Erik Ananyan
Google
Visited for the first time today after placing an online order and creating a rewards account — through the store’s own website, not a third-party platform. When I arrived, my total came out to $93 instead of the $77 shown online. I double-checked the website (screenshot attached), and it still displayed $77 at checkout. I anticipate the typical response: “It’s just an estimated total,” but my pickup location wasn’t a mystery, and local taxes in Santa Monica don’t fluctuate by the hour. So either the website is broken or it's intentionally misleading by omitting part of the final cost to draw customers in. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a store charge more than their own online estimate — usually, if there's a difference, the total comes out lower.
The website also claims you’ll receive a first-time discount when signing up for a loyalty account. What it doesn’t make clear —until you’re at the counter — is that this discount isn’t stackable with in-store offers. While I know that’s standard in the industry, it’s also standard to disclose that clearly, typically in the fine print at checkout. Seems like they do include such a disclosure, it’s buried somewhere deep where the average customer wouldn’t see it (still can't locate it outside the google searches).
To make everything worse, they were taking down ID details at the front desk, and now that I’m trying to delete my loyalty account, I can’t even get the PIN code emailed to complete the process — after nearly 10 attempts. Overall, the sketchiest experience I’ve had in this city. Thankfully, if my data ever gets leaked, I’ll know exactly who to blame. One star.
