I had the funniest experience at this store (see end of this review). Other than that, my fiance and I were kept waiting multiple times at the store, with the longest wait time about 15 minutes. Mind you, we had an appointment. Our request for applying a coupon wasn't well received. They honored the coupon, but somehow did it in a way that made us feel like we committed a crime. The aisles were narrow and very difficult to walk in. Their selection of goods was pretty good for a small town like Iowa City, but overpriced. I might visit again if there's a sale, or if there's something I can't get with Amazon Prime, but not otherwise.
******************** Now to the "funny" experience:
My fiance and I talked to a store associate, who must have been very tired at the end of her shift. I say this because she didn't seem to understand what we told her about our situation and what we were looking for. Everything we said was terribly misunderstood, and I was very amused when she cited her version of "facts" about us when she made recommendations about our options for purchase. I was mostly amused at first, but then she said out loud some of the assumptions she made about us, like we must own knives and forks that were worth $2 from Walmart, or that our kitchens were in a terribly sad, lacking state. I mean, come on, I know we didn't dress up going to the store, but based on what she knew about us, those assumptions seemed prejudiced and made us very uncomfortable when they were said out loud.
Incidentally, I own pretty good kitchenware, thanks to my friends who were very generous when I moved to a new place. I have no problem buying $2 flatware from Walmart, however; I like to be frugal and dislike extravagance. My point is it's not about what I own; it's the fact that the store associate made odd assumptions about us and went ahead and said them out loud that made me uncomfortable. I'm not posting this review to spite her, and I certainly don't expect perfect behaviors all the time. But I think customer service representatives should really make an effort to listen to their customers, instead of automatically categorizing them into stereotypes.
This experience with the store associate, together with the fact that we were kept waiting for so long and her reaction to our coupon, made the trip to the store unnecessarily unpleasant for us. read more
