I have been moderately satisfied with the pharmacy at the Sonora CA Safeway and received flu shots and one of my COVID boosters in the recent past without issue. My experience this week was very different. The staff is very short with people and I am covering only the most egregious of my experience here.
I got into the line on Wednesday afternoon and noted there was a crowd waiting for their shots. I took the paperwork home intending to get the shots the next day. I wanted to combine the flu and the newest COVID booster. When I came back at 1:30pm on Thursday I stood in line again, gave them the consent forms I completed at home and they sent me to the waiting room. That waiting room was completely filled with people. The person administering the shots took very long with each person and I heard the chatter and such through the door. It seemed to take over 5 minutes with each person. At one point he closed the door after releasing his latest client and without comment, stayed behind the closed door for another 10 minutes or so. I don't know if he was taking a break or catching up on paperwork because he didn't communicate. It became clear to me that I would not be able to make my 3pm appointment and I left. On my way out I saw the same person sticking his hand up the self service coin counter, obviously looking for leftover change. I thought that was odd and hoped that he would not be the person to deliver my shots.
I went online and made an appointment for 1pm the following day, Friday. I arrived at 12:40 and there wasn't a line. I stood there for about 10 minutes in sight of at least 2 staff members before someone came over and asked if I were picking up. I said no, I had an appointment for vaccination. She said she would not deal with that until 1pm and suggested I do some shopping. Due to my previous experience I was not about to leave and stood there as many others arrived with their vaccination forms in hand. Finally she came back and struggled to find me in the system. After that I headed back to the waiting room, confident I would be seen in a matter of minutes. After 8 more minutes the room was filling up and the same man I saw yesterday arrived. He called someone else first and after 5 minutes of chatting opened the door and called my name.
He had his back to me when I stepped in and asked if I was getting the over-65 flu shot and I said yes, and the newest COVID booster. He asked which arm and I said one on each side, to minimize the impact on one arm. He still had on the same gloves he wore with the person before me. I wasn't sure of the requirements so I kept my mouth shut all the while thinking about his hands in the coin machine. As he chatted at me, complaining that he works too hard and that Safeway overbooked him and expected him to do a shot every 4 minutes during his 8 hour shift, he wiped my arm and gave me a shot (I thought.) I asked him which of the vaccines he just used because I'm curious. He said he just gave me both in the same arm because most people like it that way. I couldn't get out of there fast enough!
When I got home I looked up the requirements for gloves during vaccination and saw this: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/admin/mass-clinic-activities/during-clinic-activities.html
I don't think I'll be going back to Safeway for anymore vaccinations. read more
