Walgreens on State Street has served students for over six decades, but a negative attitude towards the store has evolved over the years.
A Facebook group titled ""Walgreens on State Street Sucks"" has nearly 200 members, most of whom have multiple complaints about the store.
""Cramped, long lines, out of stock of a lot of things,"" said Trevor Leverson, a UW-Madison senior and member of the Facebook group. ""It wasn't really conducive to consumers.""
The animosity is mostly limited to the Walgreens on State Street, however. The next closest Walgreens within walking distance of campus is on Main Street near the Capitol. For many UW-Madison students, the difference between stores is extreme.
""The one on the Capitol is a lot bigger, has a pharmacy and is a lot more convenient for everything,"" Leverson said.
According to former employee Brian Stamm, the State Street store sees thousands of customers every day, far outpacing other Walgreens locations. In a posting on the Facebook group's page, Stamm said stocking and staffing problems also are common.
Walgreens District Manager Cameron Burch said the State Street store would like to become larger. However, space is limited: to the left of the store is Lake Street and to the right rests another long-standing downtown business.
""We would love to expand, but there obviously isn't any more space there,"" Birch said, pointing in particular to Paul's Book Store, 670 State St. ""The lady next door wants to continue to run her bookstore, and as long as she wants to run her bookstore, there wouldn't be any way to expand.""
High prices and early closing hours are also common complaints of disgruntled Walgreens shoppers. For example, the store closes at 10 p.m. most nights and charges more than $4 for most boxes of cereal or Oreos.
In turn, many student shoppers would like to see larger chain stores in Madison that are able to offer Walgreens some competition.
""I would really like to see another store like a Wal-Mart or a Target somewhere in the campus area that you could actually walk to,"" said UW-Madison sophomore Ryan Greenfield.
Birch defended the prices and selection of the State Street location. He said simple size constraints prevent the store from adding a pharmacy or photo department and from widening aisles and streamlining checkouts.
""All the departments, anything that it has, it's probably 25 percent of the regular sized store,"" Birch said. ""There are a lot of departments that it doesn't even have because of its size, that it can't have because of its size.""
