Ollie's Bargain Outlet — Local services in Corpus Christi

This place has some really great deals (and sometimes not, do your homework or you might buy a few items for more then you'd pay at HEB or Walmart) but it definitely shows that you get what you pay for in terms of customer service and cleanliness.

On a good day they usually only have 1 lane open to checkout. Lines can buildup very easily as cashiers are very slow, and management seems to actively make things worse by messing with opening and closing lanes during "rushes" (normal amount of customers at almost any other store)", which causes lines to reshuffle and everyone has to wait on their very slow PoS software. We waited in line for an hour with only 4 parties in front of us. People would just leave their shopping carts in line and leave the store in frustration because they would arbitrarily close a lane, have everyone move to another lane without clearly communicating what was going on (so if you were next in line, you'd likely lose your spot and have to go to the back of the 10-15 party line). Manager who checked us out felt the need to comment on almost every item we ordered to another employee who was just standing there not doing anything, and failed to actually scan our 15% coupon (the only reason we share our personal information for Ollie's to resell and advertise to us constantly is for these coupons. The online coupons do come at a cost to your privacy and should work for that price), telling us to just "come back another time" despite the fact it was about to expire and should have been applied to this order. Manager seemed to not understand how their own PoS system worked and was clearly struggling to use it. He also kept blaming the poor service on "no one showing up" despite having about as many employees in the store as I usually see and that he was more focused on the office work he needed to do later instead of what he was doing now.

Often see employees just hanging around not doing anything even when they're backed up or when the store is absolutely trashed and dirty with a layer of grime. I do not support breaking your employees backs for work, especially at the poor wages I'm sure they pay but I've never seen such lazy employees and management before. They mostly wander around trying (and failing) to look busy while literally not getting a single thing done. When you look at employment reviews of this company it's not really surprising the customer service is so poor. It looks like a mess behind the scenes for dirt poor...

Ollie's can be helpful when you are shopping for certain things on a tight budget but not always. I have often picked up discount package food, dog and cat treats, and certain home wares reliably. They have an interesting book selection that is helpful for gift giving. They have way more Toys around the holidays and are a place worth stopping for holiday shopping, plenty of candy and seasonal decor too. In the summer I got beautiful clay pots here and they had a great selection of lawn and garden decor and care. They always have lots of bedding sets, sheets and curtains. They never carry any cotton sheets though, as far as I can tell. Overall, if you are patient, don't mind that it's not predictable, and not easily irritated I would recommend shopping here periodically. Personally I have often found the store very irritating with maintenance issues like the door beep being broken for a very long time this summer so it constantly sounded off and the fact that it's almost always a gruelingly slow checkout because there will be a line, slow checkout process, and only one cashier. I rarely see any staff except the one cashier on duty so if you need help navigating that may be...

Visited my first Ollie's in Hugo Oklahoma on Sunday . Store is well stocked and easy to get around. Staff was friendly, although it took a while to check out as they were short handed. The majority of their stock is comparable to big lots or Ross. Not that much of a savings to drive over there. They do have some unique items. I bought a 32oz Contigo insulated tumbler for $6.99. They have a large variety of Coffee, especially K-cups. Their store brand, I assume was priced very competitive, about 23 cents a pod. However, I wasn't willing to purchase a box without knowing what it taste like. They could sell a lot of it if they set up a sampling station to taste the varieties. Also, you have to watch the best but dates on food products like coffee as many are at or approaching expiration. If you have some time to burn it may be worth a drive to one of their stores for a one time visit.

The...