(Image: Broadway Crossing)
Capitol Hill has had a tough couple months when it comes to massive retail corporations and the financial woes of the drugstore industry but there is a small bit of good news for people who get their prescriptions filled at Broadway and Pine.
City construction permit paperwork indicates Walgreens is mounting an effort to remodel its Broadway store with a roster of upgrades including a 600-square-foot pharmacy expansion.
The project comes after competitor Rite Aid shuttered two Broadway stores including the Bartell Drugs in Broadway’s Harvard Market shopping center to end 2023 amid bankruptcy woes brought on in part by settlements in massive federal and state opioid lawsuits.
For Walgreens, the planned upgrades for the Broadway store come as the company has just been bumped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average and as it seeks a new direction under newly named CEO Tim Wentworth focused on diversifying the chain’s healthcare services.
Walgreens also operates a store on 15th Ave E that went through some ragged months of low staffing and low stock during the pandemic but seems to have somewhat recovered. So far, there have been no construction permit filings for the 15th Ave E store.
The replacement for Walgreens in the Dow? That’s Seattle-based super retailer Amazon which has also been part of Capitol Hill’s small ripple of massive company closure decisions. The Rite Aid shutdowns were joined by the sudden shuttering of the E Pike Amazon Fresh earlier this month.
The 10,000-square-foot former grocery is now empty and waiting for a new tenant.
The drugstore closures have also left large holes in the neighborhood’s retail real estate market with the Harvard Market Bartell Drugs still empty and the 1911-built movie theater and former home of the Broadway at E Olive Way Rite Aid with no clear future to put the 5,000-square-foot space back in action.
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Thank goodness!
I live in the apts. above it. I’m disabled and have almost a dozen meds I take daily. It’s a madhouse. The staff are treated like dogs. They won’t even let the manager to the stock ordering. It’s all corporate. To call in Narco you go through a screening process. Only to be transferred to the pharmacy. Getting your meds by mail is the only way to alleviate the workload. The pharmacy is from the 70’s. There’s hardly any technology.
I just see how hard these people work and it’s a shame that they have the corporation running the entire thing like Nixon ran Vietnam. By remote control.
I have moved to a pharmacy in Burien due to the incredibly long lines at this Walgreens in addition to frequent drug shortages, that said, the pharmacy staff at this location is excellent.
They are under a constant barrage of angry customers in addition to the rampant homeless population. They handle impossible situations with professionalism and humor where possible.
If you are still using this pharmacy and agree that they work in an impossible situation that is no fault of their own, tell them you appreciate them, it means a lot.
That section between Walgreen’s and Chipotle is as bad as any part of the city. I’ve never seen so many bum fights as I’ve seen biking by there. People throwing bottles and stuff.
Calling the houseless “bums”…. I hate how classist this place has become. My god.
Anyone throwing a bottle in the street is definitely a bum.
Yes, I can make up people too
I’m sure calling them houseless improves their situation. You’re doing the Lord’s work.
The language we use to talk about others says a lot about ourselves and our intentions, and also has an incredible impact on people’s feeling of self worth… but please do put others down to make yourself feel better 🙄
Cool I’ll keep that in mind next time I see a bottle fight with the fentanyl addicts k and the stairs there.
I prefer dodging bottles in your for-sure-made-up-scenario than dealing with classist assholes
No, you’re right, you calling them tent dwelling “freaks” every post and whining about seeing tents is clearly a better path…. sure….
Thank you for speaking up.
They throw-up. Jesse speaks up. Capitol Hill’s all good.
Internet rhetoric is so hateful and classist lately in general, and speaking up usually gets nothing but more hate. Allowing hate to control the rhetoric feels like failure, but sometimes speaking against it feels like pissing in the wind… So I’ll just add another ‘thanks for speaking up’! :)
They need more cashiers, more pharmacists and more stock levels. I won’t go there til they fix that. Then there are the ripoff prices…even for the hill.
They should also get hazard pay for all the stuff they have to endure.
The one left standing is the one with the most egregious price gouging. Walgreens, CVS, etc. need a more reasonable full service competitor in proximity, possibly in the freshly vacated Fresh site.
I talked with workers at the Broadway Walgreens and they said that they don’t know anything about a remodel ??