus, and thus is typically pretty laid back. A large number of these keep a retail counter open almost as an afterthought, but in a hospital setting usually meant for patients being discharged or whatever I imagine.
Most of these will take anyone off the streets. Recently this has started to change so I expect in a few years most will no longer take "retail" (the secret is long out, so more and more control-seekers are wasting staff time) customers at all and only service inpatient.
It's worth driving an extra 10 minutes if you have such an option. Otherwise if you must go chain I've had the best luck and heard mostly good things from staff about Costco. Walmart also seems to have a quite functional pharmacy - but it can be quite hit or miss depending on location, and is starting to suffer from the general overworking conditions the rest of the chains have.