See's Candies — Local services in Tacoma

I would give this store a zero or negative if the system does have zero or negative. The store manager (she claimed that she was) was extremely rude when I visited it early January. Always supporting local/smaller/non-giant-brand businesses, I get a bag every time I was to Tacoma Mall. Never any issue. But this time was different. The woman who came to my order made a routine purchase a difficult one for me. Firstly she asked me "by piece or by pair?", which I had never heard of. I replied, "I guess by piece." I also added: "Just FYI, all the rest of my order will be the same, by piece." She wouldn't let it go and kept asking the same question for each chocolate I chose, in a tone you felt that you were too much of a trouble for her. She also demanded me, as a teacher, to announce all 3-or-4-words of the full name of the chocolate I'd choose, whilst another customer only was pointing and mumbling. When I said, "I don't think this is necessary." and used the unique keyword, she started to have this contemptuous smirk. The atmosphere became quite suppressing, combined with an out-of-no-where lecture from an old Karen-style customer (the mumbling and pointing lady), who was white and seemingly sophisticated (or she'd like me to look up to her as such). "Those chocolates are unique and they are different!" Ms. Karen Auntie teamed up with this associate/manager to strike on me! WHO ARE YOU! I did not have anything with her. I got annoyed. Two seconds of silence. I could feel that this associate was sending this egotistical glance at me. I finally decided to fight back - never was I aware that going into a candy store could lead to secret racial discrimination! I wouldn't call this a cognitive bias. I had been respectful and patient, and that was enough. "Are you trying to be a knowledgeable Karen and chocolate expert to give me a free lecture? While you yourself were just pointing and talking nonsense? Do you assume you are superior so you deserve this chocolate-expert-customer status? Go away Karen!" Karen seemed to have been surprised by me being able to not only speak English, but in a logic way. She fled like in 10 seconds. I have been a loyal and passionate patron of See's ever since I moved to Tacoma. I grab bags and boxes often when I need to travel and visit friends out of state. I was proud but naive. Naive about the risks as a minority living in this polarized crazy country, where you get treated differently, and discriminated against, simply because of your appearance. The way I finally started to respond probably shocked the associate: "Listen, if you are trying to give me a hard time because you are a racist, then you shouldn't take this job in the first place, coz in your customers there will be lots of us, minorities whom you hate. Your own your twisted reasons. But you are ruining a brand by your language, attitude and behavior!" I will always remember the way you looked at me and the way afterwards she pretended to show high (and extremely high) service spirit to an white couple. Almost hyper, like unusually friendly and talkative, to wipe off the memory in all witnesses' brains. What a fake. I just felt so disappointed and upset. I called Tacoma's real manager later, who was sincere and apologetic. All I am trying to do, truly was to protect a much-loved brand, from getting contaminated. Although it never will be the same in my heart. I remember dropping the order with the associate, but 15 minutes later checked back again and finished my new order with another associate (She was nice and helpful - turned out she picked all the right pieces without any additional info other than just the keyword, and the pointing). The first woman looked much less intimidating and evil, thanks to my courage to speak up, confronting her and calling up the local manager. Hatred lives in this society. As a minority, an immigrant, a woman, we, need to be strong. Never ever loosen your nerve or be fearful. Because if you shrink back, the community behind you eventually cower and...

My Dad loves the candy here but I don't. I used to until I learned that I'm allergic to corn syrup and found out that nearly every one of their candies has it. Not a big deal if you don't have allergies but it's started me wondering about the quality of their products. I'm also very sad that every year that I go the price gets higher and higher and higher. I buy my dad a box of chocolates for Christmas every year and I've had to start reducing the size of the box I buy him. Since when does 2 pounds of chocolate cost more than $40? It's also very frustrating that the line is out the door and down the hallway around Christmas time. They used to do a kiosk in the Mall's hallway but now they don't so you just have to wait forever if you want to build your own box of chocolates. And of course everyone does so it's...

Some of the best candies out there. They have various premade boxes that can be purchased, you can create your own, or even just drop in to buy 1 or 2 individuals. They typically will give samples as well. The only issue I see is the size of the retail store, it's a little small and cramped. That may not normally be a problem, until a holiday is coming up and then the store is packed with people and it becomes difficult to look around while you're deciding...