Thoughts on Boots?

[ohthehorrorthehorror]

We're away for Christmas and I needed a new mascara. We're staying quite rurally so the little Boots in the nearest small town was my only option other than Amazon.
In recent years I haven't used Boots much as I've found it expensive, and things were often not in stock. Also didn't like what I heard about how they treat their pharmacy staff. I used to shop there loads, dating back to when I was a Saturday girl there, hammering my 25% staff discount at the makeup counters!
Shopping there today was a dismal experience. The (small) store felt tired, dated, dingy, and even a bit dirty. The stock on the shelves was sparse, and jumbled. The makeup stands were atrocious. Hardly any stock, half of what there was had been opened and tested, and then when I got to the tills, the prices on the shelves didn't match what was rung up. I ended up leaving empty handed and ordering from Amazon. Even delivering to rural Cumbria, I will get my mascara tomorrow and at half the cost that Boots was charging.
I've often wondered over the past few years just how they have survived, even the larger ones in cities feel a bit dated alongside Superdrug. What are other people's thoughts on Boots? Do you still shop there? Or do you think there are better places?

I think this too
They were always expensive but now so many places offer the same products cheaper. Including Amazon I don’t think I’ve been to a boots years

I agree with you.

The central London stores look grubby and rundown. The local stores have no stock and what they do have is old and bartered. I therefore order online and it takes sometimes weeks past the due date to arrive. If I order into store I don’t get a notification and it arrives in massive boxes that they won’t let me leave in store.

I prefer Superdrug

We have a big one and I like it. It would be a real shame if it closed.

Keswick?

The little Boots in my local town is awful. They don't have any makeup on the stands because of shoplifters, so you can't have a browse of the products. I head to Superdrug a few doors down instead.
We do have a larger Boots nearby which is much better, lots of fancy makeup counters and perfume counters that I wistfully walk past as I make my way to the "drugstore" brand part that is much more my budget!

Was my first thought before I saw you mentioned Cumbria. If it is it’s been that way for quite a while.

A lot of the little rural Boots shop took over old independent chemists/pharmacies that would otherwise have closed. They may not have been "done up" to Boots's spec yet, and their principal purpose is to provide a pharmacy to rural communities.

In our town the “big Boots” is clean, well stocked and the staff are great. I don’t use the pharmacy though as they take forever.

The “small Boots” a little further out is like a whole different place. Dirty, tired, poorly stocked and the staff are so rude. Ask overly intrusive questions about off the shelf medication and on two occasions refused to sell me off the shelf (not over the counter) medication because I wouldn’t give a cashier my medical history. I went across the road to Sainsburys instead.

I quite like the Tuesday £10 deals, use them to stock up on skincare. The website is not great though. The shops are very hit and miss regarding stock.

@Anotheanon Windermere!

The website is dreadful.

@ohthehorrorthehorror another one! It’s such a shame. They could have a huge customer base but it really does put people off.

They are atrocious now. I regularly buy antihistamines and decongestant tablets, both of which are behind the pharmacy counter, and despite there being several pharmacy tills, they have one open. Just one till, with one person serving, and my god they take their casual time. So you have to queue up behind all the people handing in and collecting prescriptions, and also people who are doing click and collect for stuff they've bought online. It takes absolutely forever.

I wouldn't go in there at all but for their own brand decongestants, which seem to be the only version of the medication my system tolerates.

My DSIS was working for them until recently. She was a pharmacy assistant so her main job was filling dosset boxes. However due to the number of staff leaving she was spending increasing time on the shop floor.

All the local branches have virtually empty shelves. Shelves that would hold say 20 cans of deodorant from the back of the shelf to the front have 2 or 3 on them.
I hope they keep going. I'm not sure if their opticians are a separate entity but I would miss my local one.

Our local one is quite good. It has a good range of makeup and they put sellotape around the makeup so people do not open them to test them. It always seems to have plenty of staff and the shelves seem well stocked. There is a massive GP Practice across the road so I think they gain a lot of trade from there.

Prices are similar to most other places in town if not slighly cheaper.

@MrsMoastyToasty I used to love the Boots opticians in my town, but again, they just became too expensive. In 2014 I bought two pairs of glasses, one pair of Givenchy frames, and a pair of Rayban sunglasses which were on offer if you spent over a certain amount. With varifocal lenses, they came to around £480. When I needed new frames and lenses a couple of years later, I was quoted over £600 for one pair! And even though I took my prescription and went elsewhere, they rang me up three times pestering me to buy from them!

Over-priced,with rude staff. That's why I don't shop there any more.

It’s Christmas, tbh even my local House of Fraser had run out of a lot of cosmetics on the make up counter in my city centre. So a smaller branch of Boots, I wouldn’t expect a huge selection.

Never go to boots anymore sadly

It's Windermere .. you'd be more likely to get a waterproof coat than a mascara. There just won't be the market for it.
Where do you buy your mascara when at home in the fast lane and how much is it?
Boots usually sell at the rrp I don't think it'll have been more because you're in the lakes.
I don't mind boots... better in the cities than our little ones in Cumbria but they all do click and collect.

I went to my local Boots today to pick up a click and collect order and they have now started closing between 1 and 2! not surprised really as there's never anyone in there. Annoying for me though as I'll have to go back tomorrow

I want to be fond of Boots, and live in fairly central London so have lots of choice. My favourite branch recently took out all the manned tills. I saw an elderly woman really struggling with the self service hardware, gave her a hand, and then raised this with the staff. Apparently the change was all done overnight, and the shop floor staff had no notice or say in it. Shocking.

Interesting you say this, our local boots has been dire lately & hardly anyone seems to shop there.

What did you hear about how they treated their pharmacy staff? Ours used to be good, but there's been a huge turnover and now they're nowhere near as helpful.

I used to shop regularly with Boots, online & instore.
The last three online deliveries.. the earliest, items weren't packed, they were just thrown in a box & shampoo had leaked over everything else.. the next one, the only lip balms I can use (allergic to a lot of stuff) had been replaced with a different one, nothing on the order note.. & the final one, I ordered a perfume gift set in the Christmas sale, which never arrived. Yes, I got refunded, but that's not the point, I don't want all that hassle.
This year, I'll buy something with my advantage points in the sale, then I'm done. I get most toiletries / medicines etc now with my weekly Tesco order. Job done.

@RedRosie That's AWFUL.. I won't shop anywhere self-service. :-(