The new Meredith Rite Aid
 

The new Meredith Rite Aid opened on December 5th. I've walked in three times including on opening day to find long lines and terrible customer service. It is a shame because otherwise I find it to be a very nice store. Yesterday there was one cashier and a line of at least 15 people waiting. I guess I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar observation. Additionally, it is my hope that the manager reads this and reacts to it.

Customer service is awful in the Wolfeboro Rite Aid too. I only go there when I absolutely have to and I know I am not the only one.

Sorry to drag this away from the poster's location, but I feel that the Wolfeboro store has improved a lot since 5 or 6 years ago.

Many years ago, when we were active white water kayakers, we were regular visitors to Henniker to paddle the class III/IV section of the Contoocook (AKA Tookie). There was, and still is, a fine old fashion pharmacy in the center of Henniker, The Henniker Pharmacy. http://www.hennikerpharmacy.net/
Squeaky wood floors and all.

Rite Aid applied for a site review to build a pharmacy about 1/2 mile away, a death threat to the Henniker Pharmacy. In no time there were signs all over town: "Rite Aid - Wrong Town".
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/199...nniker-destiny
There was a long protracted battle and in the end Rite Aid folded. The Henniker Pharmacy still provides local folk with old fashion service.

Doesn't surprise me. Customer service at the old Rite Aid was terrible too. I've never seen a pharmacy that takes so long to fill simple subscriptions.

And it is a shame. We really could have used a nice full service pharmacy in town.

I've had the old Rite Aid senior pharmacist argue with my Dr over the prescription. I ended up taking it to Walmart :rolleye2:

......rite-aid? ......wrong-price!
 

Everything in a Rite Aid that's not a prescription medication is called "front end' merchandise.....you know all the thousands of different items out on the open shelves....from poison ivy ointment to paper towels to batteries.....and all the Rite Aid front end merchandise is unbelievably over-priced compared to what you pay at Wal-Mart ...... but you probably already knew that.....like it is just a no-brainer, automatic given that Rite Aid has krazy high prices for their front end stuff.....plus their very annoying two-fer pricing system .....rite-aid? ....... wrong-price!

.....u-know....waht about the Family Dollar in Meredith.....that Family Dollar will probably beat the pants off Rite-Aid for many different items......like a long neck automobile funnel for just a buck at the Family Dollar used to pour power steering fluid into a power steering pump.....just one dollar at Family Dollar.....and I have no clue about Rite-Aid but knowing Rite-Aid....they would probably want 2.99.....and then ask you if you have that idiotic Rite-Aid card to boot!

How unfortunate. I am going to take the "glass-half-full" approach and hope that things get better; growing pains.

Hannaford's in Meredith has a generic pharmaceutical price list similar to Wallmart's. Go check it out.

....oh yeah....Hannaford's is a very classy store with some very reasonable prices....you know I used to like going into the small Rite Aid in the little temporary store next to Meredith Ford's former location....that little store all crammed with stuff was like a store on Beacon Hill, and the cashier lady was flirty.....so.....missing that little Rite Aid....betcha the cashier ladies at the new huge Rite Aid are probably not flirty cause of the set-up there....

Meredith Rite-Aid
 

I went in the first evening they were open, Dec 5th, after work. Parking lot was half full, lots of people walking the aisles. One cashier open and three customers deep when I went to check out. By the time the line got 6 deep, the cashier on duty paged one more up front and I got out of there after a few minutes.
PS - I picked up two sale items, higher price rang up, I asked about it, had to present my Rewards card to get the sale price. Sent a very "nice" letter to Rite-Aid corporate the next day advising how I feel about this policy.

I must be going at very strange times because I've had the complete opposite experience. It's been like a ghost town the 3-4 times I've been in there!

Rite store for Meredith?
 

Went in there the other day for the first time. That place is very nice and modern, but huuuuge! When you walk through the door, the pharmacy department looks like it's at the other end of a football field!

If I remember correctly, they lost their lease at their old location to Hannaford's, who of course put in their own pharmacy. Maybe Rite Aid built that enormous new store in kind of a "we'll show them!" reaction. Stranger things have happened in the world of corporate competition.

If that's the case, my son says maybe the new store should be called "Spite Aid."

When back to Rite Aid this morning and found one cashier and a line of six people waiting as soon as I walked in the door. Four visits now and I haven't seen anyone that represents store management. I did notice an office up front with a mirrored glass on the door. There is clear view from the office to the registers but there are shelves that block the view of the lines......
One last point of interest...the pharmaceutical pricing at Hannaford is far cheaper than that of Rite Aid's. I said it before and I'll say it again... It is a shame because otherwise I find it to be a very nice store.

As the temperatures go down, the piling on becomes more prevalent. Not disputing anyone's experiences but just saying.:rolleye2:

For the most part I try to not shop in stores that require the stupid little card for a sale price. I love going into stores and have the (17 yr old) clerk tell me if I sign up for their card I'd save .45 I just tell them "nope ring me up" they give me very strange looks. :D Well worth the satisfaction of losing .45 ;)

I hate shopping in the stores with the cards too. I wish none of them had them. I avoid them when I can which is most of the time.

most national chains now require them but " key ring" is a good app that you can put all on your phone so you don't need to carry any cards .

Mother of all Ice Dams
 

Have you seen the Ice dams on that brand new building.

I was there last night and it was 5* outside the roof was dripping right over the entrance causing an icy sidewalk, With 100# icicles hanging over head OUCH!

Unbelievable you could spend that much on a building and site work and not have a clue how to prevent Ice Dams.

Most architects never have a clue...it all looks good on paper. But the G.C. should have asked for a design change. They will after someone gets hurt unfortunately. I would bet the framer and roofer knew it was going to happen and spoke up but it fell on deaf ears.

Same thing at the Home Depot in Tilton. They always have Ice hanging over the entrance and signs saying to "use caution, falling ice". Oh and the new outlets in Merrimack, Absolutely incredible amount of ice hanging off there. You need to walk around looking up most of the time. Seriously! People get paid to design bad store entrances I think. Hmmm, Maybe I should change my career and design things like Architects do.....I'd make more money......:laugh:

Glad I did the old roof rake thing on my house last night though.....:eek:

Architectural SNAFU's
 

The new Staples store in Rochester had a metal roof over the door and part of the smooth cement walkway / entrance into the store. The roof had two issues: a metal rod that goes across the roof channels to prevent snow from sliding off; and the roof channels were narrower by at least 2-3 inches than the roof rake they provided to clear snow off.

Couple that with the fact the management does not seem to consider cleaning the snow off the roof to be a priority, and you have snow continually melting onto the walkway, dripping on customers entering and exiting the store, and in colder weather, freezing on contact making it slippery as heck to walk down the slight angle ramp into the parking lot.

Not having been to the Merideth Rite Aid, I would suspect a similar problem, almost a right hand not knowing what the left is doing situation.

Away from Staples, back to Rite Aid.:D

Metal roofs have one characteristic not typical of asphalt shingled roofs: snow often slides easily over the smooth surface, and proper design must either locate building entrances so as not to be in the path of sliding snow or provide bars to prevent snow slide. However, for all roofs, rapid melting of snow cover and formation of ice dams and big icicle formations nearly always is due to interior heat getting to the underside of the roof deck. That results from improper air sealing at the attic floor, or, in the case of a cathedral ceiling, improper sealing at the lower boundary of the ceiling cavity where it sits on the walls. The other cause of ice formation is lack of sufficient insulation, notably where the roof plane meets the walls.

In the case of the Rite-Aid store in Meredith (yes, a shameful result for a brand new building), the problem could have been the architect's fault for failing to design and isolate the roof from interior heat leakage, or it could have been the GC's fault for shoddy implementation of what could well have been proper design. There is simply no excuse for a building showing what this one does, when roofs all around it in the area still retain their snow cover. Diagonally across the street is the bank building, and soon after a new snow storm it seems there always is an impressive display of icicles hanging from the roof edge all across the front facing the street. Now, that is an older building, but still one crying out desperately for a thorough energy audit and meaningful remediation. In the bank's case, a fairly straightforward solution would be removal of the roof surface, applying about four inches of polyiso insulation board, covering that with a nailing deck and WRB, and finally new roofing.

There is a wealth of information on how to do roofs properly and to fix ones with ice problems. Two good sites for searching are
www.buildingscience.com and www.greenbuildingadvisor.com. In particular, this blog on the latter covers the science fairly well: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...and-insulation

Completely agree with the above post. We are dealing with Ice Dam issues here at work today. However with the rapid rise in temps they have sorted themselves out and no more drips inside as of now. 280 year old Wolfeboro building. Balloon construction...Ice on the roof turns into water on the first floor ceiling...Yikes.

To get back to Rite Aid the store, not its roof....
 

I finally got in there last week to check the place out. Huge... large selection of products......fair amount of grocery items if you need something quick. When I got to the cashier, I handed her my things and then she asked for my birthday. I asked, "why, do you do a promo on customers' birthdays and send them some coupons"? She replied, "No....you're buying beer!"

Did I feel like a doofus!.... :laugh: :cheers:

MM

some of us would smile:laugh:

funny
 

Thanks for the laugh

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::cheers:

Showing My Age...
 

Things were a lot simpler (Translation: Better) when the only "chain" store in Meredith was McDonalds.

Give me Bill Anderson's Bakery over Dunkin Donuts.
Give me Jackson Star over Hannaford.
Give me Studio Cafe over McDonalds.
Give me Just for Kids over Toys 'R Us.
Give me Allen's Barber Shop over Supercuts...

I use to love Ben Franklin when I needed certain things.

yes life moves on . Meredith has three new hotel in town with new restaurants certainly to many it may have been simpler pre 1980 or so , but many small stores have trouble making it thru the winters. I for one accept the changing times--:) oops back to my iphone

I agree
 

Meredith is a perfect example of managed growth and enhancement. The key developers there have done an excellent job of maintaining a "lake village" feel with coordinating styles. The view of the "village" from any of the entry point roads and from the water is pretty nice. Some of the older stores were "quaint", but when you need something, now you don't have to drive all over the region to get it. Managed progress can be a good thing, and I'm betting there are a lot more year-round jobs in that area than there were 20 years ago.

Not good planning
 

Meredith's inadequate parking, bottleneck traffic flow and user unfriendly pedestrian system highlights a lack of thoughtful planning. It's tricky fitting 5 quarts into a 1 gallon container.

Agreed, I avoid driving in Meredith, if I can help it. The 3 & 25 lights where everyone is trying to beat out the next guy or the 104/3 with the same problem. There is no enforcement, not even an attempt.

The Pleasant St mess, where they just shoot out and cross lanes to pull into the bank.

Sorry to spout off, but its "just too late" planning, IMHO.

Hmmmm?

While I'm sure that improvements could be made, isn't a lot of the problem that the route 25 corridor is the only way to get around in the area? That funnels most of the traffic through the downtown area of Meredith. Most towns that grow often build alternative beltways around the downtown areas. Well, we have a little, wet obstacle to doing that. There are mountains, swamps, and another lake on the other side.

Most of the larger buildings constructed lately DO have adequate parking. Getting in and out on a very busy Route 25 is not something that can be easily fixed. The lack of parking is mostly around the smaller collection of stores that have been around for quite a while. Not much space available for an additional parking lot. The numerous small shops are part of the charm of the town. Would you prefer a strip mall?

And of course, lots of cars and pedestrians are a difficult mix. I know; we could build a gondola ride over the street! Or a subway under it! :laugh::laugh::laugh:

I'm not sure I would like to be in the town planners shoes. It's easy to see the problems. The solutions in the area, I believe, are pretty limited.

IMO one of the big traffic issues in downtown Meredith are caused by the multiple cross walks, and the constant stream of pedestrians. One way they could fix that would be a pedestrian overpass from the lake side parking lot/docks across Rt 3. I am sure something relatively attractive could be designed, and I doubt would be very expensive.

You so right about that .....good suggestion.As someone who drives that route 7 days a week in the season,I've seen traffic stacked up beyond the traffic circle on the Weirs side and back to the high school on the east side as streams of pedestrians stroll accross the many crosswalks.....sometimes there are large groups that are strung out for 30 or 40 feet that just amble along in single file as they chat.:confused:
Don't get me wrong......love the summer visitors.....just wish they would listen to you and install a walkway.

So many first world problems.:)

I cant help but agree with the comments regarding the store cards. They have us 'hostage' to our little card. To me it's the store telling me they are going to legally screw me by price gouging me if I don't carry their card. I have my local favorite stores I repeatedly shop at so the card doesn't steer my decision where I will shop. Here in CT our local grocery store has the standard card and one you can upgrade for $20. Both cards 'earn' gold or silver Monopoly type coins which offer extra discounts. It's pathetic how much we over pay because of these games the stores play. If you forget to stuff your pockets with their play coins you are taken advantage of. So much for customer appreciation!

Seems like this could work, however, it would require a good number of stairs or a fairly long ramp that could be a challenge for all of our mobility challenged friends. I'm not just talking about folks with wheelchairs, but there are many among us who have difficulty with stairs because of arthritic knees or other impairments that restrict mobility.
I don't travel through Meredith every day, only some days during the summer months. Personally, waiting for pedestrians presents no issue to me as I generally never have anywhere that I NEED to be when I'm on lake time.

And from what I've been told, herein lies the problem. Any structure would need to be ADA compliant. It's not as simple or "inexpensive" as building a pedestrian overpass that can be used by the able-bodied only.

Probably wouldn't work
 

Unfortunately, most people won't walk 100' down the road to a crossover bridge so you'd need 2 or 3 of them. Even then, people will cross wherever they are, and you'll still need a pedestrian walk at the light across all four directions.

Meredith Rite Aid
 

As a long time Vendor to Rite Aid as well as CVS and Walgreens, I can say that Rite Aid requires larger profits on all prescription as well as OTC products and general merchandise.
With or without insurance the prices are traditionally higher on scripts.
Always compare with Hannaford Pharmacy before filling a script. They match Wal Mart if you ask. Their Pharmacists are wonderfully accommodating.