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?

My thoughts on Boots
Overpriced and understaffed. Pharmacy takes forever and it has a dingy, depressing vibe. Also my local branch has gone all self service so there are hardly any staff.

My nearest branch is basically a community pharmacy, for which I am very grateful as its another 2 miles to the next nearest. Theu also sell some vitamins and stuff but the absotbare minimum of toiletries and lots of gaps on the shelves rhis week.

The staff in ours are helpful and nice, that's not an issue.But Itve had an absolute mare with online ordering - the wrong item sent, got through on the phone, advised to return to store where they would re-order, went back to the shop they said we can't do that unless we take more money off you, emailed instead, they re-odered, went back to collect it - same wrong item all over again. Emailed again asking for refund as it looks like the actual product no longer stocked Completely different suggestion this time , saying i should return the wrong thing and rhey would replace it.i don't believe them and have told them so!

And breathe!

I used to work for them but left as they were not a considerate employer to say the least. Our local store and the nearest town centre look dated, grubby and poorly stocked but I went to one on a retail park a bit further away recently and it was stunning. It had lots of different make up and skincare ranges, was clean, bright and well stocked - amazing difference. I commented on this to a member of staff who told me they are working around updating stores so, if this is the "new Boots" they might yet make a resurgence

Went there today for Xmas presents. Full of crap and overpriced. I think the only reason they are still going is because they have the monopoly at most airports!

Never any staff around in my local one, which is old, dingy and not up to date, so if you want to ask anything or can’t find something you have to queue at either the pharmacy counter till or the make up till, both takes forever! They never have any of the other tills open.
There is a really big one around 8 miles away on a retail park which is light, bright and well stocked but it’s on a massive retail park so it’s a hassle to go just for a couple of things.
The website is appalling since they updated. It. Very user unfriendly.

I worked at Boots many years ago. As an employer they were not very good at all apart from the staff discount.

For the customer they were great, we had plenty of staff, full shelves and we were all really well trained and knowledgeable in our individual areas.
Then they started cutting staff and it all went tits up.
The store I used to work at sold half the building to another retailer and it was never the same after that.

I use a small local one (corner shop sized) for prescriptions because they collect from the surgery and it’s on the way home from work. I haven’t been in a big one to buy anything for ages, I get toiletries etc in the supermarket and I don’t wear make up.

I’ve had loads of issues with the pharmacy at my local boots.

the store itself is always understaffed and the wait to either click and collect or use a checkout is long and I do tend to find things very expensive.

there is a decent one about 30 miles away and if I am going shopping that way I will pop in, it’s always clean, tidy and well stocked.

I had to admit the website is diabolical 🤦‍♀️

I don't know how their little local ones make any money. Their website is awful but was very useful in lockdown with a newborn. The big one in town is amazing with the counters etc but I prefer online shopping for anything apart from foundation now really.

Oh and they need to sort out their 3 for 2 Christmas presents - we aren't stupid and know it means they are overpriced.

I went to a large out of town one the other day. I chose a few stocking fillers for my daughter and then went to pay. There are only self service tills now, I asked where the regular tills are but apparently there are none. If I hadn't spent such a long time choosing her gifts, I'd have just left them. I won't be going back.

Recently went to Boots online and bought some perfume so racked up a few points. Also my DF had some costly glasses and he gave me his points as I was with him.

Went to spend them a week later on a gift item " oh no it can take 6 weeks to apply them to your card" WTAF in this day and age? Is there a tiny fairy chiselling out the points total in stone somewhere? It didn't take 6 weeks to take my payment for the perfume did it!

Not going back again after I've eventually spent them. They are dying on their arse.

Our local big Boots is coming to the back end of a full refurb and is looking nice again now and they've updated the make up brands they offer.

In contrast our Superdrug is fairly new and is perpetual chaos in layout, trying to squeeze too much stock in, gangs of pre-teens pawing at the make-up.

The big Boots in our town is definitely better than the Superdrug which is really poorly lit and laid out and grubby. The little Boots is definitely worse though. Why such disparity when it’s not like Boots is a franchise.

The store I visit the most is great. Plenty of stock. The staff are nice. I swear by No 7 skincare (I find it better than the Clinique I used for years) and they have great offers. We used to have a little one in my town but that WAS awful - it closed permanently during the pandemic.

I love Boots. The Meadowhall store has recently been refurbished. It is bright and clean and has plenty of stock. I could spend ££££ in there. The Superdrug in Meadowhall is claustrophobic with narrow aisles. I much prefer shopping in Boots.

I was thinking this yesterday. My (little) local Boots has one till and it's next to the pharmacy. The pharmacy staff only deal with prescriptions but I'd you want any OTC meds they shout the main cashier to get them. So she's sort of doing an ad-hoc pharmacy role as well.
Yesterday, the woman in front of me was checking if her click and collect order was in. It wasn't. They checked her collection number, date of birth, address etc. Couldn't find anything. I was next in the (growing) queue and I had been waiting around 5 minutes. Then the woman behind the till said "I'll go and have a look for it upstairs"
The woman in front of me said "no it's fine. It's not due in until tomorrow. I was just checking as I was passing"
But the cashier said "it's no problem"
She then said to the pharmacy staff "I'm just going upstairs. Can you watch my till?"
They just nodded and carried on doing what they were doing, so I assume she meant in a "make sure no one steals from it" kind of way (not that the pharmacy staff should take over serving, but why say it?

Anyway, she just left and went upstairs (the stairs were the other end of the store)
I just left, went to the super drug next door, got what I needed, also bought some make up, walked back past the Boots and the woman was still waiting at the counter.

Maybe she thought it was good customer service?
Not to the remaining 4 customers in the line, though.
They have limited their staff, and in that store closed two tills (plus the two self service ones) and just have one person serving from the otc medicine bit. As a result the shelves are always empty, and the queues are always long.

Our main large Boots in town is awful, confusing layout, not enough staff, and poorly stocked. The pharmacy is often closed, the optician department is very badly run.
I just don’t shop there anymore, it’s too difficult and depressing. Beauty items I buy from other online companies, and I
get my prescriptions from a small independent pharmacy near my house.

They are absolutely awful now. I ordered an advent calendar for my daughters birthday, half price. Waited TEN DAYS for it to despatch, emailed chasing at which point they cancelled the order saying could not fulfill due to stock levels. The calendar was still on the website but at full price! CFs. I again emailed to complain and never got a response.

i will never use them again.

I live in a small town. The Boots is dismal and dirty. No make up on display. The pharmacy part is always busy even though there is a much better independent pharmacy down the road. I do find it's the best place in town for first aid stuff, minor ailments etc so I shop for those there. They also have own brand medications etc that are cheaper, eg when DC had threadworms they have their own tablets which cost quite a bit less than the branded ones.

Superdrug are much better for make up and beauty etc. Our Superdrug is only small but has a good range of makeup and looks bright and cheerful inside.

All pharmacies have had cuts in funding of over 30 percent over the past 5 years. Many are on the brink of collapse and insolvency (including both large chains and small independents).That means they've not had the cash to invest in and update their businesses. Most get over 95 percent of their income from their NHS contract. The NHS introduced a funding scheme to allow pharmacists to be recruited into GPS surgeries and this has caused a shortage of staff. Vacancy rates in pharmacies doubled in one year and the cost of locum cover has gone up by 80 percent since 2021. They are all struggling to stay open as a result.

The recent antibiotics shortage is a case in point about how badly pharmacies are doing - they will be losing money on every prescription as the list price they get paid by the government doesn't match the inflated prices pharmacies are paying to wholesalers for the drugs.

I live in a small town in Norfolk and I am very glad we have our Boots still, though it now closes on Sundays. The shelves are well stocked, staff friendly. We have lots of discount shops and charity shops here. Boots is one of the few branded shops around. I would be very sad to see it go.

I agree with you about smaller, especially out of town, Boots being grim and often dirty with poor and unpredictable stock. The town-centre ones are usually much better. The new one on High St Ken is very nice now, with excellent selection of supplements and French-pharmacy-type skincare downstairs and a wide ranges of well-stocked basically self-service make-up upstairs.

But Superdrug!!

I used to love a Saturday morning in Superdrug as a teenager and even five years ago enjoyed going in for the good own brand products (those hair shampoo things, various cream). Now it feels like the toilets at a night-club, all enforced perfume sprays and special offers, crazy organisation, massive hard-selling of shite at the checkout, pharmacy itself often unstaffed.

@RampantIvy I haven't been to Meadowhall for a bit so I'll be interested to see the refurb. As someone else said, it's the vast contrast between stores that is baffling. I mean, I don't expect a store in a small town to look as glitzy as one in a big city, but I do expect tidiness and cleanliness.

I was in Boots this week and it was heaving, its fine to shop in what I bought was a tiny bit more than it would have been in Superdrug., oh and somebody I know loves her pharmacy counter job !