*Image above is from Etsy (found through confettielove)
A big "thanks!" to GigiOfCa {of the delightful Gigi's Gone Shopping blog} who came up with a brilliant suggestion for a series of post: a city guide where JCAs can suggest which J.Crews to shop at.
This post will focus on Portland, Oregon! With so many stores in the area, it might be too much to visit them all. So if you are a local, or a knowledgeable tourist, please share what stores a fellow JCA has to visit!
Feel free to share other tidbits of advice. For example... What are your top three spots? Are there certain stores that should be avoided at certain times of the day/ week? Are there stores that have a better selection than others? Which stores have the best sale offerings?
Which J.Crew brick & mortar (B&M) stores {in the Portland area} should an out-of-towner shop at? Which stores should be avoided? Please share! :)
Downtown Portland; the Pioneer Place location. I frequent this store as my office is just a few buildings down. The SA are friendly and they tend to have large stock on sale items when the sales hit. Big bonus is Ann Taylor is upstairs, Kate Spade across the haul, LV across the hall, the Gap downstairs. Quaint mall.
ReplyDeleteNordstroms is up the block, the Rack is down the block, and Sephora is across the street. Great location! (large stock of jewelry as well!)
pacnwlvr, thanks! I am supposed to head that way next week with my sister, so this is much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteHi pacnwlvr! My stores are the Washington Square store and Bridgeport Village. God, I didn't know we had a Kate Spade! I'm checking it out! I should visit the downtown store more often, since the other two stores are more limited. Thanks for the update. The staff at my stores are super nice and helpful and they all know me. Sometimes I think if I shop downtown I'll get into worse trouble than normal...hee!
ReplyDeleteI visited the Pioneer Place store, and have to say I was disapointed. As a previous employee of the company I know the standards that are expected amounngst the sales team, and this store was not friendly nor helpful. Half of the sales team did not initiate conversation or even welcome me. Thankfully my love for the company still left me with a bag of goodies, but was disapointed in thier staff.
ReplyDeletePioneer Place is my store too, though honestly, I only really comb through there during sales. The back section of the store is reserved for women's sale items when clearance is going on (which is nice, because it's large), but it's often mixed with current items, so you have to be a bit careful looking at the tags. The dressing rooms here are smaller, and warmer (must be the lights!), when compared to Washington Square, which is the other store I frequent.
ReplyDeleteThe staff at Pioneer Place has always been nice to me; even with lots of returns in hand. No judgmental looks or comments. They don't hesitate with the "return/rebuy" game that I sometimes have to play. The staff in the past has met online pricing, but the turnover at this store is high, which may explain why the customer service may be spotty.
I was told that the Pioneer Place location was to be the Collection Store for OR (although I would think Bridgeport would be a better choice) and Washington Square was the Crewcuts location. The Crewcuts section here is small (I also go to the Palo Alto, CA location on occasion and it seems larger there). DH only frequents the Pioneer Place location because it has a larger Men's section for him.
Pioneer Place requires store validation for store parking (I think it's $25 now for 2 hours), and it's easy to spend an afternoon downtown (Williams Sonoma and Banana Republic are all within walking distance to Pioneer Place which contains the other stores mentioned). Mario's is another fun place to browse for higher end items. Mercantile is another store that is a few blocks away too. Washington Square and Bridgeport Village are good if you don't want to worry about how long you are parked! :)
Even though I don't live in Portland I had the opportunity to visit ... I really enjoyed the downtown location {Pioneer Place} great sale section & the store is really pretty ... Love the staircase ... While you're in the area make sure to visit Nordstrom ... It's one of the best I've been to ... Oh & no sales tax!!!
ReplyDeleteI bought the NIB Lexington Zip Booties (black, size 8.5) that I'm trying to sell on JCA from a couple of falls ago at the Pioneer Place store. I'm from California, so am use to paying sales tax. What a treat not to! Of course, then I arrived home and thought "I really don't need these," hence the post to find them a new home.
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