Chanel G.
Yelp
After much deliberation (and internet connection mishaps), I am writing this review.
I came to this store last week after my mom met me for lunch. After we parted, I went ahead and came to Union Square (as I work right around the corner), but it was way too early to go to work. I decided to visit this Blick to buy a few things and kill some time. I just found about its existence a week before when a coworker and I walked by it one night after closing. I came around 3:00-3:30PM after sketching in Union Square.
When I came in, an employee greeted me, always a plus. This store seems understaffed like most Blicks, though. It's smaller than the one on 6th ave, which is where I go occasionally for art supplies I don't simply order online. I found what I was looking for- a caliper and a few new pens for sketching. I sculpt, so I was looking at their clay section, which had a good amount of products. Overall, a decent selection for a small store. I've only occasionally visited Blick since I graduated back in 2014, but noticed their prices have gone higher and higher since they joined with Utrecht. There were some things I thought of buying but decided to check the prices elsewhere. Overall, a three or four star rating.
So why one star? Because a guy (who was obviously loss prevention), was following me around the store. A tall black guy in a black suit with a sort of "crew cut" like hairstyle. I've taken a security guard class before, so I'm familiar with their techniques. Furthermore, in the retail store that I work at, we employees work closely with LP. Now, loss prevention is supposed to check on customers, but this was was the most blatant, targeted experience I've ever had. Discrimination at its finest.
I wasn't even in the store that long before I noticed him tailing me, maybe only a few minutes. I was looking at mechanical pencil leads when I went around the corner to the next aisle. I saw him pretending to look at some merchandise on the end of the aisle. That's fine. LP does "fake-shopping" to keep and eye on customers. But as I kept going through aisles, he was still doing the same, always happening to be near the same aisle I'm in. Then one time, he tried to walk from one aisle to the next. He was so busy looking at me that he ran into another customer! That's when we first made eye-contact, as he darted back towards the way he came. That's when I first suspected he was tailing me with certainty. As I wanted to burn some time, I visited most aisle except the painting and paper aisles. Just trying to take my time and relax. But I couldn't enjoy myself. As I started moving more often, he started to do a sort of brisk walking back and forth between the aisles.
He kept up this odd, quick pacing back and forth, always making sure to peek in whatever aisle I was in. By this time, I had made eye contact a few more times already, and most LP associates (that actually know what they're doing) know when you should back off and not make it so obvious you're tailing customers. But not this one. It got so ridiculous that at one point, I visited a section I had no interest in just to see if he was still following me. I went to the Moleskin notebooks on the far side of the store and yep, there he was. Now, I had enough and finally went to the checkout line just to pay and leave. It seemed here that he had finally stopped.
Wishful thinking. The LP guy hadn't stopped. There was only one person ahead of me in line, but the only register open was on the far side of the store almost near the entrance. At the register, I saw the LP guy go up to the sole cashier and say something to him in a low voice before walking off. When my turn to checkout came, the cashier was still friendly, but the air about him was off. He seemed guarded. That's when I realized the guy probably told the cashier to watch out for the "shoplifter." The nerve! This LP guy really thought he was tailing a thief when he was just making a normal customer miserable! I should have left the stuff I was going to buy at the register!
For anyone reading this, you can decide if this was the isolated case of a badly-trained, woefully ignorant LP associate himself, or something the manager himself condoned . For me, it doesn't matter. All I know is that I won't be coming back to be tailed like a criminal.
Was this experience enough to keep me from going back to any Blick, forever? I buy most of my art supplies online now with my Prime account, so this experience has pretty much cemented my transition to online. Even in Blick/Utrecht stores where I feel I wasn't tailed, I'll remember this experience and shop elsewhere.
P.S., to the ignorant LP associate who ruined my day- people of all colors steal. My own store gets robbed blind of a million $ each year. If you think only following people like me will lower your theft, you're missing out on most of your shoplifters. In fact, someone probably stole something while you were following this honest customer.