Mabel's Cafe & Knittery
Portland, OR 97202
Phone: (503) 231-4107
04/27/2007 Posted by knitinpdx
I've been to Mabel's many times. I like their little cafe a lot, and their yarn selection, while small is well-thought-out. Unfortunately, they are awful at special orders. I happened upon a yarn for my friend's wedding sweater. They didn't have enough to complete the sweater, but they said that a special order would be "no problem" and that they'd call me in a week, when they expected it to come in. Two weeks later, when I had half of the sweater knit, and needed the rest of the yarn, I called to find out if my yarn had come in and they said, "Well, our owner just had a baby. We haven't ordered the yarn yet, but we're probably going to get to it this week. We'll call you when it comes in, it should be here by Friday." I wait another week. No phone call. So I call back to hear, "Well we haven't ordered it. If you need it urgently, I guess you could check around at other stores..." People, I wouldn't have bought the yarn and knit half a sweater if I didn't think that Mabel's would have any problems ordering more of the yarn. The fact that they just couldn't be bothered to get around to ordering it, well, it smacked of people running a little yarn store like a hobby instead of a business. And yes, I get that the owner had a baby. That means that she had 9 months to teach her employees how to special order yarn in her absence. So, stop by, get a latte, maybe get some in-stock yarn, but don't depend on these ladies to do what they say they're going to do.
Pros: Good coffee, decent yarn selection
Cons: Bad customer service when it comes to special orders.
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