Diddams

Low quality store. How does ordering 10 balloons in one color and 10 balloons in a second color translate to 12 balloons in one color and 8 balloons in the other? Even if you call the day prior to confirm the store has all its ducks in a row, they still mess up! First and last time I will order balloons from this store. Never cross my mind in my busy filled day that I should allocate extra time in my schedule to argue with the sales person about why I didn’t get the order I wanted. Apparently substitution was the order of the day without any communication to the customer! I am pretty sure I would have the same low level experience going to a dollar store for balloons so why spend the $ 100+ rather than the $ 30?! Lesson learned — expect to NOT get what you want and be disappointed on your special day.

Very disappointed, I recently bought many items for a costume party ($ 140 worth!) but had to return a few unused, still packaged items today, less than 14 days after purchasing. Diddams do not take returns on ‘costumes’ as they are considered seasonal. Nothing I bought was seasonal — I wanted to return one mask, 3 tutu’s and a feather boa. I also explained that the tutu’s didn’t even fit which was whY I was returning 3 out of the 4 I’d bought — $ 13 each, «one size fits most». No, they do not. I’m a small-​medium, and I could barely squeeze into them. Yet no returns. Surely that was false advertising and I should be able to return them? It was not explained to me when they accepted a $ 140 sale that the items could not be returned. I want my money back! Be 100% sure before you buy any costume accessories here!

We had to go grab my nephew a couple little items for his birthday present, and decided to go give Diddams a try. While the store is well stocked and clean, I felt like there were some strange choices with layout. We were looking for dinosaur themed things, which seemed to be all over the store instead of in a centralized location.
In addition to a weird layout, two of the three guys working here were completely obvious to the fact that people needed help finding things. The one guy was frantically running around asking people if they were alright, while the other two were talking about cars while blowing up balloons. It does not take two people to blow up balloons, especially when there is only one station. Get off your ass and help your customers.
We walked by these guys two or three times and nothing was said to us. They just continued talking about their shitty 92 civic hatchback or something.
Not a fan.

LOVE this party store! I have been shopping here for over 5 years for everything, from Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, to Casino items for my large corporate events, they have it all.
I have also been given GREAT cus/​serv from manager Sandy helping me out with sciene experiments for my girls STEM class.
Highly recommend this place :)

My review is more so in regards to the manager rather than the store, however the store itself is woefully disorganized and out of many things. I came in after work with my husband to check out some of the costumes to get a head start on my extravagant halloween costume. Im going as Alice in Wonderland but with a twist, an homage to grunge band Alice in Chains. The adult costumes were mixed in with tweens and kiddies, and the only adult Alice costumes were a medium and 3xl… im an adult s/​xs. So i saw a childs large, which depending on the cut, usually works (especially since im going for an adult themed short length costume), and tried it on. I then went to find costume shackles and chains and notice an employee right behind me, following my every move. Yeah ok its fine i understand, keep an eye on customers yada yada. A woman by the name of Sandy follows closely behind him. She comes up to me and says «everything is final sale so you wont be able to return that childs large». Not exactly a friendly greeting, but whatever ok. She then tells the male employee who appeared to be trailing behind me and my husband that he needs to stay in the same aisle as the customer and not let customers leave his sight… once again weird, especially to say in front of the customer but whatever. At this point im simultaneously browsing their Halloween costumes and looking up my costume accesories on amazon just to gauge prices and ideas, Sandy is right next to me flipping through the costumes (not organizing as she should be, just looking through) and starts removing everything from the company Leg Avenue and yells at her employee «SEND THIS TO MOUNTAIN VIEW LEG AVENUE GETS STOLEN TOO QUICKLY HERE!» So by this point im really taking the hint that she thinks im a thief. I didnt ask her to call, but she picks up the portable phone and stands adjacent to me and asks the san mateo store iif they have Alice in a small and bellows at me «nope they dont have smalls.» So i politely said «ok thanks, im still debating on the childs, just weighing out my options. :) «and she doesn’t say anything. I decide to wait on purchasing the costume since i still have quite a few weeks before halloween, but me and hubby are still browsing the store because they do have other cute things. He hands me his backpack and our hello kitty laptop carrier we came in with so that he can use the restroom. Im kneeling down looking at items on the lower shelf and Sandy barks «is that from our wall bay?!?» And i say «what? My laptop bag? I came in with it…»
Sandy «oh well it looks like it has a price tag»
Me «i keep the logo on because i like hello kitty, here look inside»
Sandy «no i just thought it was ours»
Mind you im kneeling about 5 inches from the ground while she is standing stocking things about an arms reach above her head, so she must be focusing reallllly hard to even see whats on my bag…
So i finally have enough and knock on the bathroom door to tell my hubby «im outta here, i just got accused of stealing my own bag ive had for months!»
And as im walking out this womannos STILL FOLLOWING ME yelling «Wait COME BACK I DIDNT ACCUSE YOU OF STEALING!!!»
I go outside, unlock my bike and wait for my husband to return from restroom. When he comes out i tell him what happened and he goes in to request the manager’s name and it turns out this uncouth monster is the manager. I will have to call corporate /​headquarters and make a formal complaint. They just missed out on a buttload of money, they truly dont understand the amount of money i was planning to fork out for all of the parts necessary for my costume.

Well well well,
I am very pleased with their candy section but everything else is eeeehhhhh. The costume section section is not great and is apparently exclusive to adults. They have some party stuff but it’s all overpriced and the workers are so freakin pissy. In conclusion, overpriced and workers pissy af but there is candy

I’m not completely positive but I think they use some kind of magical helium tank for their balloons. I purchased a mylar balloon back in early May for my fiancé’s birthday. To this day, it is still up and floating… a tiny bit deflated, but still flying high. =)

Diddams has party/​birthday/​whatever occasions supplies, paper and accessories usually found at michael, toys and crafts found at hobby lobby, costumes for various events…
in short Diddams has many specialities, some pricey.
candy section to the right, pricier powell’s sweet shoppe.
buys:rocky road dark chocolate bar (1.19)
–probably paid 35 cents decades ago.
–marshmellow a fav in my youth, lost sweet tooth as i aged…
take outs:
–lots of interesting items, may be pricey, it’s not walmart nor dollar tree.

Normally I would put at least 4 stars in for this place, however I had a horrible experience this past week. Mon afternoon I went in to find those picture frames that you can write on. I asked the two employees at the front and they said if they had any they would be in the wedding section, I found 3, but needed 4. So the young man at the front desk called a few stores and found a frame at the mountain view location, he told me they would send it to the San carlos location and it would be there later in the week. Fast forward to Fri, I went to pick up the picture frame that was supposed to be transfered. The girl at the front desk said she could not find it, so she called the manager Sonia to the front. She came up and clearly has no customer service training. I told her what had happened and her response was «we don’t have no deliveries from mountain view, so I don’t know what to tell you». I would not have been so upset if she would have been more polite and done more to help me. Instead she just told me she didn’t know what to tell. I walked out very upset, and probably will not be going back to that location, even though it’s down the street from me.

i used to frequent their store in mtn view since i used to live a couple blocks away, but now that i live in rwc, i need to drive to get to the nearest diddams store… in this case, this location in san carlos happens to be the closest to me. located in downtown san carlos, on the busy laurel street, this store is pretty big and carries all of the usual party supplies, balloons, paper goods, utensils, decorations, games, candy, etc.
i was in search of some items for a bachelorette party and only found one of the items that i was looking for, a feathered boa. the quality of this boa was just ok, it wasn’t that long (i’d seen longer boas at other parties, including my own) and both ends had this strange thick thread which i couldn’t understand. unfortunately, i couldn’t find a «bachelorette» sash or tiara. they did carry «bride-​to-​be» and «bridal shower» sashes, but not ones suitable for a bachelorette party. and while they carried tiaras for little girls, small tiaras that resembled those worn by disney princesses, they didn’t have tiaras for bigger girls, suitable for a bachelorette or bridal shower.
i purchased the boa, and left, and headed to another party/​crafts store in search of the remaining items on my shopping list.
nice store, good selection, friendly staff, but unfortunately, a bit short on the bachelorette party goods.

This store marks up the toys by $ 10 – 20 over retail. I price compared 7 – 8 toys that I was buying for various Christmas and bday gifts and all but one were extremely overpriced. I’m willing to pay a couple bucks extra for local, but not give money away. Greedy.

These guys are great. I’ve been to the store before to buy some supplies for various celebrations. The service and store selection are both excellent.
Most recently, I went there to buy supplies for my husband’s 40^th birthday party. I found a bunch of fun supplies themed for a 40^th birthday, and the staff worked with me to select a bunch of helium balloons for the party. They were extremely helpful and patient in explaining all the details, and in the delivery process when we came to pick up the mammoth balloons.
Big thumbs up, and awesome local place for party planning and supplies.

Fabulous service, a million gleeful items. Sandy personally went to San Mateo Diddams to get my items. Way to go Sandy!

Sure, this place is a great party store but do not overlook the selection of toys. This is a great place to shop for holiday and birthday gifts. They carry a large selection of educational toys, games, art and craft kits, and other high quality items. Much of their offerings cannot be found at Toys R Us or Target.

Diddams is full of great party supplies for any party and costumes for Halloween. Highly recommend!

Extremely disappointed! BUYER BEWARE!!! I bought a Fog Machine and was not told at the time that I could not return or exchange the item EVEN IF IT WAS DEFECTIVE and smelt like it was going to catch on fire. My item was apparently repackaged because there were no instructions in the box.
Why buy here??? We have many other stores who value customer service — Target,
TJMax, Party America.
Defective merchandise can be returned to the manufacturer — guess they’re too lazy.

I really love this place they have everything they have 1 million different types of hats they have 1 million different colors ribbons is such a huge variety I would recommend if you’re looking for party supplies and you can’t find it at a small store come here

What CAN’T you get here?
If you want to throw a party, large or small, you can get all you need (sans food and drink) here. Colored plates, cups, napkins, and table covers in a rainbow of colors and a variety of patterns and «messages.» Plastic cups and «glasses» in a variety of styles. Plastic servingware. Balloons! Balloons! Balloons! Banners. Party favors. Favor bags. The list goes on…
If you’re pulling together a wedding, they have a good assortment of decorations, as well as DIY invitations, things you can use to make favors, and (of course) other supplies you can certainly use to throw a party.
If you want to give a toy as a gift — they’ve got a TON here, sure to please a variety of ages and interests.
If you want to decorate your home — you’ll find some beautiful candles.
If you want a wacky candy — come here. For example: Right now they have a display of candies based on Candy Crush.
Need a card? Stop in; they have a pretty good selection.
Love stickers? Check out their wall o’ rolls!
If I had one suggestion to make… it’d be that they re-​place the registers. In their current location, the lines create a blockage right at the front of the store, making it kind of inconvenient to navigate that area.

Expensive. :(
Love the aisles and aisles of tchotchkes but the prices… oy! I know how much Oriental Trading Company charges for a bag o’ ninjas, dude. And y’all want us to pony up… how much? $ 7.99? Jeez!
Sigh… Ok so it’s kinda hard to resist the temptation to shop, if only with your eyes, because there’s so much to see and play with. But the prices on everything are completely insane relative to what you’d pay… pretty much anywhere else. So I don’t shop here unless a) I have to (last minute), or b) I’m just eyeballing and grab something out of sheer self indulgence (for me or the kid).
Expensive. Really, really expensive. Annoyingly expensive.

Woo hoo for a party store that’s high class and full of great selection. This store is more like a cross between Powell St. Sweet Shop and Party City with a hint of the Constructive Playthings with all the teacher friendly items and toys. I walked in one rainy afternoon while trying to keep myself entertained since working out at the gym with my sister wasn’t appealing (considering the San Carlos gym smelled like a wrestling mat.)
There was a cashier up by the front door greeting people and stocking candy when I walked in. He asked me what I was looking for and took the time to walk me to the gift bag section and also showed me things I might have needed in addition to the bags. Now that’s some quality service there! With such a wonderful selection of gift bags, boxes, tissues and old fashioned candy, I spent much more time than I intended taking it all in.
I wish I had found this place months ago when I needed fun balloons, party favors, kids toys and crazy hats but at least I’ve found it now. The little Martha Stewart inside me is giggling with all the gift basket possibilities. Who carries 3 different kinds of Big League Chew? and Zig Nut bars and Hello Kitty candy? This place does! I’m officially a fan of you Diddams and thank you for saving me time in the future.