Dark Matter Oddities & Artisan Collective — Attraction in New Orleans

Definitely a cool place, however one of the two women who worked there hawked over me the entire time I was looking around. Definitely gave me the vibe that I was in trouble or something — kind of like when a cop is tailgating you even when you’re not doing anything wrong. She then stood by the door impatiently (literally blocking the door) and when people would exit she seemed like she couldn’t wait to get people out, even though it wasn’t near closing time. She barricaded the door and leaned against it so people wouldn’t come in (it was weird idk what that was about) I didn’t buy anything because honestly the people who worked there were pretty rude. I said “hi how are you?” To the girl working the desk and she glared at me and said nothing. The woman treating everyone like a shoplifter was at the door and opened it before we were going to leave. She clearly was rushing everyone out, so I decided to just walk out because she was making me nervous to be honest. I said “thank you, have a good day” and she said nothing and shut the door. It was honestly just a really weird / awkward experience and it gave me a ton of anxiety. Definitely a cool place but not welcoming at all. I’ve heard from others and seen other reviews stating that the people who work at this place are off putting and rude but I figured the people saying that were being Karen’s but perhaps they were right. I feel bad for the artists selling their work there. I saw some people trying to inquire about pieces and the women who worked there seemed really annoyed and would sigh and act like they were having their time wasted. I could tell people wanted buy stuff but got uncomfortable and left. I feel like the lack of even a simple “hi” in response is hurting their sales and therefor hurting the artist! I’m sure they get a lot of drunk tourists in there but it was a really disappointing experience and I will not...

I travel quite a bit and always make a point of it to visit any and all oddity/curio/macabre collection spots. There are so many of them and they’re all going to have unique pieces for sale and on display. The small selection of offerings here were no different, and I especially loved the crystal ball take on wet specimens.

That being said, the place is very small, and they enforce a 10-person capacity. This would be fine if the tight space didn’t make it even more obvious and uncomfortable that we had two employees at each end who seemed annoyed by everyone’s entrance, I’m assuming because many of us don’t look like we’re going to impulse buy an expensive piece of taxidermy. The young woman on one end, behind the register, never looked up to even acknowledge anyone, while the older woman shadowed us all like a 7-11 clerk certain that you will steal. It also sucked that they have a “no photography” rule (something I’ve only seen one other time out of the 50 or so shops like this I’ve gone to), and I felt pressured to make my browsing brief and to keep my phone down. The older employee would go on to stand by the door with her hand on the knob, appearing to be impatiently waiting to open it and shoo us out.

These places are special, and can oftentimes be like free museums to those of us not in the market for expensive articulated skeletons or diaphonized animals, and if I like a place I certainly make sure to buy a few smaller things like stickers or more. This place felt more like somewhere that should be a private collection that buys and sells by...

Thos place was a unique and interesting store, filled with lots of one of a kind and amazing art. I can tell they support artists big and small. My only issue is that it seemed like the woman behind the register was disinterested in our presence there, like she didn't think we could afford anything in the store? I did not feel welcome from the moment we walked in, and therefore did not spend any real money, we bought some pins and left. Had the woman been more interested in our experience as customers she would have found we were about to spend $thousands$ on art there... So the vast majority of our money went to other galleries and curio cabinets elsewhere across the city. Still a cool spot... Just think the staff needs some customer...