Art Department, LLC — Attraction in Salem

I have shopped here many times and had good experiences. A few weeks ago I signed up someone to a beginning painting class as a gift. I saw that there was a list of items required for the class. Instead of buying them online through Amazon, i thought it would be nice to shop locally. I went to the store today on lunch and was kindly greeted. I explained that I do not understand the art terms and am not taking the class. I asked the shop keeper if they could assemble the items for me. They said they could not. I asked why, they said there were too many choices. I asked if they could pick, they said they were not comfortable. I asked if they could just pick the first option in all cases, they said they could not. They said they could do it if I made the choices. I said OK, go ahead and ask. They started describing the paints and asked if i would like the required three paints. I said yes. They asked if I would like the optional paints, I said no (of course if they had just picked them for me I would have bought them). Then they said there are two types of paper, on is loose and needs taped down, the other is on a pad. Which would I like? I said the first, as I do not paint or want to decide. Several choices went like this. It seemed we were done. Then the clerk asked if I would like to wait while she put it together or pick it up later. There were other people in the store and I wanted to pick it up at 4:30 after work. She then tells me that instead of her putting it together I should go to their website and pick all of the supplies! I said but I don't want to, I want to give you money and not try and deal with that! She shrugged. I said I do not understand, may I call the owner or email them, she said no, there was only the office number. It seems like this is why a customer would pick a local store. How hard would it have been to gather the 10 items and charge me $100? I could wait three days even, but I did not want to pick out the goods or use an web site. I am going to wait a day or two and see if the owner cares to help me out before I go to Amazon. I have faith that it was just a misunderstanding and the staff member was not comfortable with a new situation. UPDATE: owner says it must have been a misunderstanding and that they can do this, looking forward to...

Wanted to avoid Amazon. Buy local. The second I walk in I'm told to make sure my mask is above my nose and am given some bazar story about how some random lady died in the local hospital...She then proceeded to to do the standard harping on doing our part or whatever. Ill be honest I stopped paying full attention when i realized she was gonna just keep harping on about masks and whatnot. I made no fuss, kindly bought my items and left...But I do regret purchasing my items here, and am frustrated that my attempt to avoid giving more money to our Amazon overlords only made me want to run back into its tender loving embrace of sweet deals and timely deliveries! But in all seriousness guys, at the end of the day, it's hands down the one of the most expensive art supply stores I've ever seen. My advice is to compare your prices with others, and do your best to not mention anything related to covid, and just stick with talking about and selling...

Bought some supplies, ended up not using them for a project I was working on so I went to return them 3 days later, unfortunately I didn’t grab the receipt. (who needs receipts anymore when you pay with a debit card?) The lady at the counter treated me like I was trying to return stolen goods the entire time. She said she “couldn’t find my name or purchase in the system”, so I said “you know, that’s fine I’ll take store credit then” she continued to push back on me saying she needs to call the store owner for approval. I asked her if she wanted me to go to my bank to get a proof of purchase, she declined. Again she insisted that she talks to the store owner, so she took my number down and of course I never heard from anyone. I’ll gladly support a big box store...