Would a 'Well Experience' Walgreens in Del Ray Change Your Mind?
New Walgreens in DC offers a different take on the drug store.
Walgreens opened a new “Well Experience” store Thursday at the corner of 7th and H streets NW in the District, according to DCist.
The store boasts many amenities that make it stand out from a regular Walgreens store, according to the report, including:
- "A nail bar offering professional manicures"
- "Expert eyebrow shaping and grooming services"
- "Self-serve frozen yogurt dispensers and toppings for unlimited options"
- "A juice and smoothie bar"
- "An Upmarket Café offering a barista preparing fresh brewed premium coffee and espressos"
- "Walgreens’ new, virtually-enhanced pharmacy"
Would your opinion about Walgreens’ plans to open a store in the 1500 block of Mount Vernon Avenue change if the company planned a “Well Experience” store for the location?
That question posed on the Del Ray Patch Facebook page sparked more than 30 comments. Here’s a sampling of the answers:
Glenn Eugster: “Mount Vernon Ave. is a shopping experience now with a steady swell of new and improved businesses within the scale of the area. I'm not sure a corporate store, with low paying jobs, which takes money out of the city, is a good way to regenerate 'main street.' The duplication of existing services plus the reduction of others would make me feel as if we are turning Mt. Vernon Ave. into a suburban variation of Duke Street.”
Lauren Wilson: “I think all those services are great, but most of them are already provided on the avenue. I would like to see more competition/variety of those services offered by this new fangled Walgreens brought to us by local, independent businesses instead.”
Leslie Duss: “If they weren't pushing out the excellent Potomac West and Not Too Shabby stores, the laundromat and the electronics store, and a convenience store, then maybe. But we also already have CVS and Neighborhood Pharmacy. So, it's not something we need AT ALL.”
Luis E Aparicio: I like Walgreens, and although I get my prescriptions at the Neighborhood Pharmacy, the hours are very limited and because of insurance coverage I often find myself having to drive to Shoppers Food Warehouse for many prescriptions. As far as "jobs" most of the businesses along The Avenue are eateries, restaurants and coffee shops, hardly top paying jobs. We [used] to have a 'card' store but it didn't last long. Given the choice of CVS and Walgreens, I'll take the [latter] any day.”
Melissa Bagster-Collins: “After reading about the Experience Walgreens I am even more opposed to a store like that coming to Mt. Vernon Ave. The local businesses do not need this type of competition.”
Matt Humphrey: “I would love to see the reactions if a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's was coming. ‘Noooo! We can already buy expensive crackers and pasta at Cheestique and Market to Market! And Giant is just a block down the street!’”
[If only there was a sarcasm font for Matt]
Sidney Siewert: “I think that competition would be good for some of the businesses on Mt Vernon Ave. For God's sake, they already charge more. You would think they would want to continue improving their businesses so we, the consumer, would want to return. I'll shop at a small business whenever I can, but I'm not going to inconvenience myself if I can get a substantially better deal/experience at a chain.”
Katie Collins Briscoe: “I think it's about having a sense of place. Yes there are chains already and we shop at them, but the more chains that come in, the more we look like every other community in the country.”
For what it’s worth, DCist says the new, fancy Walgreens on H Street is still, well, a Walgreens.
Would your opinion about Walgreens in Del Ray change if the company planned a “Well Experience” store? Tell us in the comments.
For more on Walgreens' plans to open in Del Ray, see:
Lili Romero-DeSimone
7:06 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
It would be another thing altogether for me if you said they were upgrading or substituting the existing CVS, but, and my comments are purely self serving, to take away a charming home goods/antique store with tremendous character and replace it with a Walgreens, souped up or not, is incompatible with the charm of Delray.
Smith
11:59 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
I hate to break it to you -- but the more "charming" Del Ray becomes, the higher the rents will go, and the more national chains will move in. You can't stop it. Remember, when the "charming" stores opened, they displaced other existing businesses that some residents (or former residents) probably preferred or maybe even found charming themselves. I love how the current occupants (who only recently moved here) think that they've got it just right and nothing is allowed to change.
JD
7:35 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
No Walmart...ah I mean Walgreens. Let them open in Potomac Yards or some other blighted area. Give small business a chance DelRay. It IS what makes you unique.
GeorgiaP
5:36 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
The mere fact that you consider Potomac Yards a "blighted area" shows your ignorance.
JohnInNova
7:58 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
I'm all for a Walgreens on Mt. Vernon Avenue........ I simply don't see the confict.
Liz
8:12 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
would the walgreens have more staff during business hours? everytime i go to the CVS, there's always like 1 person at the register with a long line. it's ridiculous
Scooby's Doo
9:19 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
Liz, that's why I don't support the "Preserve the CVS Monopoly in Del Ray" contingent.
Liz
9:42 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
i just don't see what the big deal is. we live near the city and like it or not, i think eventually, it will catch up to the "small town feel" of del-ray. another thing....the antique shops...whenever i go to them, they're not all that busy. the laundromat is more busier than the antique shop. so i do not understand the comments about "wahhhhh, we need to save the antique stores!" come on, really now? baffles my mind.
Jasper
10:01 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
"more busier?"
Liz
10:08 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
more busy? more active? whatever the term is, that's what i mean.
Caleb Cody-Beckham
10:24 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
I suspect that half of the people pretending to lament the loss of the coin-op laundry would have a Walgreens-level bout of hysteria if someone tried to open a new laundry in the middle of the new age health corridor a few blocks away. Ditto for the convenience store with 20% of it's shelf space devoted to porn (granted, I've haven't been inside Ad's in years so I don't know if that is still the case).
Autoexec.bat
11:28 am on Saturday, March 23, 2013
^Exactly this. Ditto for a 7-11, ditto for a plumbing store (or three), ditto for a car dealership. How about if someone devotes some of their outrage to the Tarot Card place? I gave that place 9 months when it opened and yet there it still is. Who goes there?
Tom
10:47 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
Could the Walgreens have pawn, liquor and check cashing bar?
Kristen Gedeon
10:49 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
Imagine if Walgreens would bring back the old style soda fountain--which is not an element in any of the new Walgreens/Duane-Read store innovations. The firm has been a big innovator in this market sector and these innovations could be a point of differentiation from the CVS. Would a chain store that brings innovation to a neighborhood be welcome? Just a thought....
Scooby's Doo
11:03 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
Kristen, that would bring even more howls because it would compete with existing local businesses. I suppose if it was truly advantageous from a business perspective, a co-located laundry and coffee bar could work. Other cities have laundramats with coffee bars and "real" bars in them. If WG decided to go with a different kind of format with different amenities and functions in the store, then I think one way for the building to better function in an urban context would be to have multiple points of access from the street. A coffee bar, on-site clinic, perhaps laundry, pharmacy section, one or more could have different points of access. Off topic, but the existing CVS will be gone in 5-8 years. Mark my words.
ruby
12:08 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
All the anti-Walgreen folks remind me those kids in college who's stand in the center of campus protesting the cause du jour . Ill-informed, hypocritical, entitled, privileged loudmouths basically.
RJ
1:00 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
You forgot: voters and taxpayers.
E. Howell
12:44 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
I just wonder if folks opposed to Walgreens understand what might happen if the property is sold and redeveloped by another organization. At least Walgreens plans to keep the current building's facade, right? Who knows what a different buyer might do?
Colleen Funkhouser
1:00 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
When I read the headline about a "Well Experience", I imagined services that would help me be well - information on healthy eating/active lifestyle, promoting health at a community level, improving the wellness of an individual based on physical, emotional, mental and social well being. I don't see how any of these Well Experience amenities promote wellness. I will not buy into this concept of Walgreen's as a place of wellness.
RJ
1:09 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
"Well Experience" was created by a marketing team...not by anyone associated with wellness.
ruby
1:04 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
There's going to be a City-wide vote on whether Walgreens will be able to locate here? And the vote will be restricted to taxpayers?
Thanks for the info RJ!
RJ
1:22 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
No there won't. But voters and taxpayers hire and finance the the planning commission, mayor, city council, and in generally all those in Alexandria City government, that help determine the look, feel, and cost of the city. So in another way, they are major stakeholders (maybe with little power in this case, maybe a lot in future cases). So by voicing your approval, or disapproval, may have little effect now, but it lets those who rely on taxpayer's dollars and votes know what decisions in the future they should make.
In short: squeaky wheel.
oldtowner
3:46 pm on Sunday, March 24, 2013
to RJ: Voters vote for Mayor and Council. Mayor/Council hire the City Manager, who hires the City staff. The Mayor/Council don't hire the Director of Planning & Zoning, nor any other top staff. Mayor/Council appoint the "planning commission" members; they are not hired by voters/taxpayers. Voters can voice their displeasure to the Mayor & Council, but they don't have as much power over hiring as you imply.
Bill Blackburn
3:40 pm on Saturday, March 23, 2013
Are they going to be open late hours or 24 hours?
Kim Moore
4:24 pm on Saturday, March 23, 2013
The CVS already is open 24 hours. In Chicago, the Walgreens have been undergoing major rehabs. They are pretty incredible. If that kind of Walgreen's is developed here, it will put CVS to shame. The Walgreen's in Old Town is a pit.
As I said earlier, reaching out to Walgreen's to develop communication between the company and the DRCA needs to happen ASAP. Worrying about what could/might happen does not help us.
ChicagoBoyWonder
6:21 pm on Saturday, March 23, 2013
Have had the opportunity to live in 2 smaller communities within cities that work without an influx of chain stores. Both communities were tied to the arts and hosted terrific festivals and work very well.
http://www.andersonville.org/
http://www.virginiahighland.com/
Susan Taylor
10:51 am on Monday, April 8, 2013
As an Old Towner, I can lament the look of CVS and Walgreens on King, but they make my life greener because i can walk there for what I need every week. And on the way to and from, i stop at Pops for an ice cream, Mishas for a latte, or Mint Condition for a deal. Though they have their charms and i am a fan, having a walkable city is not about cheesetiques and antique shops. Do you want Disneyland or a place to live and work? And, the service at CVS has improved 100-fold since Walgreens opened.