Carson Pirie Scott

My five-​star rating goes not to Carson’s in general, but to Joy, a remarkable lady at the Estee Lauder counter in the Yorktown store. All I wanted to do was experiment with a new product that had been getting good reviews, but Joy made me feel as though I were a longtime customer. I noticed on her name tag that she had been employed at Carson’s since 1979, and it was evident: She is Old School in every best sense of the word. I remember when people who worked at retailers like Marshall Field’s and Carson Pirie Scott were true professionals, and could run circles around most people in retail today. Joy provided excellent service. Was kind, considerate, no pressure. Joy helped me find the perfect product, gave me some great samples, and I will make it a point to request her when I return for more.

Not all Carson’s are created equal. This particular location has the best merchandise selection, both regular and clearance, but the customer service was mildly disappointing on my last major shopping trip here.
My first stop was the jewelry counters, where I scored a rose-​toned gold Fossil watch on black dot clearance for a mere $ 53. The woman helping me was great, and explained the coupon she gave to me with my purchase.
With this wonderful coupon in hand, I made my way over to the Clinique counter. While they had everything I needed in stock, this is where service started slipping. If I spent over $ 100, I was to receive yet another in-​store coupon for %25 off my purchase from another department. Well, she didn’t have any at her checkout stand, so went to a nearby station to get one. I then had to remind her I was also eligible for the Clinique bonus bag. I got the world’s biggest eyeroll for asking for a promotion the should automatically have been given.
I ended my retail explosion up in the Women’s clothing department, which has an almost endless selection of stylish, and well-​fitting plus-​size, brand-​name jeans. I brought my four pair of jeans to the counter and presented my coupon. Turns out the fabulous eye-​roller on the first floor had given me a coupon that already had been used. I tried explaining the issue, but the older woman behind the counter would not hear any of it, and accused me of trying to pull some elaborate scam. As soon as her tirade came to an end, I calmly asked to speak to a manager. The manager actually listened, and rectified the situation in a matter of minutes, by simply making one phone call, and offered at least a token apology. Good enough for me.

Service is very hit or miss, though I feel a lot of the fault is in the outdated system. Time wasted waiting for the cash register to work properly takes away any semblance of fun that could be had here.
First of all, you can only return products at the department from which they came. There is no general Customer Service area to take care of it. Secondly, god help you if you’re attempting to return or exchange more than 1 of the same item. I had so many issues attempting to return 2 dresses. I had the dresses in unused condition with their tags attached, I had the receipt, I had the credit card used for the original purchase. It took over 30 minutes to complete the return after the clerk had to move from one machine to the next because they kept freezing up.
The men’s shoe department is in sorry shape. They have limited sizing in new items and the people working in that area are slow as molasses. We stopped in to try and get a pair of shoes for our friend for our wedding. We knew the style and size we needed. It ended up taking about 40 minutes to complete the transaction because the man manning the register continued to misspell my name, enter the incorrect code, cleared the data and had to start over, and he informed me toward the end of it all that I couldn’t use my Carson credit card that far into the purchase (actually, I could, but he’d need to start over and NOT A SNOWFLAKE’S CHANCE IN HELL!).
Many of the women in the men’s clothing section are very helpful… when you’re able to locate them. From our first visit looking for Hawaiian shirts for the groomsmen to coming back to try and order them in different sizes, they had moved some of the items we had looked at; however, we had help locating them in their new area.
I have our groomsmen’s shirts, pants and shoes now. I will not have this CPS card much longer, and I have no desire to shop here ever again. But, to be fair, I feel that way about most department stores these days.

After shopping with Carson’s for the last few decades, I am just done The store is always understaffed, the cashiers are overworked and argumentative in general. Things really started to go down hill when they compromised quality by bringing in a top of crap merchandise so they could get everyone’s black Friday business. If I wanted Kmart items, I’d shop at Kmart.
My experiences at this store and with Carson’s in general have steadily declined. The promotions are clearly designed to screw the consumer any chance they get. And how about that freaking $ 10 coupon that was IMPOSSIBLE to use during the community days sale.
The exception to all this is the make up counters. The folks there are generally very helpful. My recent experiences at the Clinique counter were great. Steven made 2 otherwise dreadful experiences quite hilarious.

You have an employee, Lakesha Shotwell, who I’d like to shout out about!
She was incredible! I really had a great shopping experience because of her.
I was there on Black Friday and she treated everyone like they were family.

Sales associates are rude and condescending. From now on I will stick to Von Maur better quality and superb customer service.

The Jrs. Dept. sucks – BIG TIME! The Buyer (s) need a refresher course in Merchandising 101, dammit! The Jrs. Dept. at North Riverside has a much better selection.

Overall this is the most trashy store I have ever visited. Dressing rooms are messy, cosmetic testers are dirty, bathroom is filthy. Most importantly, some of the employees are very rude and incompetent. The Clinique counter is the worst in every respect. You leave this place with such an unpleasant feeling. Shopping should be a fun and pleasant experience. It’s better to go elsewhere even if you pay a little extra.

This review is in regards to the Furniture store, which is in one of the outbuildings on the NW side of the mall.
My husband and I spent a lot of money on a new leather sofa. The sales person (who all stand around chatting together when they’re not stalking you) really wanted the sale and worked with us over several visits to get it. Apparently, once you commit to the sale, they wash their hands of you.
We were told delivery in/​around 6 weeks. The saleslady was very confident in this assessment and went so far to vouch for the company’s delivery record as well. This is the 6^th week since our purchase and since I hadn’t heard anything in regards to delivery yet, I called. I was told that our sofa was delayed — by FIVE additional weeks! That puts delivery — maybe — 11 weeks from our purchase date.
1) I should NOT have had to call to find this out. As soon as the saleslady had even the slightest inkling of a delay, we should have been notified.
2) The saleslady responded to my dismay and reiteration of the 6 weeks with «it’s just an estimate». Not even an estimate should be off by more than a MONTH. I work in a business that does many estimates and if we were wrong by more than a 75% margin we’d be expected to suck up the cost difference or outright fired. Unacceptable.
3) Zero concern or accountability on the company/saleslady’s part. No apologies, no consolation offers, no problem at all with the fact they’ve just lost a customer and anyone else I might tell about this. No problem at all with the huge amount of hardship and inconvenience this causes my family.
4) There is still NO guarantee that my sofa will arrive in another 5 weeks and nothing I can do about it. I’m in my 3^rd trimester of pregnancy and 5 weeks makes a huge difference in my life.
And this is even before I’ve received the product! If there is even one stitch wrong with it, it’s going back, immediately.
In summary — buy your furniture anywhere else but here. I’ve never been disappointed at the Outlets or Crate & Barrel.

It’s a departmenot store in a mall. Seemed well staffed for a Tuesday evening. Good luck to the workers this weekend!

I am writing today to express my complete and utter disappointment with Carsons Furniture. My husband and I bought a Stearns & Foster mattress four years ago with a 10-​year warranty. The purchase was made at a Carsons Furniture, and the mattress was delivered and installed by Carsons. The bed has now inverted in several sections, resulting in major back and joint pains for both of us. We called Carsons to make them aware of the problem and to seek corrective actions, only to have Carsons respond that they are not going to declare our bed frame inadequate and thereby they will void the warranty.
As it stands, there are only two explanations for this response. It is either gross negligence on Carsons part — in failing to clearly define the bed frame requirements for the warranty at the point of purchase or installation; or their warranty policies are completely unethical and duplicitous, set with the intent to charge the consumer and then refusing to honor the warranty when the product fails.
I am completely appalled and shocked to receive such a response from an institution with such a long-​standing history and reputation. You have lost not only a customer, but also a fair amount of credibility within our community.

Service in the shoe department is terrible. I chopped it up the last few times as just being busy but on a Tuesday night it was not busy at all and the people that worked in the department acted as if they didn’t want to be bothered. I have come to believe this is a natural occurrence. I think I will stick to DSW.

Shopping be more fun, in my opinion than it is here. We were here on Saturday and I heard someone remark, «Is it Black Friday?» and while it wasn’t, it sure felt like it.
There are places you can go to pay for items and a few managers floating around but quite frankly it is a dog eat dog world in here and to quote Dilbert, I felt like I was wearing milkbones underwear.
THis store is crowded, noisy and sloppy with huge lines. And the quality is crap, I mean honestly. I bought designer sportswear and couldn’t abide being there any longer so I just bought it all and took it home to try it on. I then turned round and brought back everything but one piece the next day. The fabrics were thin and cheap and the fit just stupid for fancy names and prices. I can do better online at LL Bean and avoid the going to the mall twice to end up with one item. All I wanted was some knit tops and zip up jackets to wear on walks.
If I am spending my hard earned money, I don’t want to hate the experience. In fact, I would like to enjoy it! Not really possible here.

Meh. Selection is meh, shoes are meh, staffing in the shoe section is meh minus… never have my size… Never have enough people to help One thing that does stand out is the disgusting bathrooms. Wow. So gross. Not worth the hassle.

Sometimes when I need a little retail therapy I pop into Carson’s on my lunch or after work. That’s one of the perks and simultaneous pitfalls of working across the street from a consumerist haven.
My latest trip was to exchange a shirt I’d received for Christmas. I had tried to exchange it at the Carson’s at Streets of Woodfield, but they didn’t have my size. No, I’m not a disproportionate ape. But thanks for the compliment.
I was in and out of Carson’s with my new, correct fitting shirt in 6 minutes. That deserves being commended. Fun tip: If you’re not smelling your greatest after a day at the office, pop in for a run through the fragrance section. It’s like a shower without having to dry your hair.

This is my go-​to when I’m looking for accessories like scarves, stockings, and purses. Great selection of evening apparel as well. Lots of designers, great career separates and suits.
Good selection of cosmetics and perfumes too.

Carson’s, I have a love/​hate relationship with you.
What I love:
1) Great selection
2) Great deals
3) Friendly sales force
4) You give back to the community (Goodwill sale, Community days)
What I hate:
1) Too many exclusions to your coupons
2) Checking out always takes FOREVER
3) The attack of the perfume sample ladies. STOP! I just want to get past you into the mall, and the smell of all these perfumes together is making me nauseous
4) Your shoe department. It looks like a sty, and there are never enough people working there to assist.
5) Community days. I know, they are helping give back to the community, but I hate constantly being approached to buy a coupon book every time I walk into the store. Plus, those coupons are useless (see item #1). Please stop bugging me.
I will continue to shop at Carson’s for good deals, but clearly they will never be on the level of Von Maur.

Carson… they’re still around? They sure are and I work right next to it.
Carson’s Goodwill Sale (donate an item get a coupon for a percentage off) is going on and being a deal shopper I definitely wanted to take advantage. This time their deal was 25% off, 20% off, or 15% off depending on the item, whether it’s shoes, household items, clothing, makeup, fragrance, etc.
So I head on over on a Wednesday evening and first thing I aim for are the shoes. I didn’t realize they carry brand names such as, Michael Kors or Calvin Klein, love ‘em both. After browsing for a bit and finding those MK flats I’ve been eyeing for awhile I decided to try it on, well, this is the hard part Carson’s shoes employees aren’t the friendliest, they don’t greet you, and they are under staff. When I finally manage to hunt one down the associate ended up giving me the wrong size, it didn’t take long to get the right one, but it was very chaotic and unorganized. Oh my these beautiful MK flats are so darn comfortable, but $ 74 can I rationalize that? I debate and debate and finally decided to put them on hold.
Next stop — makeup. I’ve heard great things about Clinique exfoliating products, but never used it and decided why not find out more about it? I’m not getting any younger and I have good skin, but using products surely will only prolong aging. Steven, the Clinique specialist was fantastic; very knowledgeable and didn’t push me to buy anything. After more debating I went for it.
After more browsing nothing else stood out, after getting home I’m thinking to myself okay if I used the 25% discount on the MK flats AND open a CC I can get an additional 20% off so my shoes will be roughly $ 64, okay i can rationalize that, but my biggest reason is MK items rarely go on sale and their outlets don’t have shoes! So I returned the next day and opened up a CC, I was also able to return my Clinique products and re-​buy them to get the additional discount.
I also got some earrings and household items at really good sale prices. I was hoping to find some work clothes, but their selection on clothing isn’t great. There are some cute stuff, but limited. Overall, with the goodwill discount and the CC I had some really good buys, but now it’s time to pay off the CC, before the interests hit. Happy shopping!

I was a woman on a mission — for fall shoes or boots.
I’d already been to half a dozen other stores, and nothing really fit what I wanted. My first time to Carson’s shoe department on a Saturday, it was crazy busy and my energy was flagging — plus I noticed the Goodwill sale was happening. So my plan was to return in a couple of days, at a quieter time, with a donation so I could get 25% off my new footwear.
The good news: the shoe department is pretty large and has a nice selection and variety of prices. There are plenty of chairs and nice shoe displays. I found what I was looking for and got them at a good price.
The bad news: on this Monday evening it was extremely difficult to get help. I assume there’s some sort of commission or some bonus for the shoe salespeople, since I was asked who helped me, but there seemed to be about three salespeople and a dozen customers. As a result I sat for about 15 – 20 minutes just waiting to tell someone which pairs I wanted to try on. After I finally got them, it didn’t take too long for me to decide — and the guy helping me did actually give me about 15 seconds of advice in between running around with boxes of shoes. He never did introduce himself, so I had to describe him for the cashier as best I could.
I haven’t shopped a ton at Carson’s, and never previously for shoes, so I don’t know what the typical experience is, but I expected a little more personal attention and a little less chaos. Time to step it up a bit, guys.

This review is for their furniture store which is a separate building. At any rate, my ‘issue’ is not with the initial service. The sales clerk was attentive and seemed (stress seemed) knowledgeable during the buying process. My issue isn’t with the delivery…
My major, major, major complaint is that I purchased a fairly expensive mattress (even with ½ off, I think it cost almost $ 1500) and the fact that this sorry excuse for quality has basically collapsed. In spite of the fact that 1) I am not morbidly obese, 2) travel extensively and 3) am not a freak in bed this mattress has sunk no less than 8 or 9 inches in the center. Really?! Oh, and this is not the first time! I purchased the mattress December of 2008. I had it replaced in April 2009 and am now fighting with the store for a SECOND replacement.
Here is where it gets interesting: I had to have a technician come to verify the crater’s existence. Which he did. Now, the store says they will give me the SAME BRAND?! Why would I want the same brand?! If I do not take the same brand, they will only credit me for the value of the mattress… not the box spring?!
I am incredibly peeved because this store has not made any attempt to apologize or be flexible in their response to my concerns. Nor have they acknowledged the fact that it took them practically four months to even respond to my concerns, re: collapsing mattress?!
In short, if you need a mattress do not purchase from Carson Pririe Scott and do not purchase a Sealy! The tech even said the best brand is Stearns and Foster?!