Altar'd State Mall of America — Local services in Bloomington

I went to Altar’d State recently, and I have a lot to share for tourists who are interested in shopping here. I’ll first highlight the positives of this location. The store is beautifully organized as you can clearly see in the photos provided. Not only do the brick work (fake or not) and arches add a nice cozy touch, but the brighter lighting makes you feel Inherently more happy as you shop. Compared to a store like Hollister where you are shopping in the dark, this location is definitely a place to visit. The clothing is also very cute on the outside as you may notice in some of these photos. These items are clearly very trendy so if that is what you are looking for, Altar’d State provides it. While there are clear benefits of shopping here, I feel that the cons outweigh the pros drastically. I’ll highlight them by describing my shopping experience: I found several pieces that I wanted to try on, many of them on the trendy side of clothing that many other girls like to wear. They looks comfortable, yet stylish. After picking out the clothing that I particularly enjoyed, I got in line for the dressing rooms. I thought the line would take about 5 minutes since there were 8-ish dressing rooms, but it didn’t. Instead, it was painfully slow. Like 30 minutes slow. This made absolutely no sense and left many other customers frustrated, with one girl angrily throwing her clothes onto a nearby rack and storming away. The staff didn’t even do anything to change this catastrophe, with many of them ignoring angry customers that were wrapped around the entire store and allowing the people in the dressing rooms to “take their time” (too much time might I add; one girl was in her dressing room trying on one dress for the entire time I was in line) and bringing them more sizes. By the end of my wait, I was tempted to just try on my clothes in the line! It didn’t help that the staff were also all valley girls, with one staff member quite literally talking like Kim Kardashian in 2010 while forcefully chewing gum with her mouth open. Once I finally got into a dressing room, the staff member spelled my name wrong on the door (really not that important) and bothered me with sizing every two minutes. Instead, the staff members should have just been there if I wanted help as it was a true nuisance after sitting in line for 30 minutes. I tried on three tops and a jumpsuit; both fit terribly. The tops had ribbed fabric within the bra cup that was itchy and the one top that I tried that didn’t had this super tight added fabric piece around the rib cage that was intolerable. The jumpsuit barely unzipped, gave me a camel toe in a size medium (even though I’m typically a size small), and was super large on the top which was very unflattering. Why do the products look so good if they don’t fit right? After this experience I left the dressing room and angrily put my clothes on the rack (resembling the girl that gave up). My sister, unlike me, had a better experience with fitting and decided to buy a top and a small dress. The total was $150 which was totally ridiculous. The products that they sell, while they may look cute, can be found at rag stock or larger department stores for way less (and they may actually fit fight). Because of this, I don’t recommend shopping here. In fact, when I come back I’m definitely avoiding it. Piece for the store manager/owner and employees: You can improve the experiences of others by… Enforcing dressing room time limits (for example 5-10 minutes per customer) when the line starts wrapping around the entire store. Allowing the customers to figure out if they like a size or style without bothering them constantly (i.e. allow THEM to ask for help). Not inflating the prices of your products even though they aren’t truly worth that price (i.e. try to match the prices of similar products found at other locations. It will make you a more appealing brand to people who can’t or don’t want to spend a third of their check...

9/4/18 I'm so sick of these retail establishments in MN employing ignorant and rude folks who don't know basic retail mannerisms let alone still profile and stereotype... Half the time I shop in MN, I am mistreated or ignored by SA's because they refuse to treat me reasonably as a consumer. This was My experience in their store today. This is a poorly managed store with rude and aggressive lead raising her voice@ workers and choosing who she feels will spend money in this store and who will not... It's very uncomfortable to see employees being mistreated and sours my buying experience as a purchaser when off the bat I am treated as if I'm not actually going to buy anything. I am a 32HH/ 25" waist and Unfortunately the $98 Grecian romper in a Large did not zip around my bust, so I came out of fitting room to find the gal assisting me in the dressing room and to seek more of her suggestions. As I was in the middle of speaking to the associate, a pushy and aggressive lead with glasses who was literally doing nothing told the soft spoken gal who was helping me to "bring the sweater" to the dressing room to someone else. The gal quickly left me and the rude one who still was doing Nothing, told me the SA would be right back... Apparently I was not important enough to acknowledge as a customer who was needing further assistance and working with this gal previous. I left empty handed and feeling insulted and will not be back to this location ever!!! This was an uncomfortable and unpleasant experience which will not be tolerated...

The only reason I went is because my 13 year old daughter needed get a dress for a special occasion. Actually, two dresses, and so we went to the fiftieth and france location, where we left with two dresses and a wheelcard of earrings, one of the dresses was a hundred and fifty eight dollars, the other dress more reasonably priced. By the next morning that same dress that just yesterday was a hundred and fifty eight dollars was now marked down to forty two dollars. When I asked at the mall of america location why they wouldn't tell us about said sale discount.The manager had said they would not have known. I worked retail a lot when I was young. And that is just not the case. We were always well aware well in advance of any sales that were ending or any sales that were beginning as to make sure our customers got the best prices. But please, don't let that discourage you. This place is way too overpriced and way too much Christmas and religious symbols that aren't universally celebrated. Other than that, I love the The giving calmness and serenity and the dressing rooms. All of those fun little comforts are very tranquil and seductive, but where are the clothes made and are they ethically sourced? And why so much of the religious...