Michaels-Arts & Crafts

Mediocre retailer, appalingly poor employer.
An average place to shop at most locations, a wide spread of products, with widely varying prices. Limited in quality or quantity to a true fine arts store, such as Binders in Atlanta, they sell a lot of trash level merchandise, more aimed for the wicker basket, artsy-​crafty crowd, rather than real artists.
My specific experience is with the Snellville, Georgia location. The store manager, an elderly white lady who seems to think she’s a military drill sergeant, is one of the most foul and unlikable people I’ve ever met. A paper tiger who doesn’t seem to understand you attract way more flies with honey than with vinegar. A constant nag with her store staff, and extremely unprofessional in dealing with coworkers. Will be quick and frequent to remind you of her 20-​plus years working for the company; a dubious distinction given the company tolerate employees like her.
An egotist like a fair number of building managers tend to be, but not nearly as clever as she likes to consider herself, and not always honest with the people she works with. She will spend her day yelling at her operations manager who resembles an aging, balding, and overweight Tolkien dwarf that puffs and sweats his way though the work shift, very likely not paid for the effort he puts into it. Not a likable man to those he perceives aren’t working at the company’s Olympic-​level work pace.
The store will start at a competitive wage, for a retailer, but the cons quickly outdo the pros with the unrealistic amount and pace of work expected, even for those untrained that just came in the door. This all sums up to an extremely toxic work environment, all the more disturbing as much of the staff seem to think this is normal and acceptable for an employer. Even new staff will get ‘written up’ in their first week if not meeting expectations. A company that’s not in the game for real, and absolutely not recommended, even as a part-​time position around a real job.
Management from the district level on up would be wise to reevaluate the quality of their store management, and get them to brush up on basic people skills where needed, as well as fundamental decency to our fellow human beings. Having seen both sides of the store as a customer and an employee, understand not everyone is taking you seriously as a company. The workload versus the income ratio is poor at best, and comes quite close to a legalized sweatshop, quite literally in the warmer months of the year (which are many, being the Deep South), where nothing is done to ventilate the buildings for employees beginning their shift well before opening time.

This is the perfect place to go for random crafting/​kids projects. They have frames, paint, glass, craft projects galore, beads for jewelry, fake flowers… the list goes on and on. They do not have fabric items however, but right next door is a handcock’s fabric which has tons of fabric. They run discounts on tons of their items each week and also run 40% off coupons regularly. If you do not have one of their coupons, google either them or a competitor and they will honor the coupon on a non-​sale item. The staff there is super friendly and helpful. Always love going in here as I always find what I want!