Artisan ABQ Art Supplies — Attraction in Albuquerque

Owners of Artisans – beware of what I’m writing here. I teach high school art and I’m an artist myself. A student of mine – a lovely 17-year-old, Hispanic boy, told me this account with all the details. He told me that he had decided he did not want to shop for art supplies at Hobby lobby any more because he did not like their politics- even though it is much more convenient for him to go to Hobby lobby. So he went to Artisons. He was shopping around with a small notebook and two pens pinned under his arm as he looked at other items. The sales woman came up to him, grabbed the items from under his arm, and said that she would happily hold them for him at the counter. He wasn’t burdened with a lot of items, and he said as he looked around, he saw plenty of other customers were holding lots of items in their arms. He was very annoyed that he had been singled out – racially profiled – but decided to buy the items anyway to prove a point. He was so upset by this that he took the time to tell me all the details, including what the salesperson looks like. His mother, also upset, contacted your store with her complaint and was told later that the security footage had been viewed and that they didn’t see anything like this happen. Interestingly, enough, the mother had not given a date or a time of the incident so it’s highly unlikely that Artisan watched days of footage. I do not want to cost someone their job – nor do I think you would fire someone for racially profiling – however I will not be recommending to any of my hundreds of students- who are all people of color, to go to Artisans anytime...

I didn’t really feel comfortable browsing the store. I really wanted to like the store but it feels like it’s geared more towards people who have been doing art for a while. For someone who is just getting into being creative, or trying to rediscover their creativity, it kinda seems daunting to gather the materials to get started. I went to the sketching and drawing section and there really wasn’t much to choose from. I understand that this is a small local shop but the selection they did have was low in stock. Specifically, though, I was looking for an actual set of Conte à Paris pencils and crayons so I can test those out and see if I liked them. I ended up gathering a few of the pencils that I know the set had which was fine but they didn’t have the few others that I needed. I did like that they had the brand I was looking for. The conte crayons I opted not to bother with since it was just another item I had to collect. I love that they carry Faber Castell. There didn’t seem to be any kind of a set that I saw but again most things were low in stock. Coming from someone trying to get back into art, you’re pretty much on your own to build a collection of pencils you think you’ll need. I did ask the people at the desk about the Conte pencils though. I wasn’t comfortable in the store to begin with so I admit I quietly waited to ask but I still just felt like I shouldn’t of because it seemed like I was asking a silly question. I decided to just leave and order the rest of the supplies I was looking for online because for someone like me it seemed like I wasn’t their clientele. I probably...

Very rarely do I drive out of my way to visit a specific store. However, Artisan sounded like a place I wanted to check out so after a long day at work I trekked a few miles out of my way to make a pit stop.

Let me be clear before I go on a tirade: Artisan is an art supply store and carries a fairly decent selection of products most artists would want (although at somewhat elevated prices). It fills the shoes of an art store just fine.

HOWEVER.... this is honestly one of the worst cases of bad customer service I have seen in a store of this type. The staff are downright rude and make it obvious that they feel you are inconveniencing them. There wasn't a helpful soul in this store except for another customer who seemed to know more than the staff and eventually helped me find what I wanted (which ended up being in Walmart for a lot cheaper). Beyond the abysmal service from the staff, the store is also very poorly organized. Notebooks I was in search of were scattered between multiple sections of the store and had no rhyme or reason that I could see. That doesn't mean that there wasn't a reason, just that it didn't seem apparent to me as a customer.

I really hate stores like this that have a specialty product that you need but fail in every other way. These are the places that force me to want to buy everything online where it is clearly organized and I don't have to deal with people who are dicks. The only reason this place earns 2 stars is because they actually have some of the product that I expected and now I know exactly what I need when I buy it from...