Belk had a soft opening a few days ago for employees and select individuals which the turnout was as expected so fast forward on today's GRAND OPENING and it was a madhouse, but in an organized chaos sort of way. The main parking and one of the side parking lots was slammed packed and patrons were steady flowing in and out going to the store. If you were one of the few who braved the queue and waited for the doors to open, Belk's showed their appreciation by offering door gifts and gift cards up to $1000 dollars. Now, I did not hear anybody jump for joy and scream so the 1K still might be available. The store was well prepared and Belk staff from other US locations were in full force to assist when needed. In addition, they offered fresh hot chocolate, coffee, water and scones for the brave souls who needed a respite from shopping or browsing. Your patient will be tested due to all..I mean all...the cash registers were queued up with patrons happy with their upcoming purchases. Now sad to say there were a couple of issues very noticeable: 1) There was a customer representative (dressed in slacks, tie and vest) who was assisting customers on both sides of the jewelry counter, so he was very focused in providing each customer with a quality interaction, when I observed a fellow female customer representative in the same area display a condescending attitude towards him in front of customers because she could not get an override key for a sale. The gentleman informed her he would be over there as soon as possible and the female employee stated to the customer in her queue, "Oh, we have to wait on HIM!." Looks plain typed out, but sounded very condescending! From what I gathered, he was responsible for the registers in the immediate jewelry area and wanted to ensure that transactions would balance out possibly at the end of the day. (Just my observation) 2) Sad to say but someone tried to get a 5-finger discount, but they did not get too far. Yes, this is a southern style store, but whoever the Buyer is for the store introduced some men's clothing with flair, so kudos!!! -More to follow... read more