Barclay School Supplies

I wanted to buy some work books for my children. The staff was extremely helpful and educated on the items in the store. I was quite immpressed. Three salespeople and one cashier gave exceptional service and I thank them. I hope they receive huge holiday bonuses!

WARNING: Teacher supply overload!
I’ve been hearing about this store for the last several years. This past week I finally had the opportunity to see what it was really all about. Upon walking in I was slightly confused since you actually have to take an elevator one flight down to actually enter the store. Since it was my first time in the store I really didn’t know what to expect. Once I entered the store I automatically felt overwhelmed. The place is HUGE and seems like they could possibly carry everything a teacher would want. I took a slow walk around the entire store.
There is a very huge selection of academic posters, charts, books, flash cards, office/​art supplies, board games, decorations, and other miscellaneous items. The customer service I experienced was fantastic. I’m not sure if the man I was speaking with was a manager or not but he knew the door like the back of his hand.
One downfall is that I was looking for fidgets and was told that they usually carry them but for whatever reason they didn’t have any when I was there.
I will definitely be returning whenever I need anything to support me as a teacher. I also recommend this place to other teachers and parents as well.

I came here to buy some supplies for my classroom. It was my first time at this store. One review mentioned the lighting in the store is off. I agree with that. It’s a little dark. The store though, has many supplies and a lot of variety of things. I’m giving this store 3 stars because I think the prices here are a little more expensive than other teacher stores. Also, the customer service wasn’t great. The workers were not that helpful or friendly. If you show your DOE ID, you don’t need to pay tax.

This store is good for teaching supplies. However I think I will continue to shop with them online. The employees are extremely rude! And the lighting is just off. You fellow Unilocalers know how serious I am about the lighting of a store that sells merchandise. Lighting plays a big factor on whether or not I will make a purchase.

I wish I could give 0 stars for the experience I just had at Barclay School Supplies. If you are a New York City teacher, beware. They will not honor your tax exempt unless you have a very specific UFT card that I haven’t received in the 10 years I have worked for the Board of Education. The condescending manager then informed me that since I had already spent a whopping $ 77 on school supplies (from another vendor) he would not honor my tax exempt purchase. I explained to him that teachers spend a lot more than the $ 77 and we receive tax exempt on all purchases in all stores. He was misinformed and rude. Barclay has officially lost my business. Go to Lakeshore… They have discounts and are much more teacher friendly!

Great for parents too.
I recently started working near this place and I’ve spent a few lunch hours in here. They have tons of stuff, including great art supplies, fun activity books and a reasonably good selection of games. Perfect for parents who want to get educational, yet fun, gifts for their kids.

They have almost everything a teacher would need or a student might need for their projects.
This place is stocked. Tons of books, posters, art supplies, bulletin board supplies, and anything else for the classroom. I feel like most of the items here are a bit overpriced. However everything is here and it is easy stock up.
I don’t like their return policy. They only offer credit so be careful and buy only what you need. The credit also expires so you have to use it before it expires. The credit is also very informal. I thought they would offer a gift card or something but instead they just wrote on the return receipt and they expect you to use all the credits at once.
I still prefer to do most my shopping at a chain store with a good return policy and better customer service. However this place is an necessary evil since they have supplies you can’t find else where easily.

Great store filled with every supply you need for your classroom. Store hours are accommodating and staff seems nice. Just a little on the pricey side compared to lakeshore.

I typically go to Lakeshore on LI for supplies, but this summer I decided to try Barclay for the first time because it was accessible by the train. I was definitely impressed by the amount of unique, creative education items in this store! I easily could’ve spend hundreds of dollars and had to keep reassessing my cart and removing things! they had a great variety of posters, lesson plan books, bulletin board paper (18×50, 48×50, 24×60, 36×30). It’s a huge place, so even when there are a lot of people there, it’s still easy to get around and plenty of sales staff on the floor.
I’d give it 6 stars if it was cheaper given there is no Teacher’s Choice alloted to teachers this year. 48×50 rolls of bulletin board paper is $ 23 vs. $ 16 at Lakeshore.

STAY AWAY FROM BARCLAYS SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!! Barclays School Supplies is the worst supply store I have ever had to deal with! I purchased a gift certificate for my sister who is a teacher that just moved to Brookyln. In attempts to faccillitate her new life in Brooklyn I purchased the certificate. After a month and multiple in person attempts of trying to get access to the certificate, she was denied every time she made the trip to the store.
I live in San Francisco and had to call the store’s manager who had no idea what I was talking about, despite the fact that I purchased the gift certificate with him. All staff members were rude and had no idea how to deal with a customer.
DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THIS STORE! IT is a rip off, and I don’t care how big or how many supplies the store has, if you don’t have proper customer service, and provide the most simple kindness in dealing with people then you do not deserve any customers.
I have filed a complaint against this store, and even though $ 100 isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, the thing that hurt the most was the lack of respect and complete disregard to customer service provided to both my sister and I. What ever happened to supporting our teachers? Barclays School Supplies should have new management or at the very least provide proper customer service support.

best nyc teacher/​parent store!

They have a lot of classroom necessities and the prices are reasonable, but man is it depressing in there! In a basement, no music, low energy staff. Wow. I will not spend any time browsing, just get in and get out!

after scouring staples and other surrounding office supply store i found myself in desperate need of some incentive charts. this might not seem like a big deal, but it is when they’re required and school starts in 3 days. barclays is a bit of a commute for me from astoria, but when driving to jersey or out on the island is not an option it works.
prices for most things were reasonable (1.99 for posters etc.) they have a wide variety of posters, trimmings, books, toys, and office supplies, and in my case a very friendly staff. (despite the massive amounts of teachers wandering around and huge lines) good place to buy curriculum related books and reproducible type things too!
i could easily spend ALL of my teacher’s choice money there!

Barclay’s isn’t anything like those last two reviews. First, they are open on weekends, and close at 6pm most other days (6:30 on Thursday), they have complete grammar school curriculum kits at around $ 20/​grade, and their large posters are either $ 1.99 or $ 2.49 — affordable, even in this economy.
You are not going to find complete early childhood curriculum at Target (r much else on heir constantly-​ravished shelves) or Staples and since most of the pages in their workbooks are easily photocopied, you can use them year after year. I just paid $ 11 for a multi-​component calendar to use with my four year old (it includes seasons, weather, etc.) that I’m sure we’ll use for a few years.
Barclay’s seems to be pretty big with the homeschool set, as there were several homeschooling parents when I was there.
You can probably score art supplies more cheaply somewhere else, but I’m pretty OK with spending $ 4 and some change on a pack of fleshtone Crayola washable markers.

good for things you cant find at target. you know, cheesy posters that day «your teachers appreciate you.» or a chart you can put the student’s names on and then add stickers when they do well, etc. bad for ordinary school supplies like staplers, scissors, things like that, just cause they’re more expensive here and target is like, bargain prices. espesh in august and september right before «back to school.»
barclay’s hours suck too. i mean, wouldnt they know that the people who are shopping there are TEACHERS and so they should make their store hours a little later than school hours, so a teacher could go after work? I think they close at five or something, which is lame because most teachers dont leave work til around then!
anyway yea, barclays can basically do/​charge whatever they want because there isnt really any other competition

I don’t know how many teachers are out there in Unilocal-​land to benefit from this review, but I had a meeting here today so got to look around the store a little. The store is filled with interesting books, classroom decorations, supplies, etc. Fun to walk around, but the prices? Give me a break. I’d stick to Target or Staples unless I couldn’t find what I was looking for elsewhere. Good for sparking ideas though.