Beloved Retirees Leave 57 Years of Walgreens Memories

After working for a combined 57 years together at the Walgreens store on West 35th Street, two employees beloved by the community took off their name tags for the last time in October 2024 and retired.

“You're not leaving me here alone. I’m going with you," Helen Gerlowski, 65, said she replied to Bea Karnoscak, 67, when Karnoscak announced last winter she was "getting too old for this. I'm going to retire."

Off they went into retirement on October 10, 2024, but not before being feted with a boisterous retirement party at the William McKinley American Legion Post 231 two days later.

Karnoscak had worked for 21 years at the Walgreens, and Gerlowski for almost 37 years. They recalled many tales of notable on-the-job encounters during that time.

"Put Your Clothes Back On"

After 37 years of employment, Helen Gerlowski works her last day before retiring from the McKinley Park neighborhood Walgreens store.“We used to sell sundresses,” Karnoscak said. “One day we had a woman come in and asked if she could go into the fitting room to try on dresses. We told her we don’t have a fitting room. The next thing we knew she was standing there in the aisle in her undergarments trying on clothes.

"We had to tell her to put clothes back on,” she said.

Karnoscak recalled the day when a woman came into Walgreens with a small bag. “She walked up to us and said, ‘Do these look like head lice?’ We quickly backed away and asked her to leave and take her bag with her!”

McKinley Park Neighborhood Native

Gerlowski is a McKinley Park neighborhood native, born and raised just down the street on South Wolcott Avenue.

She joined the Walgreens staff in 1987 — it was a quick commute, she said. Before the store opened in 1986, the property housed a number of different grocery stores, including National Food and Farm Foods, Gerlowski said.

Deeply Grateful

During their final weeks at work, Karnoscak and Gerlowski said many customers stopped by to wish them well, leaving gifts or flowers and candy. They were deeply grateful for the “outpouring of love and support that we’ve gotten,” Karnoscak said.

“We are crying because they cry," Karnoscak said. "One woman told us, ‘You watched me grow up, but now you won't be here to watch my kids grow up.'"

Not As Pleasantly Memorable

Both are especially grateful to the American Legion Post for hosting their surprise retirement party. “It was so unexpected,” Gerlowski said. “We thought we would retire and go away.”

Sometimes, working at the McKinley Park neighborhood Walgreens store was not as pleasantly memorable, they said.

Bea Karnoscak finishes work before retiring from 21 years of working at the McKinley Park neighborhood's Walgreens store.“We had a guy who liked to come in and flash us," Gerlowski said. 'He would get in line to pay, and then flash us.”

Box Cutter

One big reason for retirement was being “tired of being jumped by customers," Karnoscak said.

“The worst was when two young girls were fighting with me over keys to display cases,” Karnoscak said. “They cut me with a box cutter."

“Another time I was at the register and someone asked for money and stuck a gun in my stomach,” Karnoscak said. “Another guy threw a hammer at me because I didn’t open the display case quickly enough."

Bolder Shoplifters

“I just didn’t feel as safe since Covid,” Gerlowski said. “You have to be more careful. Shoplifters are much bolder now. Before they might steal a single toy — now they are emptying entire shelves.”

During Covid, customers started accusing us of taking all the toilet paper home," Karnoscak said. "The rudeness was crazy.”

Although the longtime employees and friends will no longer be working together, they have no plans to be apart, they said, including an upcoming trip they're taking in January to Las Vegas.

Photography by Kevin O'Neil