I was initially very happy with my experience here but things quickly went sour. The women I dealt with in the shop were WONDERFUL. Very helpful and incredibly pleasant. I spoke to one who taught classes there and she got me excited to better my sewing skills through her various teachings.
When I had a question about the functionality of my machine (I'm a beginner), the woman at the register brought out a man from the back to help. He spoke to me in a very condescending tone and made me feel awful with each word out of his mouth. He basically told me my machine was crap, (despite the women telling me it was a perfectly fine starter machine) and then tried to sell me a new one at 3x the price of my current machine. After telling him I didn't have the money to spend on a new machine, he turned even colder, apparently upset by having had his time wasted.
When it was finally time to checkout, one of the women returned to help and mid-transaction he returned and stood between the cashier and myself (no more than a foot away from me) and tried to quietly tell the cashier that I didn't know how to even thread my machine, she struggled to hear him and even she seemed to be put off by his behavior at this point.
I've always loved fabric and sewing shops because the staff is usually overly friendly and helpful but clearly this is an exception to the rule. I had planned on returning for classes and to eventually upgrade my machine as I'd rather support a local business when possible but now I will gladly get my machine from an online merchant and will find classes elsewhere.
The problem here is obviously with the man I encountered and not the rest of the staff but, sadly, he appeared to be the owner or at least a manager. If the women could keep their socially inept boss in the back, I would gladly return. read more