Walgreens, 201 Main St Gloucester. I shopped this store onFriday, April 3rd at 3:05 pm. I read in a Walgreens press release that their stores were all fully stocked and they were enforcing limits on how many items customers could purchase of hard to find/essential products such as cleaning supplies: disinfecting and sanitizing products such as bleach, alcohol, as well as disinfecting wipes, toilet paper etc. l also read that Walgreens was doing everything they could to promote social distancing and safety for the workers and customers.
THIS COULDN'T BE FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH!
Not only were shelves completely empty in some aisles, there were no signs indicating limits on anything. A woman in front of me had her wheeled cart filled with 8 containers of bleach wipes, at least 10 bottles of 60% alcohol (I noticed because I looked for some myself - too late that shelf was empty) a lot of boxes of tissues and multiple packs of toilet paper. This was one person!
As for social distancing: there are no marks on the floor, walls, signs, aisles to keep customers 6' apart. There's an attempt in the pharmacy area for those in line but customers were less than 3' apart. Nothing in the rest of the store including the front checkout area. The workers were next to the registers, with a very narrow counter. Six INCHES to one foot apart from the customer checking out.
Except for the pharmacist, (who was behind a high counter, which is behind a plexiglass wall/window) none of the staff wore any type of protective equipment and there was NO hand sanitizer out. When I inquired the cashier said they were sold out and she went to the employee bathroom to wash her hands.
There wasn't a way to pay without touching the credit card machine; I had to touch the number keys and the pen. Again no sanitizer available for cashier or myself. The cashier then coughed INTO HER HAND, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and continued handling my purchases and bagging them. I gave her my own personal sanitizer I have clipped to my keychain.
Three cashiers were ringing purchases up, bagging, handling money at 3 counters; two are right next to each other. None had protective masks or gloves, none had hand sanitizer. The manager, a young woman named Farrah I believe, stood by and observed. When I approached her to ask about safety measures, social distancing, hand sanitizer etc she said they were doing everything they've been told to do "by corporate" and "didn't have to do anything else" then turned her back to me as I was trying to speak - I then asked for a phone number, perhaps "corporate" as she said that's where her instructions cane from. She looked over her shoulder as she walked away, laughed and told me "find it yourself, good luck!"
I'm appalled by what is not being done at this particular Walgreens and I've had to warn everyone not to shop there until they've made significant changes. I am hopeful Walgreens looks closely at this location and this manager receives training on customer service and how to be a good manager. Or a manager at all. read more