The Candy Laboratory — Local services in Lower Merion Township

I wish I could leave negative 1000 for this place . I booked for my daughter’s 9th birthday party and from the beginning there was red flags and I should have ran not walked away . The owner was not very pleasant , and we even had to go back and forth after I paid my deposit for me to come in at 1pm to have my ballon lady decorate for a 2pm party. Please know this was not a cheap event at $45 a child , mind you I paid for 15 kids you do the math. Nonetheless I was told that she has another party and the earliest she could get there was 1:30pm . How was I going to decorate in 30 mins before my guests arrived . She told me I would have to pay for an extra hour to have her staff come in at 1pm. Which gives me an extra 30 mins on the front and end of my party . I told her to be a first time customer I didn’t understand why I had to pay to extra cause she was overbooked . Whatever , with the party a day away I had no choice but to paid it .

While I was there she was not friendly at all, she did not speak to my guest as they came in . She was screaming over me and guests saying she needs quiet . Miss this is a kids party. What did you expect .. you cant throw kid parties and expect quiet . Like come on. I kept ignoring all the rude slide remarks she was making on behalf of my daughter’s day . When it came time to feed the kids she asked me could they wait until all the crafts were done . It’s 3:30 the party is over at 4:30 when would have had time to eat and sing happy birthday . They wouldn’t . So I proceeded to feed the kids . Which she rolled her eyes and turned her nose up .

While we sang happy birthday ( the Stevie wonder version)she was making faces and telling her staff she wish we hurry up . My family pressed on , but at the end we had enough . She told us to hurry up we need to get out at 4:30 when it hadn’t event hit 4 yet. She was screaming over the children saying yall can get out cause she wanted to leave . She had he coat on before the party was even over .

I’m going to say it she is Racist and was very blatant about it . Please do not book anything here . She does not care for children at all , and just wants your money to book a hole in the wall.they offer nothing you have to bring in all your own stuff and she is charging for everything thing that’s she needs to do as an owner . There are dollar store table clothes that’s she doesn’t change cause I came the day before and saw them with my own eyes. The fruit she presented was wilted and has tons of old food items. Trust me run away don’t walk . I give this business negative...

If I Could give a negative stars rating I would I attended my niece’s birthday party here and I immediately felt like things weren’t gonna go well. When my family and I came in the owner did not greet us or say hello. I feel best practices as a Business owner myself , it is important for one to identify yourself so guest know who is the owner and two to make people feel welcomed because they could be potential clients in the future, well that was not the case. Owner was not friendly at all, and began to start the party activities even though majority of the children weren’t there yet. As the activities went on To get the children attention, she began to yell and scream “can everybody be quiet”. No, I’m not sure what happened to kid, friendly language, such as clap one time if you can hear me or clap two times. I took highly offense to her yelling at our children I thought it was totally unnecessary and inappropriate.! The way this woman acted you would think this was not an establishment that the deals with children; however we still went on one with the event. When we began to sing happy birthday, we do not sing just a traditional Happy Birthday Song in our culture we sing an additional song . During that time the owner made faces as if she needed us to hurry up, which was highly disrespectful and culturally incompetent.

The last straw for myself was when we were actively cleaning up so we could leave the establishment. She stood in the middle of the floor and yelled while looking at her watch. “It’s almost 430 and Y’all need to hurry up “. This is when I had enough and I had to say to her how dare you speak to us like this when we paid to the 430 timeframe. And she began to say oh that’s not correct and I have something else to do. It is not our fault that she overbooked herself or she had other things to do. We were not at our timeframe yet, and she should’ve respected it not only us but the children and the other guests that attended the party.

I was highly offended, disrespected, And felt very off-putting by her lack of accountability, responsibility, And demeanor during our party. Please do not book this space, the activities that the children do or something that you can do at your own home where you will be more comfortable and spoke to in a nicer tone. I just feel bad for my niece because the way this woman acted really made her feel like her birthday was ruined. This woman needs Sensitivity training as well as Culturally...

My child was invited here as apart of a birthday party. The concept and the idea was cute for a 3 year old however this business was not welcoming receptive or even spacious enough for the event. To start there is no real space inside so parents can fit appropriately to help children. It felt like we were packed in like a can of sardines. No room for any real decorations of anything. I walked in a few minutes behind and the owner was not welcoming at all. She didn’t even acknowledge the additional child coming to the party to say jump right in have a seat or anything. Actually there was no real space for him to join in the place was really tight and I could count at most 10 kids.

As I stood off to the side trying to get my child engaged the owner rudely told everyone to be quiet because she didn’t like too much noise. So essentially it was supposed to be a quiet kid birthday party. I have never heard of such a thing. There could be no tunes for the children or any background talking. It appeared as she was overwhelmed and frustrated which is hard to understand as this is a place for kids parties. Additionally there were several parents there to help so there was no kid going unattended.

When it was time for food the owner made a comment as if food was unwelcome and the kids shouldn’t be eating even though the party was almost over. It appeared that the owner felt as though the kids should not be eating during the event. It was very disturbing .

What made the experience even worse was that at the end when the parents were helping to clean the owner shouted out it’s almost 4:30 you guys have to hurry up and get out of here. I was shocked because everyone was leaving and packing up so that could be accomplished. I didn’t understand the reason and it made myself and several other guests uncomfortable. When the hostess tried to reassure the owner that things were being cleaned to leave she cut her off rudely and said just get your things and get out. It was very off putting and downright disrespectful.

I would advise no parent to book a party here for their child. The space is not equipped for many people and the owner was downright rude and disrespectful. I would have wanted my money back...