Trudy's Hallmark Shop — Local services in New Braunfels

This is the BRAND NEW Trudy's Hallmark Shop in Creekside New Braunfels. They recently opened a couple weeks ago (Oct 2024), and are therefore still struggling to get everything on the shelves, as well as training employees. So when you go, be sure to stay patient and understanding. We are super excited about finally having a Hallmark store in New Braunfels again! The store is spacious and clean and bright. Everything is organized and easily accessible. But I do have two complaints about the new store.

My 1st observation: On our latest visit today, Nov. 9th 2024, we saw that they are still in desperate need of little handheld baskets. Every other Hallmark store provides little baskets to place your items in as you walk around. These make it convenient for shoppers to fill a basket with goodies. This not only helps us carry stuff, it easily helps customers to spend even more money. This is ONLY a good idea. There's nothing negative about having little shopping baskets. When I asked an employee where the baskets were, she promptly told me that they weren't going to get any! If this is true, it is an extremely foolish decision on the owners part.

Within the first two minutes in the store, my wife and I had full hands and had to juggle items back and forth in order to look at other potential purchases. I know they sometimes offer to hold your items at the counter, but I hate doing this, and employees don't always see you when you're trying to hold 10 things in your arms. I want my items in a basket that I can keep an eye on as I shop. This helps me keep track of what I have selected and how many things I am buying. The owner needs to get baskets ASAP! When I told an employee, "I guess I have to buy a collapsable basket of my own, and bring it with me every time I shop," she just laughed. Instead, she could of taken me seriously and made a note of the suggestion, then passed it on the owner.

Second Observation: I know the floor workers and cashiers are new, but they should know what decorations are Halloween (and on sale for 75% off). After ringing up our items, I noticed on the screen that we didn't get our 75% discount. When I pointed to the two Halloween decorations from the discount shelf, she acted confused and looked like she didn't believe that the magnetic pumpkin with candy-corn ornament was "Halloween." I then explained that candy-corn and pumpkins are Halloween, and that it came from the Halloween clearance shelf. After that, I showed my disabled veteran ID card to get my 10% discount on my other items. After she re-rang all our items and I paid for everything, I didn't realize she then forgot to give me my veteran discount until I got to my car. It only amounted to $2, so I didn't bother to go back to the store to get my discount. I say all of this to encourage the owner and manager to properly train cashiers on what is on sale and also how to ring up the veteran discounts. The store wasn't busy with customers. Nobody was in line behind us. So there was no reason to hurry.

After saying all this, I highly recommend you shop at this location. They are super friendly and deserving of...

The manager of this store, Cheryl, is a real piece of work. I went a few days before Christmas with my mother and she made our visit very uncomfortable. She was belittling to me and my mother and very condescending to us. My mother had paid for an item that was intended to be a Christmas gift over the phone and had a coupon that she had given the code for. She had been told to bring the coupon in when she came to the store. Well, go figure, we forgot it. Despite living over an hour and a half away, my mother frequents this store as she is an avid Hallmark ornament collector and there is not a Hallmark store in her town. Anyways, our fault we had forgotten the coupon, but the way it was handled was ridiculous. Cheryl repeated herself over and over in a very condescending tone with a huge fake smile the entire time. My mother has spent thousands of dollars at that store in the past and is a repeat customer and the item had already been paid for and coupon code entered. Despite all this, Cheryl was unwilling to work with us. Could we bring the paper coupon in on the next visit, could we mail it, did it really matter? Rather than speak to us like adults and explain any reasoning, if there was one, she repeatedly made the statement that my mother was told to bring the coupon in. Like I said, she never explained anything or a reason that she needed the actual piece of paper when she already had the code and the payment. If there is a valid reason, we don't know because she repeated the same statement over and over talking over my mother and interrupting her. My mother and I were both very calm, yet flabbergasted that we were being spoken to in the tone of voice she was using when we were just trying to come up with a solution if there was a possible one. I have never experienced a store manager that has such poor customer service. Neither one of us will visit this store again and the Hallmark Ornament Collector's Club that she belongs to will be told of this encounter during the next monthly meeting. This would have never been an issue under the previous management when my mother actually felt valued as a customer and was treated with respect and...

Walked in ready to buy lots of goodies and very excited. I had noticed a sign on the door preferring card, I walked to the register to confirm that they were still willing to accept cash as it was all I had on me— I have been to stores in the last couple weeks refusing cash all together, due to COVID so I wanted to verify prior to wasting their time and mine. There were two ladies behind the register and the younger one, was very short with me. I asked nicely, apologizing for interrupting their conversation, just wanting to confirm cash was still acceptable and she says yes, the sign says card PREFERRED. Her tone and body language toward me was was not at all warm and welcoming, there was a nice way to respond to me and that was not it. I tried to shop for a moment but just could not after our interaction. I certainly hope she was just having an off day. The store was not busy, and they could have easily made $200 or more on me today. I got in the car and immediately ordered from Amy’s Hallmark and drove the distance for pick up. I work retail, I understand the holiday craziness and have been a supervisor at more than one retail establishment. I do not speak to customers in such a way and definitely don’t let my employees speak to them that way. Kindness always...