Pyramid Imports

Years ago I bought inexpensive hand-​painted leather slippers at this shop. I would occasionally buy a replacement pair when I was in the neighborhood. I happened to be in the neighborhood today so I thought I’d stop in and buy a pair.
When I got to the door, there were two kids standing in the doorway completely blocking it, one eating and one texting, so I said «Excuse me». They glared at me and reluctantly (and very slowly) moved aside so I could walk in. I laughed and said «Sorry to startle you».
As I walked into the store I noticed several people standing around chatting, not shopping, their manner suggesting they were friends and family of the proprietor. No one moved to let me pass. I had only come a couple steps into the store when a woman approached me in a challenging manner and also glared at me. I figured she worked there so I said «I’m looking for the hand-​painted leather slippers I used to buy here». She replied «We don’t have shoes.» I said «No slippers even?» «No. No shoes.»
I felt very unwelcome and since access to all the aisles were blocked by people standing around I was unable to browse so I turned to leave. The two kids were back in the doorway. I again said «Excuse me; I’d like to get out.» They glared at me again and slowly moved aside to let me pass.

First she did not great us only gave us the stink evil eye. Also the prices are super high. My fiancé went to touch something and here eyes almost popped out of her head as she yelled don’t touch that. Yes thats right, don’t touch that. Not excuse me sir, may I help you, I’ll be glad to assist you. Also we were the ONLY customers in the store so she had no excuse. I can certainly say I wish I could give neg 1 star. Lady your customer service SUCKS, yes with all capital letters.

I am a dancer and I lOVE to find new places to go and get costume pieces and supplies. I barely got in the door and felt the hostility. I have worked retail for YEARS so could not understand the blatant hostility and rudeness eminating on the woman at the counter. After reading other reviews I now see she is the owner. Why do this if you cant stand people coming in?
I spent five minutes in there and will never come back or recommend to anyone as there are many other hardworking and far friendlier costume suppliers out there.

Fantastic fun! Came in right at close to grab tobacco. Did not get yelled at! Awesome! As a former retail slave, I try to avoid the last minute dash in, but I’m a little hooked on the smokey goodness.
Got my normal boxes (Melon, Cherry and Grape, if anyone’s wondering) and ran back out.

If I could give this place zero stars, I would due to the extreme rudeness of the owner. I wish I’d read the other reviews before I stepped foot inside this store.
Having been a bellydancer for over 15 years, this was the one place I really wanted to go on my 1^st visit to Seattle and I was ready to drop some serious bucks there. I found the store and was puzzled as to why it was so empty (there were hordes of shoppers & tourists everywhere else) when I entered and now I know why!
The infamous owner didn’t start following me around, but I could feel the «evil eye» vibes, so I tried a nice approach. There was a beautiful veil hanging on the wall which caught my eye (to decorate the wall of my room), but it wasn’t my color, so I asked, «That’s a beautiful piece of fabric, do you have anymore like it?» She informed me with great condescension, «That’s not fabric [a veil isn’t made of fabric??], we don’t carry fabric.»
OK, fine, so maybe at that point I should have flashed some bellydancing credentials, but I was so p.o.‘d that she would treat *any* customer that way that I wanted to see what would happen next. I replied, «Well, I’m looking for something just like that but in a different color to use as a wall-​hanging.» She replied, «That isn’t a wall-​hanging.»
Now, wouldn’t any sane shop owner wanting to make a sale say instead, «We don’t have anything else like that but maybe you could use one of these beautiful hip scarves as decoration?» Clearly not sane.
As I’m a glutton for punishment, I went ahead & looked around some more & found a beautiful galibeya (caftan) at a great price which I wanted to try on. I asked for a mirror & was pointed to the back by the counter. I hung the caftan on the only rack I could see (on which was displayed a sequined costume) & the owner snatched it up saying I couldn’t hang it there, it would damage the expensive costume, etc. At this point she started muttering under her breath in a foreign language.
I’d finally had enough and boy, I really wanted that caftan but damned if I was going to drop a penny in that rude woman’s pocket so I said, «Thank you.» & left. I went and had a nice big glass of wine to erase the only bad experience I had in Seattle! Avoid this store (and their online incarnation) like the plague.

I had heard opinions from other women in my bellydancing class and had read reviews of this place on Unilocal prior to my visit, so I was ready for anything when I walked in. I needed to shop in here because I needed to buy a hip scarf for my bellydancing class. I had been referred by my instructor and was told to identify myself as one of her students and I would get a discount.
MY TACTIC: Kill ‘em with kindness. As soon as I identified who I thought was the infamous proprietor (she was the one behind the register looking at me half with disdain and half with disinterest). I didn’t touch any of her things and went straight to her to ask for hip scarves and immediately dropped my instructor’s name.
After showing me the selection, making her suggestions (and me following them, of course), she actually melted her icyness a little and chatted me up at the register about my class, my instructor, and said that I have «the right hair» for bellydancing.
I’ll likely head back there for my next hip scarf, I like her selection and not only did she know her product incredibly well (including how to care for them), she also knew bellydancing well and could advise me based on my level of skill.
I guess the moral of the story is that it pays to read Unilocal reviews and know what you are in for!

RUDE. That’s the best word to describe the owner/​manager. (Actually amazingly inconsiderate, irritating, pedantic AND rude… but that’s more than one word.)
Like the last review, I too have a hookah from this store. Fortunately when my friend bought it for me the nice man that sometimes works in the shop helped him and I’m quite happy with the purchase. My friend even commented on how helpful the gentleman was.
So my wife and I were strolling through Pike and wandered into the shop. I picked up an outfit to show my wife (on a «sale» rack) and this woman came around the counter to scream at me telling me not to touch anything (and can’t i read the sign — which wasn’t anywhere on the rack in the center of the store, but on one small rack on the wall 10+’ away). I thought picking the hanger up on something you might want to buy would be a good idea??? Certainly if the outfit can’t handle that «abuse» you don’t want to own it.
She explained that these were much too «valuable» ranging from $ 300 – 800 dollars. I looked down at the tag clearly marked $ 99 …
Oh well, at least she didn’t beat me I guess?
She then proceeded to tell me not to touch anything else and turned her back to my face and started «helping» someone else just like she «helped» me.
I grabbed her card hoping to let the owner/​manager know how terribly rude she was and she proudly told me that was her and she owned the shop… I guess thinking I’d want to come back and spend my money there…
Too bad. When her employees work you get a good experience (I’m told), but she has to be the rudest storekeep I’ve ever encountered… and that’s saying something.
Stay away would be my recommendation (unless you see a nice gentleman working), but keep in mind the money’s still going in the rude woman’s pocket.

I have been shopping at this store for a couple of years (since it was across the street where the Chocolate Box now is), mainly buying smaller items like earrings or a gift certificate for a friend who bellydances. This time, I decided that I wanted to buy myself a hookah for home use and that I would check out their selection because I saw a sign when I was walking by that they had a sale going on. I bought myself a very pretty small pipe and paid something like $ 60 for it and the actual pipe attachment, which was ½ off with the purchase of a hookah. However, when I got my pipe home and wanted to use it, I found that there were some holes in it and that it wasn’t drawing smoke properly. In addition, the pipe did not come with a seal to go between the glass bottom of the pipe and the metal top, which presented further problems during use. I figured I would just take the hose back and exchange it for a new one, and ask if they had seals for the pipe that I could buy. The woman who was working when I returned was not the same person who sold me my pipe, and indeed I had a completely different experience with her service than with that of the man who had assisted me before. Whereas he allowed me to roam about the store freely and did his thing at his cash register, this woman watched me like a hawk from the moment I and my friend entered the store. I was wandering around looking at everything and smelling packages of tobacco to see which ones I might like, and she yelled across the store that there was no way I’d be able to smell them because the inside was wrapped in foil and when I said something like «oh, I’m just trying, I can smell SOME of them but if not it’s no big deal». She wanted to continue to argue with me about it for some reason so I just moved on to browse elsewhere in the store and look at things. She pretty much followed my friend and I around, mostly keeping at a distance, but generally making us feel like we were a couple of juvenile delinquent shoplifters or something. A friend of mine met me and wanted to go elsewhere, so I approached her and explained my situation and that I wanted to replace the pipe I’d purchased because it had holes in it. She immediately became defensive and set her face to perma-​frown mode and told me that it was store policy to test all pipes before sale to make sure they were in good working order and that after it left the store they couldn’t accept returns. I explained to her that the man who sold me my pipe didn’t make me aware of this practice nor did he test my pipe when I bought it, and that I had just purchased it a few days earlier and had my receipt with me. She took a look at my receipt and said «this was NOT a few days ago. This was FIVE days ago. I can’t do anything for you but offer a discount on a new hose for you, I don’t have control over what happens to merchandise after it leaves the store». I pointed to the sign in front of her that stated that all returns and exchanges were welcome with the receipt within 14 days of original purchase and repeated again that I had not had my pipe tested when it was purchased and that I shouldn’t have to pay again. My friend also spoke up and told her that she should help me out since I am a customer and that the sign in front of her states no such stipulation to the return policy and she said «I’m not talking to you. I am talking to HER. You aren’t the customer.»
Anyway, my long-​windedness aside, I ended up not being able to return or exchange this, and she was really rude and unhelpful about the whole thing. Sometimes, there IS nothing that a person can do for you when it comes to returns in a store, but that is no reason to be rude to them about it and I for one will never return to this place, for any reason, ever.

I agree with the statement about the clerk’s rudeness. When this store was located across the street (about 2 years ago), the staff were nice and helpful and this lady was no where to be seen. Since the move, they acquired this very rude and condescending clerk. The prices are passable, but not if I have to endure being treated badly. On top of that, I tried to strike up a conversation about some of the troupes I know shopped there, and she flat out lied about them. There are better and less expensive places to get this merchandise and nicer too.
Update: I went in there today for earrings, thinking I would give them another chance. While the clerk was with another customer, I went over to look at the price tag of an item hanging on the wall. I took three steps back to the cash register and then one end of the item fell, breaking a glass item that was on the shelf below it. I wasn’t near it; I didn’t pull or tug on it. Except for the price tag which was hanging there, I did not touch it. I walked away from it and a few seconds passed then it fell. The rude clerk admitted the item was heavy and not secured well, nevertheless, she tried to make me pay it. I refused as it was not my fault. After arguing, we agreed I would take my business elsewhere. YOU be the judge.

Either I was assisted by a different lady, or just was lucky.
While I am sometimes the latter, I had no personnel troubles at all.
A friend of mine had brought back coffee from Turkey and wanted a Turkish coffee maker. Another shop on Capital Hill told us that this was the place to find them.
The lady explained where in her shop she kept the items and where to find great recipes for using the pot (which I had never seen before, having never been to Turkey myself).
In any case, they had the one thing I was looking for and a lot of other interesting items that I didn’t need. Just like every other store I’ve successfully shopped at :)

Yay! A store where I can go meet some of my people! I’m half Egyptian, and don’t have many Arabic friends. I strolled in with high hopes–
I have only this to say– the woman in there is a bitch. At least she was yesterday.
She treated me and my friend like we were thieving teenagers, she was argumentative when my friend started a conversation about the bellydancer on the screen, she was bossing her co-​worker around, and she was dressed like a slob.
Their products are wildly overpriced, and the signs everywhere warning paying customers NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING are stupid. I could find everything in there, elsewhere from nicer people.
They have low-​quality items for ridiculously high prices. that combined with their mean, surly employee (s?) means I won’t be going back there.

A decent Egyptian themed shop but lacking in style and flare. Personally, I adore Egyptian artifacts and have a lot of statues and papyrus decorating my house. So I am always looking for new interesting items.
This place didn’t do it for me. They had a few nice idols at good prices. But nothing unique. Same with the jewelry and papyrus. A few nice wall hangings but a tad too rich for my blood. They did have a huge selection of dance costumes and even belly dancing tapes. So if you are looking for some belly dancing gear, this place has plenty. And the staff are not too helpful. Otherwise, it’s a nice shop to browse.
I really prefer the Pharaoh’s Treasure in Pike Place Market. A lot friendlier with more unique items and better prices.