Blick Art Materials — Attraction in Allentown

My experience was welcoming, accommodating and very informative. I'm from out of town and when I visited this store in November for the first time, there was a very rude employee who yelled at me while I was carrying my 5 month old son because I didn't notice the arrows on the floor & we were facing the wrong direction. I left with no intention of coming back (because he was so pretentious about it.) I all but swore off this store, but this visit I was hoping he wouldn't be there, and decided to give it another go; I am so happy I did. Bernadette was so helpful and insightful when providing guidance on the paint I was considering trying out. She was patient with me and answered all my questions (I had a lot.) I must have gone up to the register 4 or 5 times. She was professional and even showed me some personal paint samples of the paint I came to look at. Needless to say, I spent almost $300 on my "sample try-out paints" and left satisfied and happy. Next time I'm in town, I'll be making a stop for some more goodies; there is no Blick where I live. I will also mention that I do a lot of online ordering, but the customer service was awesome, so I just got what I needed today. Thank you for...

Today I gave the south mall Dick blick another chance but immediately regretted it. The past few times I've been in there the staff have been rude and have not bothered to get to know me as an artist and match me to the best supplies for ME , NOT the supplies THEY need to push off THEIR shelf . The past two times ,today being the second, they have actually pushed me towards using toxic art supplies they are trying to move when I've made it apparent that I only use non-toxic because I don't wear gloves due to the hand eye coordination disconnect they give me. I totally get on the business end needing to move merchandise but at the same time you're going to lose all your customers you sell your merchandise to if you keep being rude and not wanting to get to know their artist personalities. Hobby Lobby in Trexlertown may charge a little bit more for some stuff but I've had nothing but success with the paints Hannah over there has matched me with. Sorry Dick blick but I was patient with you and gave you many chances to avoid you losing my business forever and me posting this review but...

Pros: Huge store that has everything. Pricing is pretty good. Staff is knowledgeable.

Cons: You have to sign up for their card thingy to make sure you get the better price if something you're buying in the store is cheaper on their website.

I've not been pleased with the Blick branded items I bought (acrylic and oil paint) and the Utrecht paints also seem to be of a lesser quality since Blick took them over. Not pleased to the point where I won't be buying either brands acrylic or oil paints in the future. I've done a few side by side comparisons with old and new tubes of the same Utrecht colors and the older ones definitely carried a higher pigment load. The Blick paints performed worse, fwiw.

So if you're not buying their branded items, their prices for the major brands (Golden, Liquitex, Gamblin, etc.) are still pretty good but about the same as the other art supply stores around Philly (that have better parking), or even the big box craft stores when you use their 50-70%...