Aartdevos Reviews

The snobbery is still next level

Updated Nov 11 2024 - Alas I should have reread this to remind myself of my last experience with this place but the lure of the materials was too great I can tell you without a doubt and this time I have a witness as a colleague came with me that nothing has changed I was unfortunate enough to have the same person wait on me When I asked if they had a certain kind of paper for printmaking in smaller sizes he looked down his nose at me and said it only comes in 50x70 and if they had to cut it for me it would cost me holding out his hand and making a demeaning gesture with his fingers that suggested that I couldn t possibly afford that He had no idea what I could afford or not Then I asked about inks for printmaking and he took out a worn book and while I looked at tiny splotches of color on the page he wandered off not coming back to see if I was ready to tell him which colors I wanted until I finally had to ring the bell He then acted like he hadn t seen me before He then proceeded to bring me the wrong colors and then try to make it seem like my fault He didn t offer any advice when I asked for it and every time I asked for an item he would ask what size I wanted without offering me any information about what sizes were available In the end despite the fact that I should have told him how rude and horrible he was and walked out instead I spent 1600kr on materials so that my local art group can be creative together later this week If it hadn t been for that I would definitely have left without buying anything Oh and he sold me the wrong paper it wasn t at all the type I asked for and I was so shaken by his behavior that I didn t check it properly before leaving Basically his arrogance is utterly unwarranted he clearly didn t know anything about the products he was selling If I could give NO stars I would Original review Over the years I have shopped at Aart de Vos in Aarhus every single time I have been met with arrogance and snobbery Their personnel really have the power to ruin your day It s such a shame because the shop has such potential to be magical with narrow aisles and a huge variety of art materials that you can t find anywhere else But standing between you and those materials are the most arrogant holier-than-thou personnel I ve ever encountered It must be in the hiring criteria because I ve been dropping by occasionally for more than a decade and it never changes You can t browse and explore the materials you just have to ask the person behind the counter And if you show any sign of doubt or not knowing exactly what you want you are met with disdain And heaven forbid you d like to look at say their selection of fine lino cutting tools You d better know exactly what one you want because that person doesn t have time to keep trotting back and forth showing you the options I mean really are you a real artist or not I hope this time the memory of how terrible the experience of shopping there makes me feel sticks so that I don t make the mistake of going back It s a weird way to treat your customers as if you re better than them They are after all the ones there to spend money and you just work there Very puzzling