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This Is the Best Pharmacy in 2021, According to Patients

The nation's No. 1 pharmacy isn't CVS or Walgreens.

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Pharmacy worker
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Good Neighbor Pharmacy isn’t kidding about its motto, “locally owned, locally loved.”

The family of independent pharmacies ranked highest for customer satisfaction in J.D. Power’s 2021 U.S. Pharmacy Study. This marks the fifth year in a row that Good Neighbor Pharmacy has outscored all of its competitors in the study.

This year, it earned an overall customer satisfaction score of 912 out of 1,000 points, beating out Humana Pharmacy, a mail-order pharmacy that earned the second-highest score in the study, 906.

More than 12,000 pharmacy customers who had filled a prescription in the prior three months were polled for the study, which covered four types of pharmacies.

Following is a look at the top-ranked — and worst-ranked — pharmacies in each category.

Drugstore pharmacies

Among the brick-and-mortar drugstore chain pharmacies included in the study this year, the average overall customer satisfaction score is 856. The chains in this category that scored above the average are:

  1. Good Neighbor Pharmacy — 912
  2. Health Mart — 891
  3. Rite Aid — 866
  4. Walgreens — 860

CVS (847) had a below-average score.

Mail-order pharmacies

The average customer satisfaction score among mail-order services is 877. The operations that scored above the average are:

  1. Humana Pharmacy — 906
  2. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — 903
  3. Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy — 887
  4. Aetna Rx Home Delivery — 884
  5. Express Scripts — 878
Doctor examining a senior patient's ear

OptumRx (870), Walmart Pharmacy Mail Services (862) and CVS Caremark (861) earned below-average scores.

Supermarket pharmacies

The average customer satisfaction score among brick-and-mortar supermarket chain pharmacies is 863. The chains in this category that scored above the average are:

  1. H-E-B — 896
  2. Wegmans — 892
  3. Stop & Shop — 885
  4. Publix — 884
  5. Albertsons — 882
  6. Winn-Dixie — 868
  7. ShopRite — 867

Seven other chains in the supermarket category earned below-average scores. King Soopers (822) was the lowest-ranked of the bunch.

Mass merchandiser pharmacies

The average satisfaction score among the pharmacies of mass merchandisers, such as big-box stores and warehouse chains, is 866. The chains in this category that scored above the average:

  1. Sam’s Club — 891
  2. CVS inside Target — 879
  3. Costco — 877

Walmart (856) had a below-average score.

Note that you do not necessarily have to be a member of a wholesale club to use its pharmacy. As we explain one example of this in “How to Shop at Sam’s Club Without a Membership”:

“Anyone can buy prescription medications from Sam’s Club pharmacies, according to the retailer’s website. Prescription drugs are also exempt from the nonmember fee.”

To see how all pharmacies ranked this year, check out the charts in J.D. Power’s 2021 study — they start on Page 3.

Disclosure: The information you read here is always objective. However, we sometimes receive compensation when you click links within our stories.

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