Palace Art & Office Supply — Local services in Capitola

Palace has a great selection of art supplies like the other reviews say, but today I had a terrible experience shopping there. I had a reusable shopping bag with me full of things I had just purchased at Urban Outfitters down the road for a friend's birthday present. As I was browsing the pens I was being uncomfortably hovered by three different employees. Then one of them comes up to me with a basket and asks me to please put my things that I would like to purchase in the basket instead of my reusable bag. I kindly explained to him that the items in my bag are not from here but a previous purchase. He says that he saw me reaching into my purse a lot on the camera and insists I use the basket, and I inform him that I was just checking my phone. I informed him that I did have a return in my bag with the receipt, and he made me give it to him then to hold on to until I was finished shopping. He quickly came back and kept hovering, asking if I wanted recommendations and I informed him that I was just browsing. He didn't leave and just awkwardly stood there hovering, and made me feel very uncomfortable. At that point I just wanted to get out of there because I felt wrongly accused of shop lifting so I went to buy my pen and make my returns. He passive aggressively asked me why I was making these returns so soon and why I didn't want them anymore. I proceeded to tell him the reason and he just cut me off rudely and asked for my credit card and ID. He called "customer service" up to the front and handed her my ID to make a copy in the back. He then asked me to fill out a form with my name and phone number. I asked him if this was normal for a return and he said yes. I have never been to a place that photo copies your ID for making a simple return with the receipt. I told him "It seems like you think I'm stealing, I'm not stealing anything and I feel really uncomfortable." and all he says is "I'm sorry you feel that way." They must have a thief problem at their store or something because I felt very violated and do not like that they have a copy of my ID. Passive aggressive, rude employees. Terrible experience, never going back there. I was just trying to do my part by using a...

I was just shopping at my favorite arts supply with my friend and we were looking at some nice squishy toys and pins. Then, this big ol gay guy with nice nails came up to us and assumed that we were going to steal, along with telling us "our backpacks should stay on our backs." We had no intention of stealing and he said that to us in a deadpan, rude voice which slightly offended me. He did not kindly talk to us. Additionally, we were looking at soft paintbrushes and gently playing with them. We do understand that that wasn't the best idea, but he told us not to in the same deadpan, rude voice, telling us "the cheap paintbrushes are over there, and we shouldn't be touching them." This made me feel like he thought we were poor, telling us that the paintbrushes were too expensive for us, probably based on our looks and age. I have had pleasant experiences in the past with this man, but definitely not today. I will take my artistic...

Disorganized store with limited selection, and the staff don't have the resources needed to help inform customers.

I really want to support local businesses like this, and I sympathize with them being hit by the pandemic, but if they've got items on the shelves with no information and no price tags, how can they expect sales!?

Specifically, I'm talking about the framing supplies: they've got a ton of frames but the uncut mat boards all have no price information or details about the features on those particular boards, and they don't even have the equipment needed to do custom framing. They have like three mat cutters for sale but only a couple of the accessories and nothing for dust control or the common tools...