Party Mart — Attraction in Salem

I arrived to the store around 9:45 on a Friday morning. My intention was to purchase 5 helium balloons and a few party supplies. It took me about 5 minutes to select my merchandise and they do have a fair selection. I got in line behind the only two other customers in the store. There were two clerks behind the counter. The first clerk was busy with the first customer in line (who, in fairness, was a high-maintenance customer with many needs) while the 2nd clerk (presumed owner) was busy answering the phone and declaring how busy they were, which baffled me because there were only three customers. After standing inline until 10:10, the 2nd clerk finally began helping the next person in line. He was very gracious, in fact offering to come back later to pick up his order. Then, instead of asking me if she could help me, she spent several minutes organizing the work space behind her and getting the other clerk to work on the phone orders. By now there was one other customer in line behind me (a man). She then asked, "who is next?" even though we were in an obvious line. She asked if we were all getting balloons, I said yes, he said no. She then said she would ring him up first then. I did speak up and say I'd been waiting almost 30 minutes. He graciously offered that he wasn't in a hurry and that she could help me. I thanked him and offered (so that the clerk could hear also) that I had an appointment at 10:30. By now it was 10:15. She did begrudgingly accept my merchandise at the counter and take my balloon order, but then stopped and rang up the person behind me saying, "I'm not going to make him wait while I blow up your balloons." I did point out that I'd been waiting almost 40 minutes at that point. I suggested that perhaps the 2nd clerk could help me since she was working on phone orders for people who were not actually in the store. The owner/clerk said no, she could not. Ultimately, I had to call and cancel my appointment. I did not conclude my transaction until 10:35. It took 50 minutes to purchase 5 balloons and some paper plates. I said to the owner/clerk that it seemed like the best way to get service there was to phone in and she agreed. I mentioned that another way to get better service might be go go elsewhere and she also agreed with that statement. That is my suggestion to anyone in need of party supplies and/or balloons....

Now this store is extremely huge!! They have everything her but not so much licensed character stuff u know like official my little pony. Or Bratz or Spiderman stuff if they do its basically a cheaper knock off!! Let me start by saying I saw lots of things to buy I drove to Salem from Eugene. I ordered a Sesame Street balloon bouquet!! I got 1 probably a 12-14 inch Sesame Street mylar balloon, 2 blue latex balloons, 2 red latex balloons and a 36 inch red mylar number 1!! I gotto tell u it looked so stupid!!! $38.46 I believe it was!! What an outrageous price..aside from that which by the way I cut off the #1 and bought 2 blue. Mylar stars at the $ store for $2.50 cents!! Besides that though they had some cool stuff!! Literally everything for just about any party and a bunch of random 50 cents items!! I went down the rows and took lots of pictures so here we go!!I actually would shop here just not for blown up balloon!! I believe to blow up your balloon price for the helium was $2.00 being the cheapest and up depending on the size!! As for the 2 ladies working the registers they weren't rude or nasty just very flat affected!! No. Smiles no cheerfulness just. Dreadful and tired looking??? Maybe they. Work really hard....

I have worked in retail/customer service for seven years now, and this was the worst customer service I have ever experienced. If I could write them a -5 I would. The lady working at the counter took 45 minutes to blow up 10 balloons for me. She told me next time I need to order ahead even though I brought my own balloons in. The next day the balloons completely deflated because she put barely any helium in them. I tried to get a refund but they said my balloons were low quality, and I know for a fact they were not low quality because I blew one up with my mouth and it blew up twice as large as what she did. Very very disrespectful employees. I highly recommend going anywhere else. Also, their prices...