PB
Paul Barber
Jul 17, 2026
Usually a pretty quick in and out. Why with ~9000-100,000 (depending on the criteria) Americans dying every year from mistakes made by pharmacists, have they not brought back the vending machines (which used a better contraindication system than HEB uses).
From the mechanical perspective: many pharmacists essentially put pills in bottles, look at the “contraindications” results, tag the lead Pharmacist to confirm certain medications, and check out the customer, all the while being harassed by grumpy people and getting stressed out.
Now stress leads to lower life expectancy and mental fog, which I suspect is responsible for having placed 3 calls with this HEB pharmacy over 2 days where I was told they would simply confirm that I had been seen by my doctor lately (new HEB policy). Yet, despite the assurances, calling extra early the following day, etc., not a single call was made: “We get a lot of customers, so you’ll want to call again Monday.”
Alas, someone should provide this HEB pharmacy with a pen/notebook (I can do it if asked), or a simple spreadsheets app (also will make) rather than imposing a new policy out of the blue with zero/very little infrastructure to handle the changes.
Besides this one unfortunate incident, the pharmacy/staff is not bad, depending on the time of day (after lunch is usually better). You’ll get everything from “The policy is the policy is the policy.” to “poli-I-can’t-see, now get out of here before someone says, ‘Usually Probably Not’ and you get trapped in the hedges”.
1/5 Stars for the recent incompetence.
3/5 Stars for several others
4.5/5 stars for my usual experience + some of the pharmacy assistants (I rarely (if ever) talk to the head pharmacist—who I usually find to be full of themselves when I do (not necessarily at this HEB pharmacy), but just in general.
Not as full of themselves as MD’s though. Now talk about some fragile egos (my current doctors not included).