Boots
UNIT K1, PRIORY MEADOW, SHOPPING CENTRE, HASTINGS, TN34 1PHContact details and opening times
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Review titled Slow, badly organised 'over the counter' medications service
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 25 August 2023
Waited 20 minutes for ‘Over the counter’ medications for someone I support with medications. It is obvious that this Hastings branch of Boots is struggling. The medications counter is no longer staffed. Customers wanting to buy medications must join the (very understaffed) Prescriptions counter. Reductions to your services may be understandable – but ineffective management of the situation is making it worse for customers (I note especially those who are elderly, frail, less mobile or partially sighted) than it has to be. There is inadequate/no signage at the store entrance advising that the pharmacy is not available until 09.30 (long walk to back to the big store to find this out). There is inadequate signage at the unstaffed medications counter – the sign is an A4 typed sheet propped up on the (long) counter – in about 14/16pt size font telling them to join the queue for the pharmacist service. A visitor can wait fruitlessly at this closed counter, until some kind passer-by customer tells them otherwise, or they do notice the sign (lost amongst all the other leaflets etc). The queue/waiting area for the pharmacist counter is also poorly signposted. I think it is obvious to queue alongside the provided queue ‘fence’, but many other visitors seem to find this less obvious, and queue off back into the store, blocking off the shopping aisles/photo shop. You (managers) must have noticed it....it happens all the time. I have seen (when buying photos) an elderly lady queuing in the right place, but people joined later, queuing the other direction, and she was effectively pushed out of her place. Lastly, on my visit today, a big queue had gathered by 09.30 – but we were all treated to 5 minutes of a staff member leisurely rolling up the blinds on the ‘(closed) medications counter before coming to serve the queue. I was third in the queue, and I waited a further 15 minutes. So, 20 minutes in all, just to buy medication. And, before you think me unreasonable, remember – some of us spend a lot of our time trying to support other people with medications, around our own normal working days – so please don’t make it more difficult than it has to be.
Visited August 2023
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