Walgreens Grand Opening in the Neighborhood

Many of you have read or at least heard about the new Walgreens in the neighborhood. It has finally filled the spot formerly known as Gristede's Supermarket (the word Gristede's apparently is German for poorly managed cat piss-flavored grocery store) and formerly formerly known as The Gap. Before that I have no recollection and maybe that's best for the purposes of this story because I'm already getting off track.

Why is a new Walgreens in my neighborhood so special, you ask? First of all, you don't see anything disappear around here without another bank branch taking its place. We have more friggin' banks around here. Who the hell has all this money to put in these banks? Don't we bank online these days anyway? Good grief, banks piss me off. Back in the day you'd have your bank and it might be close by, it might be a little farther away, either way, you went there and that was it. Now you have a fat ass because there's a branch every few feet. Ooooh, what an interesting neighborhood you live in! Is that a Chase, next to WaMu, next to Bank of America (jerks charge $3.00 for their ATMs? Welcome to America), next to a Commerce, next to a WHATEVER? WOW! HOW INTERESTING AND USEFUL! Banks. Ridiculous.

Not getting a bank is fantastic. What else is fantastic? Not getting a Duane Reade. This is "Manhattan's Drugstore" (named after Duane and Reade Streets in lower Manhattan) and it blows. They're everywhere, and they suck. Simply put, their staff sucks and they have a bad selection. I was forced to shop at a crappy Duane Reade until I saw the papered up windows of the vacant storefront announcing Walgreens Coming Soon, and man, I was elated! Seriously psyched!

Here are a few more pictures of my first time shopping at the new Walgreens last night. The trip was pleasant and interesting. I even saw some folks from my apartment building in there. The cranky rich dude who lives in the penthouse was already arguing with one of the store clerks with the circular in his hand, "But you're out of ice cream! It's advertised here, sale on ice cream and you have no ice cream!" She calmly replied, "We'll give you a rain check." He exclaimed, "How could you be out of the ice cream already? Already?" She responded, "I don't think we ever had it at this location, actually. We just opened." And cranky old dude couldn't let it go: "I was gonna say! Out of the ice cream already, how could that be the case? Now you'll give me a raincheck now, but you don't have the ice cream. Do I come back? Will it be on sale?" I have a feeling she said something about giving it to him at the sale price for a later time, but the conversation was starting to give me a little anxiety, and plus, what if he recognized me, that's a whole other deal because he's deaf too, so there'd be more shouting. Next aisle for me, please.








Here's the chick stamping sticker prices on stuff with her new sticker price gun in Aisle 4, Side B: In front of the refrigerated cases where the ice cream wasn't. Look how nice and shiny everything is! And neat! And shiny. And empty of people! Yay! People are terrible!












Here's up front near the registers. Peanut butter flavored Whoppers, you say? Well, okay! Look at all that beautiful I Heart NY stuff made in China. Nice selection.











Good shot of this broad entering the new store in wonder and amazement, don't you think? She has literally stopped in her tracks, stunned by the selection of products. I mean, inside her head, she's flipping the fuck out, you know? It's that new drugstore smell, filling up her senses. Wow, electronics section right up front? Excellent! Beautiful. That's where Gristede's used to keep its rotten meat case. True story.

















What is that, an overhang to prevent you and your Walgreens packages from getting soaked in inclement weather while you fumble for an umbrella or try to hail a taxi? I think it is! What a stunning idea! What a beautiful overhang. I stood under it for a second and have to say, it was top-notch. A perfect end to a perfect shopping experience. I'm going to transfer prescriptions there, and find all kinds of reasons to go there for this, that, and whatevs. I wonder if they're open 24 hours?