Williams-Sonoma
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5653 Bay St(between Christie Ave & Shellmound St)
Emeryville, CA 94608 (510) 658-6358
9 Reviews for Williams-Sonoma
So I needed a heavy-duty spatula for my soap-making process. While in here, I also saw a big jar of apple pie filling that sounded divine.
It was a payday..so I simply handed over the visa, signed on the dotted line and sashayed my rich-for-the-day ass out of this place.
When I got home and saw I just paid $20 for fuckin APPLES.. I was pissed at myself. Mama didn't raise no fool. Though, mama did raise a chick that was stuck with a $10 cake spatula, as I had to make the soap.
So, while I was unable to exchange the spatula, I was able to take the over-priced apples back and redeem some of my bargain-brain power.
All the employees are SO friendly, they are almost annoying. I don't like that much attention when I shop.
If you're a dual-income family live in Piedmont or Moraga you might be a perfect candidate for shopping here and filling your fancy lil kitchens with wonderful, pricey, Williams-Sonoma garb. However, if you are a single-income chickie with budgeting/saving issues... head straight to Longs on Pleasant Valley Ave. and you can find most of the same kitchen utensils there for a fraction of the price.
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Oh my god......I love this place. I really do. Truth be told, I used to have no business in a place like this. Then I got married and was thrust (willingly!) into the world of domestic bliss. My husband and I absolutely love this place and love buying fun gadgets for our kitchen; kitchen torch, chocolate shaver, bundt pans, etc, we love it all!
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I almost feel bad about writing this review, and giving Williams-Sonoma such a lousy rating. Almost. The reason is that I actually love W-S. I like cooking, I love good tools and gadgets that make your life easier, and I'm into classical-looking quality cookware, like French linens and German knives.
But I had one of the worst customer service experiences in a while here. Let me start from the beginning.
Me and the ol' ball and chain (that's meant to be a joke, peeps) came in at around 4.45, after grabbing a delicious cupcake own the street, to pick up something for our friends who are getting married this weekend. They're registered, so no worries, we figure. There are perhaps 2-3 customers besides us, and just as many staff. We go up to the computer for wedding registry, but it doesn't work. So we go to the counter, where a girl (who, admittedly, was friendly) helped us out. She went on her computer and quickly printed out the registry. So far this is a charm, we think.
We take max five min to pick up an item from the list, and go up to the counter. The same girl informs us that unfortunately, they can't check the item off the registry at the moment, and she's not sure why. Something about the system not working. She offers to get the comps rebooted, which will take ten minutes, and then try again. So we walk around for 10 min, and then come back, when a different member of the sales staff says that we can pay for the present, but he can't check it off the registry, because, he says, "it's a world-wide problem, not just us". I don't give a s#*t. But fine, hopefully no one else will buy the same item, which would make us look like chumps for not having it checked off on the registry.
So we pay, whereupon the guy asks what we want him to do with it, in a tone that sounds like we're bothering him and this is sooooooo not his job. We're sort of perplexed, and say, "well, do you do wrapping here?". He rolls his eyes, and says that we'll have to wait 20 minutes if we want it wrapped. OK, we can wait. We can look around shitty Bay Street (yeah it has an Apple store, but I'm not allowed in there for reasons of domestic peace) and eat another cupcake. So we walk around for at least 30 min, and then come back.
A third person asks if we want help, and we tell him that we were told to come back for something to be wrapped. There is one, yes one other customer in the store, who was waiting when we came back. After a minute or two, "our guy" appears with a wrapped package for the lady waiting. He sees (but doesn't acknowledge) us, and disappears again. We're expecting him to come back out. Maybe he just wrapped all the presents at one time, or maybe they do something extra special and fancy for wedding presents... maybe.
We wait for another 10-15 minutes. By this time we've already seen, touched, tried and swung (they're pans, yo) everything in the store at least twice. The same guy who asked us once already, asks us again if we're OK. Yeah, I guess, is our reply. We wait some more. after another 5 minutes, he comes back and says "is Greg (or whatever the other dude's name is) getting something for you in the back?" Yeah... we hope so... we really do.
After appearing empty handed, again, and disappearing just as quickly, our man with the magic wrapping comes out, with the package wrapped in totally ordinary wrapping paper. (What, no gold? No diamond-encrusted ribbons? No hand-pressed paper wrapping or card made from the bark of some rare Tibetan tree?) He hasn't even finished wrapping it yet. So he quickly ties the ribbon around it and mumbles something about "sorry for the wait", and we leave.
In total, getting something from the registry and getting it wrapped took 2 hours and 25 minutes. I am not kidding! We took not 10 minutes to find what we wanted and bring it to the counter. But to get it taken off the registry.. or not, and to get it wrapped, apparently, is a big deal. It's hard work, and something that need to be planned in advance and takes its sweet time.
Now I could understand the wait if it was holiday season, and the place was packed, but it was practically empty, and it was a Thursday afternoon on a windy October. They should be anxious to help you they're so bored. To boot, when "our guy" whispered to another staff member about being so busy, he said "well there's just the two of us right now". EXACTLY! Two of you! And two customers! How can that be stressful?
This place get two stars for the fantastic stuff they have. It's all incredible. But the staff were not up to par. Go to the one in the city. It may just be quicker!
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I decided to splurge, since I had a $100 gift card:
Glass Butter Dish - $6.00
Deluxe Collapsible Collander - $29.95
Peugeot Chocolate Pepper Mill - $36.00
Cipriani Tagliardi (on sale) - $2.99
Hmm... I still have a little credit left....
What else can I buy?
ah.
5-piece Mauviel Copper Pan Set - $499.00. That'll do...
Excellent service, particularly from Judy on my last visit. I'm still too busy admiring the Mauviel crate to even start admiring the pans (don't worry, I'll get there soon enough).
I love this place!
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I hate Emeryville. It's wretched. It's really artificial development catering to Bougie professionals. Okay, I'm a bougie professional. And Emeryville, as well as stores like Williams-Sonoma cater to people like ME. Yes, ME ME ME.
My dirty little secret is that I buy expensive pots that not only cook well, but impress my bougie friends. I now have a bunch of le creuset pots and pans. I LOVE them. They are bright yellow and I am in love with them. I cook my lamb stew in them - that damn dutch oven is so worth it - even at $225. 5 stars for the bougieness...and 5 stars for the le creuset.
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I love all things that have to do with cooking/kitchens. I may not buy anything, but I can peruse through the appliances, cookbooks, copper pots and pans forever. Seriously, forever. I love it.
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After my relationship domesticated me, my husband and I wanted to splurge for a really nice knife set. We browsed around Williams and Sonoma and found that they had a really good knife selection.
The salesgirl was very helpful and gave us good advice. She said in her opinion, a particular brand of knife wasn't necessarily superior compared to a lesser known brand. (I'm referring to the higher end brands, ie Wustof, Henckels) It all depends on how comfortable the knife feels in your hand. She said most people who are serious about their knives have an assortment of different knives of different brands...bc each type of knife feels different.
I guess we were pretty clueless about knives at that point. Everyone recommended Henckels to us so we were pretty dead set on getting that particular brand...but we decided to get different brands, depending on what kind of knife.
well, at least our collection is finally growing!!!!!
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I love Williams Sonoma in Emeryville and the location Downtown as well. Both have an excellent inventory and have really well designed and unique stores. Very crisp and clean and welcoming. The staff is absolutely wonderful at the Emeryville store. Last Christmas I was buying their cookbooks as a present and the sales associate and I geeked out about gift wrapping ideas (I am really into gift wrapping) for about 25 minutes. Sometimes they will even offer you treats! And yes, the prices are higher than some of their competitors. If this is an issue for you that I suggest Bed, Bath & Beyond. But if live in Oakland/Emeryville and you want a wonderful shopping experience, definitely hit up Williams Sonoma in Emeryville. There aren't many other options in that area.
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hey i love this place, my mom bought a rose bunt cake thingie from here.. their cake mixes to go with it, is DELICIOUS! people are very friendly and helpful :D
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