I went to El Palacio de Hierro specifically to go the home section, as I was looking for some…read morespecific items and didn't want to go to a bunch of different stores. While I scanned some of the other sections, and spent some additional time in electronics, my review is focused on the home section on the top floor.
Part of Palacio de Hierro contains individual boutiques by high end designers. The area is lovely and interesting to walk through. The home section is on the top floor which also contains a Nespresso cafe, wine and liquor, and sweets. Since there is some kind of construction going on in the building, getting around is a bit confusing. There are arrows everywhere, but they don't always make sense. I was able to make my way up via escalator, but could only find the elevator to go down.
Once I made it up, there were "promotores" everywhere. This made it seem like there were plenty of people to help. There were plenty of people. They were not particularly helpful.
After I got the lay of the land, I looked for someone to help me find an electric kettle. They had a ton of SMEG products, one gooseneck, and one other regular one. SMEG products are beautiful, but they don't last well, and I didn't want a gooseneck. The promotora who helped me asked someone else in another area if they had electric kettles, since it was a different area, they did not. She then told me that the only one available was the display model. However, when I went to check out, the cashier found a new one in box.
Another promotora could not find the price sticker for a set of pans I was looking at. Once I helped her find it, she was quick to help and went to the storage area to get the box. When she came back, she immediately went on break.
I was looking for some new sheets and spent some time in the bedding area. They only carry a few brands, and they are all high priced. I was interested in some of them, but I could not find a promotor to help. Some were on phones, and a bunch were at the counter with one customer.
The promotores in the vacuum section were eager to help, but that wasn't on my list today. Once I was done upstairs, I went down to the basement section (S1) to electronics. The promotores in this area were more helpful and seemed to have a lot of product knowledge. They also didn't seem as constrained to tightly controlled lines of products.
Leaving the store from the basement was confusing. There was no clear exit path, and I asked for directions go get to the exit.
Unless I was knew what I was looking for, I would not go here again. The promotores were shocked when I said I didn't want a SMEG product for quality reasons. They lacked knowledge of products that were available in the store ("let's just go online and order it"), in some areas they seem constrained, and in others it takes three people to change a light bulb. For the prices that products in this store demand, I expect better.
In addition, the temperature in the store was slightly high, as was the humidity. Sweating in El Palacio de Hierro, on a winter day, just doesn't seem right. Based on what I saw around me, I was not the only one.
The store was dirty. There was a layer of dust on everything, and it wasn't new. This was clear based on the dest grownd into tape and labels on packages, and into boxes. I was at the store 2.5 hours after it opened, and it had not been cleaned yet. This is a high end store. Yes, it is Monterrey. Yes, there is some construction. Still this is El Palacio de Hierro.
Pros: You will find some brands and product lines that you will not find other places. You may find some items on sale that are not marked as such.
Cons: The sales staff are not always helpful, and some do not know much about the products they carry and are trying to sell. The store is stuffy and dusty.
