Spotlight on: Spotlight
Got half an hour or more to spare? Jump in the fabric queue at Spotlight at the bottom of the Ngaio Gorge, home to possibly the slowest shop assistants in all of New Zealand.
Seriously, where the hell do they find these people? They're a really good encouragement to forsake the easy parking and take a bus in to the fabric shop on Willis Street instead. But then you'd miss out on all the fabulous "oh my god they are so slow!" queue conversations you get to have with the other irate shoppers...
Porirua can be slow too but when I was last there it was 50% off the sale price day and I got lots of cool fabric at $1 a metre!!! They seemed very short staffed for the volume of customers you'd expect on a day like that. The staff are always nice though. My niggle about the shops is they have these great big counters for cutting material but usually half covered in all sorts of stuff so they can't be used for serving cutomers
I've been hating on those spotlight bitches for years! They do take forever, are lacking in the customer service fake friendly department, the other customers are there buying scrapbooking supplies, they don't know anything at all about fabric and the whole design of the place is hideous. There, I said it! Much better now..
I SOOO agree with you Joanna. I have spent many a frustrating day in the Spotlight queue feeling increasingly grumpy myself so that by the time I get to the front of the queue I am as grumpy as they are. It would be nice to boycott the place, but unfortunately it is rather convenient. And the Fabric Warehouse's daunting disorganisation means you spend at least as long in there trying to find what you want as you do in the queue at Spotlight. Arthur Toye is not bad, mostly they have someone there who knows something about fabric, but it's a bit claustrophobic. Global Fabrics is the shit - but they don't have a very big selection. Perhaps in this age of anti-globalisation it's time for a really good local fabric shop with knowledgeable efficient staff. Bring back Evans'?!! Asking too much? Guess it wouldn't be cheap - and we know what drives people at the end of the day.
Spotlight is rubbish, the service is almost always rude and grumpy.
Evans' on the other hand are fabulous, and they have everything Spotlight has (apart from all the craft stuff) for way better prices. Go the Hutt!
I have to agree. I have walked out of both the Porirua spotlight and the one in town having given up on trying to buy what I wanted. Obviously if there is someone in front of you with I huge amount to cut it's going to take a long time, but neither time was this the case.
Global Fabrics on Garret St all the way! And they have loyalty cards... very dangerous for the textile addicted. Fabric Warehouse, I could spend hours there - and not because it is disorganised. I find spotlight to be far more disorganised. I only go there now for overlocking thread, haven't boughtt fabric from the place for years - why would I when there's better quality fabric in town?
I've only been to Spotlight Porirua and it took me over 30 mins to get served. They were sooo rude and I totally would have walked out if I didn't desperately need the fabric. Although I could have driven into Wellington and back in that time.
Apart from the queues,lack of staff and the use of almost all their counters for storage rather than serving, my issue with spotlight is their inability to restock - there are always gaps where somthing SHOULD be but no one has had the time or initiative to restock it. And they never have basic items that should be the backbone of any fabric store - how hard is it to stock normal lo-loft dacron or black thread people?
oh and i thought it was just me!
I've found if you go early enough in the day, they can be sort of helpful, but don't try to buy 4mm knitting needles (the most common size) they never ever have any, at least not when I need them. Apart from all the things listed above, half of their products have no price tags, so you wait in the queue just to find out the price. Plus, every time I want to buy a pattern, I line up with my fabric and notions all ready, wait, wait, wait... only to find that the pattern is out of stock...!!!
Evans's are much better, though I'm sad they don't have the mega store they used to.
guys i work at spotlight porirua and its hard work the last thing we need is bitch customers like you with no patience we try very hard its not our fault our managers put hardly any staff on and have a build up of stock on the counters we do the best we can and what we can do.
"the last thing we need is bitch customers like you"
Is this part of an anti-customer-satifaction plan designed to drive away customers from Spotlight Porirua and therefore lightening the load of the stressed-out staff?
If so, it might just work.
such a shame you feelt the need to use the word 'bitch'
to start off with it's rude, and tacky.
but beyond that i suspect you would have had much more sympathy understanding and support for the problems you face. However you just lost mine as anyone refering to their customers as a 'bitch' well that's a shop i will not give my custom to.
To be a little fair towards Ayla, (though I'm totally not taking sides, just pointing something out) Kathy said in the third comment of this thread:
I've been hating on those spotlight bitches for years!
and no one was rushing to their defense. Just saying. back to it everyone.
oh yes well said and spotted hadyn
if you dish it you deserve it perhaps?
but you know i've had many a worse thing said to me in years of customer service, and even tho i secretly think other things, i am always extremely polite to their face.
actually customer service stories from behind the counters, those would be interesting.
I've always found their service pretty fast and they are all really lovely people, so i'd give them a pass on a hot day.
Was anyone of you in the queue getting like 6 different bolts of fabric cut, plus patterns?
that always slows the queue up.
Willis street is often more expensive and doesn't have as large a range. But they do have the same amount of staff.
hot tip - For lovely lush fabrics check out the shop next to the scrapbook place. No issues with parking there.