Restrooms down- again -at local pharmacy

MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — If you plan to shop at this Walgreens Pharmacy at Airport and McGregor, make sure you go before you go.

That's what an NBC 15 News viewer learned the hard way this week, when he had to race to a nearby business to take care of business.

NBC 15 News visited the store today, and sure enough, the bathrooms were cordoned off. Signs told shoppers they were out of order.

Plumbing problems, a staffer said.

It’s what we were told this time last year, when we saw plumbers working at the store, which had a very unpleasant smell near the pharmacy where the bathrooms are located, along with those same signs warning customers they'd have to "go" somewhere else.

When this happened last year, we reached out to the Mobile County Health Department, who told me they had received several complaints since 2021, a reoccurring problem thought to be "from an underlying piping issue compounded by customers flushing items down the toilet that shouldn't be flushed."

NBC 15 News spoke with them Wednesday and we were told they haven't received any complaints recently.

But there have been some kind of plumbing issues at the store as late as December..

According to the city of Mobile a code violation was investigated three days after Christmas but was closed one week later... the problem "resolved" according to the city.

Perhaps it was a different plumbing issue, because the restrooms Wednesday afternoon were definitely down.

This evening we reached out to Walgreens corporate headquarters, and left a message about the issue.

The recording promised me someone would return our call.

Right now, there are no port-a-potties in place, and that's good news.

The bad news is that this is a problem that has been documented now for three years at a business that is all about keeping us healthy.