After two attempts to patronize this store, I have decided to share why I will never shop here. I don't like to dwell on bad experiences nor do I relish giving a business a bad review. This review is, unfortunately, very deserving! Went to the store on Saturday afternoon with a couple family members and my 5 year old nephew. There were a few people in the store and we were not greeted by any staff members, I found a bench in the corner and my nephew walked over to a small rolling seat that the staff use to help with fitting the shoes - there are several all over the store and there was a little girl pushing one in the store when we entered. Needless to say, my nephew went over to one of the stools and was just standing near it, looking at it and touching it with his hands. I was talking to him about what it was when one of the New Balance store staff members walked up behind my nephew, pushed the stool out and said "hey I need that" and then proceeded to kick the stool away for my nephew. The sudden action, loud and rude comments and general agressive behavior from this large guy (at least 6'2") startled my nephew and caught me off guard. While I was processing this very rude behavior to a small child, I heard the same employee tell the customer he was "helping" that she needed to "make up her mind, because he doesn't want to bring out anymore shoes for her"...At this point I had already started moving toward the door with my family and nephew. We all left the store and commented about the weird vibe and the way the employee had approached my nephew. We moved on to other stores and decided not to go back to New Balance that day.
On Sunday (today) my husband wanted to look at some new shoes and we decided to look at the New Balance store - he was not with me on Saturday, but was aware that we had not had a great experience - he was curious if this time would be better. We were not greeted when we entered the store - we were the only customers in the store and there were 3 employees around the register area - not looking at us and not coming toward us to greet us. We made our way to the back of the store to look at the mens running shoes on the very back wall of the store - after about 7 minutes of looking and talking to ourselves, an employee came over and asked us if we were looking for anything. My husband explained what he was looking for and the employee waved his arm around motioning that there were several displays and that once my husband had picked a couple shoes, he would go get them. Basic enough customer service, not great, but not horrible. The employee brought out a couple shoes and then watched my husband try them on, no help, didn't measure my husbands foot or ask him if he had any issues or concerns with his feet, etc. I asked a few questions about cushioning and support that were not really answered with any knowledge about the brand. We decided to leave without purchasing anything. It was an underwhelming experience. New Balance is a gret brand with a good quality product - but the employees at this specific store have very little, if any, product knowledge and give zero effort in regards to customer service. My husband and I went next door to The Shoe Mill and proceeded to have an amazing experience and bought 4 pairs of shoes, one pair was New Balance!! read more