Icing by Claire’s

I am a regular customer in this store and typically would give it four stars. The manager always greets me when I come in for shopping. However, I decided to deduct two stars because I was just in there and the young lady that was working at the time completely ignored me. At first I chalked it up as she was talking about something important with her coworker. But then her coworker left and still I wasn’t greeted. A minute later two young girls walked in and they were both immediately greeted by her. I worked in the retail industry for many years and you always are to greet each customer. Hopefully the next time I go in, I am greeted warmly.

Today was my first time in this store location, and honestly it wasn’t bad at all. We were greeted and asked if we needed help — which we didn’t, just browsing — and continued with our shopping. The blond girl working today was really nice, and offered casual chit chat (which is always an added bonus when assessing customer service).
It’s basically like a typical Claire’s store, but for an older demographic. Less «Tween» and more «Teen», so to speak. I bought some cute hair bows that were on clearance for $ 2 because who could resist a price that decent?
They have some clothes, jewelry, and bedazzled flasks (I was surprised by that one), and various other things the young adult needs on a daily basis. Overall I would say this Icing store is pretty well-​kept and decently run. I wasn’t disappointed today. :-)

We went there so that my daughter can get her ears pierced. The store was clean and organized. The lady who answered the phone gave us helpful tips for finding close by parking. She was very kind and patient with my daughter. She made sure the ear obes are clean and marked correctly before piercing them.

OH my god the jewelry they have is trashy as hell. The earring I got for $ 15 broke before I could even wear it and the sad part is it’s not returnable because it’s «special occasion» jewelry which is an excuse for you to be obligated to buy it again since it’s broken. Never again!

It’s like they decided to cram as much crap in this store as they possibly could, which makes the aisles difficult to navigate. This is especially true when there are a swarm of baby mamas with their strollers. The selection of accessories here is bad, and I hate how little room they have around the ear piercing station. The place was so crammed that I thought that someone was going to bump into the ear piercer and cause her to goof up. They really need to enforce their maximum occupancy rule.

Bad service, unorganized, and unsanitary.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve stepped foot into Icing until recently to pick up a few of their magnetic polishes they sell. When I went two weekends ago, the worker that rang me up at the register was welcoming as we had a short conversation about different types of nail polish. But when I went this past weekend, I wasn’t satisfied at all with my trip. Since their Magnetix collection is only in a small container near their register, I had to wait to be able to see which colors they had. The customers in front of me were being helped with an infected ear due to some earring mishaps. Not only did I think it was pretty gross that they were dealing with this at the register instead of at their ear piercing station, but by the time it was my turn to go up to the register, there were remanents of the ear cleaning solution all over the counter — DISGUSTING. Being the assistant manager behind the counter, couldn’t you at least wipe off and sanitize the register counter prior to helping another customer no matter how «busy» you may be? Aside from the uncleanliness, the assistant manager’s service was rude and uncaring, and I even had to reminder her to apply the sale on the polishes that seemed to be a regular discount they always have (buy one, get one 50% off).
Definitely going to try to avoid this store again unless I have a dire need of any polishes.

This Icing had decent service (any time I’m acknowledged by a Claires/​Icing employee I consider that a win) and this store was pretty good sized for the Claire’s I’m used to seeing.
I was drawn in by the fun cute Halloween costumes and some of the general Claires merch but I tend to find that Icings try to be a bit more ‘posh’ whereas Claires go all out in the pink and sparkles and fluff.
Since if I go ‘posh’ I go designer and consignment, Icings just comes off teeny bopper and cheap. Which I guess is okay for the monetarily challenged teeny boppers, of which I am not.
Meh.

Only ear piercings done here.
Nice selection of cheap/​inexpensive earrings, but since I have extremely sensitive ears I’m a little iffy buying a multi pack of earrings with a price that seems to good to be true.
This is a small store that can get pretty packed pretty quickly as it did when I was there. So on a crowded afternoon beware of shoving elbows and bumpin bootays.

Located in Valley Fair Mall.
This is a decent sized shop. I was able to purchase some nice items on sale for my neices at a fairly cheap price.
The store is a bit of a mess with stuff everywhere and the Staff don’t really acknowledge you.
This store offered ear piercing.
Good place to buy items for gilrs and tweens.

I absolutely love this store. I shop here all the time, nice employees. they offer you baskets and they have great prices for cheap bracelets, earrings, handbags, necklaces, you name it. anything accessories. ! Love it

I went today and as soon as I entered the lady told me hello, and can I help me. I did not buy anything because I had no money left. They sell cheap earings that last a long time.

I was literally inside the store for a good half hour with NO HELLO and NO «DO YOU NEED ANY HELP?»
The ladies were just talking amongst their selves and only looked at me, because they thought I was going to steal something. Honestly, I could have, because they weren’t even trying to help anyone there.
I could have bought a whole bunch of stuff, but left unhappy.

Its probably the holidays so lots of places are hiring perspective employees for the holidays. My mother in law had to return something today and it would have to the be the longest return we had to ever do. As we walked in we already got a dirty look since we were returning something. The girl behind the counter didnt know a flying F on what she was doing. She took forever with the register and then she made us write down information and she had to plug it in the register and she was like a dumb blonde asian. it probably took her about 2 weeks to do it. she had a snobby face too.

Ok, first let me preface this review by saying that I like Icing. It’s a great place to find some cheap, disposable jewelry/​accessories for a party, wedding, night on the town, etc… This one star review is due to the piss poor customer service at this particular location.
At every other Icing I have been to, I have encountered helpful employees who greet you upon entering the store, offer you a basket for your purchases, and tell you about the current sales — NOT HERE.
I consider the good customer service at other Icing locations a nice perk, not something I would insist upon as a consumer. I realize that this is Icing, not the fashion jewelry department at Neiman’s. However, I do expect the employees to conduct themselves with some sort of professional decorum. You are in a customer service oriented position — deal with it.
As noted in Angela W’s review, the store manager is a little «sassy» — not outright rude, but I like the minimum wage workers that service me to be a little less lippy and a little more, «How can I be of assistance today, ma’am?»; p Ok, snarkiness aside — her customer service skills need some work.
But what earns this store a lowly one star rating is the Assistant Manager. I believe her name is Ruth. She’s hard to miss. She’s the one with the shaved off eyebrows, drawn in Mi Vida Loca style with a sharpee and a rat’s nest beehive on top of her dome that rivals even Amy Winehouse’s tangled, Aqua-​Net drenched bouffant.
Every time she has rang up my purchases, I have received no acknowledgement whatsoever. No hello, no smile, no head nod — not even eye contact. She rings my purchases, acts like the idea of CUSTOMERS in STORES purchasing MERCHANDISE is a frustrating, foreign concept to her and has never once concluded with a «thank you,» «come again» or «have a nice day.» She is somebody that clearly hates her job — a fact I have dismissed numerous times — until today. She forgot to give me back my credit card after the transaction. When I asked for it, she literally THREW it on the counter and walked away. Ummm, WTF!!!
Only hit up this store if you want an exercise in self-​restraint.

If you’re going to get your ears pierced by a gun instead of by a needle, this location of Icing at Valley Fair is a good place to do it.** For 2 reasons: The woman who pierces is very experienced, and neither she nor the gun ever touches your ear.
Note: Go here ONLY for lobe piercing; cartilage and other body parts should not be done with a piercing gun.
Here’s what you can expect:
1. Don’t get pierced by anyone other than the motherly-​looking black woman with the word «MANAGER» on her nametag. She will sass you, but she is clearly the queen of her domain and has low tolerance for her unmotivated underlings.
2. She will make you sterilize your hands and your own ears with alcohol wipes. At Claire’s at the other end of the mall, the much younger associate wipes your ears for you (wearing gloves), but her gloves have touched many unsterile surfaces, like the lids of the wipes containers, drawer handles, etc. I thought that when MANAGER made me wipe myself she was being rude, but now I see it was for my own protection.
3. She will mark your ears and give you a mirror to decide whether that’s the right placement. I was happy with her first try.
4. The piercing studs are in individually-​sealed, sterile cartridges that are made to load into the piercing gun without unwrapping the cartridge. The cartridge holds the stud and the backing so no surfaces of the gun actually touch your skin. She removes the wrapping to expose the stud right before piercing. She used two guns; one for each ear, so there was no «reload» time between ears.
5. She is fast and sure about the piercing. At Claire’s across the mall, i watched the girl re-​aim 3 times before she pulled the trigger fully and punched the hole.
6. The pain is like: totally tolerable pinprick just when it happens, then you think «that’s it? that’s what i was afraid of?», then it starts to ache like an intense headache in your earlobe, then it’s gone by the time she pours the antiseptic on.
7. After the piercings, she pours antiseptic solution on your ear and makes you rotate the earring just like you’ll do 3x a day for the next 6 weeks.
The Package #1 (including piercing stud and antiseptic solution) runs $ 33 – 37 depending what size stud you get, about the same as Claire’s but the studs look better quality at Icing. It’s a few dollars more expensive at Piercing Pagoda (the kiosk near the Macy’s women’s end of the mall) which doesn’t seem to have a proper height chair for you to sit in to get pierced.
**To some, I realize it’s kind of like saying «If you’re going to have unprotected sex with multiple strangers, this prescreened swingers club is a good place to do it.»
I’ve read pretty strong stuff online about why piercing guns are unsterile, going to infect you with Hepatitis and AIDS, etc. I’m rather freaked out now, since I probably would not have gone with a mall shop if I had read that before, but it sounds like piercing guns have a bad rep from days of old when they were designed differently. This Icing location uses the latest model of Inverness gun (google «inverness piercing»).