Blick Art Materials — Attraction in Brentwood

Went here on Saturday for my framing appointment, it was my first time coming to Blick. I went to the framing department of the store. I waited patiently for my turn. The guy that was working there was named Tim, he was finishing up with another client and then looked at me and said "Emily?" I was like "No, I'm Fatema." he said "Do you have an appointment?" I said "Yes I do, I made the appointment with your manager Tom", he continued to say that he does not see me in the book at all. but asked how he could help, I told him I wanted a glass frame and he said that those were an online only type of deal. He didn't even give me a minute to explain myself until I cut him off. Since the glass frame was online only, I asked him about printing a photo for me . "You need to set up an appointment for that" he said. Like I already didn't??I thought. I thanked him and left. I walked up to the cashier to see if they could order the frame online for me and I also asked them to see if Tom was in (the manger) so I could see if he booked me or not. They said that he wasn't in that day so they offered to help me. They checked there computers and saw that I actually did have an appointment and it was by the name "Satema" rather than Fatema. They told me it was misspelled which is understandable. The guy I had talked to was very nice and patient with me. he told me to walk back and talk to Tim again and tell him that I have an appointment. When I got back to the framing department I saw that he was with another customer. I waited patiently for ten minutes. Once he was done with the other customer he didn't even acknowledge me or even look my way to help me. he was just standing there. then the guy from the cashier's desk came and talked to him and told him I had an appointment. Tim didn't apologize about the misunderstanding/ communication, but proceeded to say "what do you want help with?". I told him how I wanted to print out the photo again. he told me to send it to him. As I did that, he immediately told me that pictures would not look good because its not a raw file, even though I sent him the raw file from the photographer's email. And the he went on about how photos are suppose to be and the resolution blah blah blah, Its like he was trying to talk me out of it so he wouldn't give the time to help me out. When I watched him help out the other two customers before me he seemed very energetic and in a good mood but when it came to me he treated me as if I was a child that didn't know anything. Horrible experience. Won't come back. And unfortunately Tim is the only...

It's been more than a year since my last visit to Blick's, a visit I'll never forget.

Blick has more stock than any of the other art supply stores in the area, maybe more than all the others combined because the others cater more to the crafts market than to artists. For that, it gets 3 stars.

Service? Not so much. I drove from North County to the Loop to buy a tube of paint. After finding what I wanted plus two more tubes, I waited patiently behind a customer being checked out by a person much younger than I am, perhaps 40 or more years younger. As soon as that cashier finished with the customer in front of me they looked my straight in the eye, closed their register and walked away without saying a word.

After walking around the counter to the other register being operated by a person much closer to my age. All I wanted to do was buy a tube of paint and the cashier wanted me to play some sort of spin the wheel game first. I declined politely by saying, "No, thank you." The cashier then demanded I play the game.

The cashiers lost a star each. I would have taken off more, but Google says I have to rate at least one star. Guaranteed that I use and steer my friends to Amazon or some other online site for art supplies. We may have to wait a few days, but we don't have to put up with age discrimination or crazy demands...

This whole online price matching scheme is mind baffling. I'm a preferred member, but I always have to put up a fight when I check out. One time I bought a bunch of Luminance pencils and sketchbooks. The pencils are $3.50 online, and $5.50 in store. I asked for online price matching, which the cashier did. But the matching wasn't done for the sketchbook (mind you that they take pride on their system being "correct" so no adjustments are required). The sketchbooks turned out to be 40% more expensive than what they have online. I reminded the cashier and she was like "oh yeah I'll do price match for this item as well". This makes me very uncomfortable - they only price match when questions were raised, and customers who don't know their policy very well can easily get charged an insane price for products they buy.

Also no matter how much stuff you buy in store, even with web match they ALWAYS charge you for shipping (I know, it doesn't make any sense). However, if you order stuff online, shipping is usually free when you buy more than $69.

I love supporting local businesses and brick and mortar stores, but if this is the trick they pull on customers to keep the stores alive, I'll go to...