Williams-Sonoma

The staff are friendly, professional, and knowledgeable. The Sunday afternoon chef demonstrations are educational and fun. I always learn a new culinary tip to help improve my kitchen skills. The seasonal offerings introduce a wonderful assortment of festive treats. The linens are lovely!

Williams-​Sonoma is listed as the premier specialty retailer for gourmet cookware in the United States, but I honestly feel as though the business has not kept pace with the changing needs of their customer base.
Chuck Williams founded the original cookware shop in Sonoma, California in 1956, and offered classic French kitchen equipment that had never been seen by many Americans. While I admit that fancy copper cookware is still the rage for many gourmet cooks, the vast majority of us are looking for something more affordable and practical.
Williams-​Sonoma has chosen to close their stores at the Citrus Park Mall and in Hyde Park Village (likely due to lack of sales), leaving only the store in International Plaza for Bay area shoppers. You’ll find WS on the upper level of International Plaza, near Dillard’s and opposite the Apple Store. I stopped in recently to search for an Asian steamer set, and to look through their selection of spices. I found the aisles of this store to be cluttered and crowded. It’s tough to move around for fear of knocking something off of the shelves.
I asked to see the selection of food steamers, and was shown over to the ones costing several hundred dollars. I explained that I was looking for an Asian steamer to make pot stickers, and was told that these would do the trick. When I asked about a bamboo steamer like the ones they show in their catalog I got a blank look from the clerk. Oh well… no sale for you!
Then I walked over to the wall display with their jars of spices and was quite surprised at the prices. $ 8 — 12 for an ounce and a half of their pre-​ground spices seemed excessive to me, and so I left the store empty-​handed. No thanks, I know where to find things that are more reasonable in price.
Sorry Williams-​Sonoma, I like your other brands such as Pottery Barn and West Elm, but you’re just too cool for me. I’ll continue to order my spices online, and purchase my cookware from a restaurant supply house. No thanks, I won’t be back.

I love Williams-​Sonoma, but I really dislike this location. Not only does it feel very claustrophobic, it has horrible customer service. I really miss the Hyde Park location.
As this is the remaining Tampa location, I will periodically go there to look at stuff in real life. But honestly, I’d rather shop online to avoid the International Mall and the insanely un-​helpful staff at this specific location.

All Williams-​Sonomas are pretty standard, high priced but trendy. You can certainly spice up your kitchen in one, if you have the «liquidity». Occasionally you find bargains (I got soft pretzel mix at half price since it would expire in two weeks). They have nice food demos followed by small samples. I love their pumpkin spread. (It’s not so fair that they mark it down 20% as an individual container but not in with the bread mix-it’s 5% then. They say «it’s already discounted so we only take it off the individual prices – which is a little shady math to me.) Not a fun store to be in when there are crowds. They lose business because they don’t post their hours in this store. The busy Apple store across the way has many people get out of lessons who’d love to shop here after but have no clue when they might open. My guess is 10 am on weekdays and 11 am on Sundays, but not sure.

Had a great shopping spree at the Hyde Park WS earlier this week and thought I’d go over to International. Few sale items left there, but I did find a table runner I liked. Several price tags on it, the lowest of which said $ 2.99. I asked a friend to look at it, she agreed, it was 2.99. Surprising, as WM prices are pretty high for goods you can pretty much get at TJ Maxx for way less. Still, sometimes I want stuff that doesn’t end up at the discounters.
. At checkout the clerk told me the price wasnt 2.99 – and showed me the correct price tag. «We didn’t put that tag on it,» he said. Uh, ok. Well I didn’t put it there, either, buster. But it’s there. «Yes but it doesn’t say (name of runner). It says (napkins name).» Yes, in print the size of an ant footprint.
«Well, since this is your error, what can you do for me?» I politely asked. «It’s not our error, we did not put the wrong tag on it. And the right tag is also on it. That other tag is clearly wrong» I asked (nicely) to see the mgr. Her response was exactly the same.
Ok, I can accept they they wouldn’t discount it even a bit after I asked. What was intolerable was the snotty attitude they both had and the implication that I had put the lower price on it. (Not hardly).
So here’s a lesson in customer service:
«I’m so sorry! It looks like a tag for something else got accidentally affixed. I wish we could do something for you, but it’s our policy that if the right tag is also on it, we can’t. I’m terribly sorry. Would you still like the runner at its real sale price of???»
That’s how you handle a customer nicely and still get the outcome the store wants. Way more customer oriented & polite, They should learn how to do this.
Won’t be returning to that store.

I love Williams Sonoma, but I loathe the location at International Plaza. The square footage is too small and it is impossible to look around the store without stepping on someone else’s toes. The register area is completely unorganized and there is no method to the madness. There are four registers, but no area marked for a line so if you stand behind someone who is making a return or has a million questions you will stand in line FOREVER!!!
Made the mistake of doing some of my Christmas shopping at this location and it took every ounce of my patience to not blow up.

My biggest problem with WS is that I want every freaking thing they carry. This store is smaller than the one in Hyde Park, so honestly that’s where I prefer to shop, but I do always pop in here if I’m at the mall and see what kitchen gadget I want next…