Walgreens Vs CVS Pharmacy Vs Drugstore.com: Drug Stores Compared

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Walgreens Vs CVS Pharmacy Vs Drugstore.com: Drug Stores Compared

Sam Montana
Updated September 21, 2016
7 minute read
Table of contents
Walgreens
CVS Pharmacy
Drugstore.com
Drug Store Price Comparisons
Drug Stores Summary

Walgreens

Founded in 1901 by Charles R. Walgreen, Walgreens started out as a small neighborhood drugstore in Dixon, Illinois. Today, Walgreens has approximately 8,500 retail stores in addition to their online drug store. Walgreens has been a publicly traded company since 1927 and is still traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol WAG.

Walgreens Products

Walgreens carries all types of products like all drug stores carry plus many other items. They carry all major brands and their own Walgreens brand of products. Their product categories have detailed subcategories so you can find the products you are looking for quickly.

  • Pharmacy and Health is where you can get your prescriptions filled.
  • Photo
  • Contact Lenses
  • Beauty
  • Personal Care
  • Medicines and Treatments include all types of over-the-counter medicines.
  • Vitamins and Supplements
  • Home Health Care Solutions
  • Sexual Wellness
  • Grocery includes sports food, refrigerated food, snacks, beverages and more.
  • Baby, Kids and Toys
  • Household includes pet supplies, small appliances, bed and bath, office supplies and much more.

Walgreens also has categories for natural and organic products, diet and fitness, seasonal and health shops.

Walgreens Health Shops

Walgreens Health Shops sells supplements and products for health problems like allergies, blood pressure, diabetes, flu, heart health, pregnancy and weight loss. Each of their health shop categories has helpful articles about each health topic.

Walgreens Shipping Policy

Walgreens offers free standard shipping with orders of $25 or more. This free shipping offer is valid for orders that ship for 20 pounds and under. They have free 2-Day shipping for new prescriptions. Walgreens also offers expedited shipping for the following rates:

 

Expedited

Overnight

General Merchandise

$8.99 first 20 pounds

49 cents per pound over 20 pounds

NA

Contact Lenses

NA

$19.95

Prescriptions

$10.95

$19.95

Walgreens Refund Policy

You can return products to any Walgreens retail store or by mail within 30 days of purchase unless otherwise stated on the product page for a full refund that includes shipping. When you return a product, send the unused portion of the product that you were not satisfied with and also include the original receipt.

Walgreens Customer Feedback

Many local Walgreens drug stores have individual customer comments on the internet. Overall, Walgreens does not have very good customer comments and scores with their main problem being about poor customer service and retail store managers. 

CustomerServiceScoreboard.com shows the following customer scores for Walgreens:

  • 143 negative comments out of 181 - 79% negative.
  • 38 positive comments - 21% positive.
  • Issue Resolution - 2.9 out of 10.
  • Reach Ability - 4.1/10.
  • Cancellation - 4.4/10.
  • Friendliness - 4.1/10.
  • Product Knowledge - 4.2/10.
  • Overall rating of disappointing at 60.39 out of a possible 200.

Walgreens Rewards Program

Walgreens has a rewards program that is free to join with the following benefits:

  • Get 500 points for each prescription and immunization.
  • Earn points on featured items.

You can redeem your points for money:

  • 10,000 points for $10.
  • 18,000 points for $20.
  • 30,000 points for $35.
  • 40,000 points for $50.

You can also earn points for healthy behavior such as earning 20 points for every mile you walk or run with Walgreens Steps with Balance Rewards. 

Walgreens Coupons

CVS Pharmacy

More than just a drug store, CVS Pharmacy (CVS Caremark) is the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States. Their pharmacy products span the entire spectrum of pharmacy care. In addition to their website, they have retail stores in 45 states with 200,000 employees. Their headquarters are in Woonsocket, RI and they trade on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol of CVS.

CVS Pharmacy Products

CVS Pharmacy online drug store is divided into two main categories, pharmacy and shop categories. They carry all major brands of pharmaceutical supplies and over-the-counter medicine.

Their Pharmacy category includes:

CVS Pharmacy Shop category includes:

Both of their categories have subcategories allowing for quick finding of the exact products you are looking for. CVS Pharmacy also had sections for photo and optical.

CVS Pharmacy Vitamin Center

CVS Pharmacy vitamin center has a lot of information about health issues and vitamins. You can shop for vitamins by category or health goals and you can take a short health questionnaire for personalized vitamin and supplement recommendations. They have helpful information about the following health concerns:

CVS Pharmacy Health Information Center

CVS Pharmacy has articles and videos in their Health Information Center with a medical condition library and their information and the wellness center articles. This week's featured article is "Hope and Help for Fearful Flyers" and the featured video is "Choose the Right Fats and Carbohydrates".

CVS Pharmacy Shipping Policy

CVS Pharmacy offers free standard shipping for prescription orders and products that are eligible for free shipping. CVS Pharmacy only ships nonprescription orders that contain non-hazardous items outside of the 48 lower United States. In addition to standard shipping, CVS Pharmacy also ships via expedited shipping methods. They will ship only prescription orders to APO/FPO/DPO addresses. 

CVS Pharmacy Return Policy

You can return an unopened, damaged or defective nonprescription product to any CVS Pharmacy drug store within 30 days of receipt for a store credit. Before you mail a return, you must first call 1-888-607-4287. If you have questions about returning a product, you can also call this number.

CVS Pharmacy Customer Feedback

CVS Pharmacy has average and comparable customer comments and scores. Most complaints were about trying to get through to customer service.

CustomerServiceScoreboard.com gives CVS Pharmacy the following scores:

  • 86 negative comments out of a total of 121 customer comments - 71.07%.
  • 35 positive comments out of 121 comments for 28.93%.
  • Issue Resolution - 3.4 out of 10.
  • Reach Ability - 4.4/10.
  • Cancellation - 4.3/10.
  • Friendliness - 4.6/10.
  • Product Knowledge - 4.7/10.
  • Overall rating of acceptable at 71.73 out of a possible 200.

CVS Pharmacy Coupons

Drugstore.com

Drugstore.com is two drug stores on one website with Drugstore.com and Beauty.com. They do not have local retail drug stores like the other two companies, only their online drug store. They are a member of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy's Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS).

Drugstore.com Products

Drugstore.com sells everything a drug store is expected to sell and more. Drugstore.com sells all major brands and carries over 80,000 products. Many of their products are discounted by as much as 60% every day and some products also include a free gift with a purchase. Their products categories have subcategories that make it easy to get to the products you want. Their main categories are:

Drugstore.com also has categories for FSA (Flexible Spending Accounts), GNC and Green and Natural. Their GNC section currently has 50% off of GNC products. In addition to their subcategories, you can narrow your search by brands, top sellers, top rated and price range.

Drugstore.com Destination Health

Drugstore.com has a Destination Health section with articles, advice and videos. The categories in Destination Health are:

  • Baby and Mom
  • Diet and Fitness
  • Green and Natural
  • Hair Care
  • Over-the-Counter
  • Skin Care
  • Vitamins

Drugstore.com Dollars

Drugstore.com Dollars is free to join and you can earn 5% with each purchase towards future purchases within a calendar quarter (3 months) with eligible products. Drugstore.com Dollars is valid on both Drugstore.com and their sister website, Beauty.com.

Drugstore.com Shipping Policy

Drugstore.com offers free standard shipping with orders of $35 or more on eligible non-prescription products. The offer is good within the United States, U.S. territories and APO/FPO/DPO addresses. Drugstore.com can also ship by 2-Day or overnight shipping. They also ship internationally via MyUS.

Drugstore.com Return Policy

You can return a product within 30 days of receipt for a refund. Returns must be unopened and unused unless defective or damaged or is covered by their 100% color guarantee for makeup. Some products cannot be returned unless they are defective or damaged. For more, please see their return policy.

Drugstore.com Customer Feedback

Drugstore.com has very good to excellent customer comments and scores. The main complaint is slow shipping and poor order management. Bizrate.com has rated Drugstore.com the following:

  • Overall satisfaction of 9.4 out of 10.
  • Would shop here again - 9.3/10.
  • Likelihood to recommend - 9.4/10.
  • Satisfaction with checkout - 9.0/10.
  • Product selection - 8.7/10.
  • Prices relative to other online retailers - 8.4/10.
  • On-time delivery - 9.6/10.
  • Customer support - 9.3/10.
  • Returns Process - 10/10.

Drugstore.com Coupons

Drug Store Price Comparisons

It pays to compare prices at drug stores right before buying a product, since there will be changing sales and buy one and get one free offers. A few randomly picked price comparisons for popular brands are:

Nature Made C0Q10 - 100mg - 40 softgels:

  • Walgreens cost is $23.99.
  • CVS Pharmacy cost is $25.99.
  • Drugstore.com cost is $20.99.

CytoSport Muscle Milk 100 calorie protein shake - 4 pack:

  • Walgreens cost is $8.29.
  • CVS Pharmacy cost is $8.39.
  • Drugstore.com cost is $7.99.

Pantene Pro-V Classic Care Solutions 2 in 1 Shampoo & Conditioner:

  • Walgreens cost is $6.49.
  • CVS Pharmacy cost is $6.99.
  • Drugstore.com cost is $6.59.

Drug Stores Summary

While Drugstore.com has the most positive customer feedback and best ratings, keep in mind that the ratings for Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy also include their many retail drug stores while Drugstore.com only has to run their online drug store.

All three drug stores carry everything you would expect to find in a drug store and more. Walgreens carries the most food choices including refrigerated foods while CVS Pharmacy and Drugstore.com carry mainly nutritional and fitness type foods plus snack foods.

All three drug stores carry household goods, pet supplies and toys. CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens promote their prescription services the most and Drugstore.com uses Walgreens pharmacy service. 

Written by Sam Montana
I enjoy writing about health, nutrition and health related topics. I am certified in optimal nutrition from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center.