Greetings

Great one stop shop for gifts. Lots of cute stuff and helpful staff. Everything I have bought here has been of good quality and I still own after several years. I try to let people know when they are doing a good job and not just come Unilocal to complain so… good job guys and thanks for carrying cool & unique items! :)

Well that’s the last time I shop at this store. Really needed a card quickly in order to drop off a gift up the street. Picked out a card costing $ 3.95, plus tax. Got to register and cashier said no credit cards below $ 6. Well that’s all fine, except when I asked if the store displayed the info somewhere, she pointed to a very small sign, with very small print AT the register. No way folks! Be transparent or don’t bother! You won’t be getting my business…

I came in to pick up a t-​shirt and found that this store has a great selection. The store manager Shelly was very helpful and I am now a big fan of the «star» t-​shirts. I find that they fit very well, are made from high quality material that will last a long time and this store has them in XX and XXX. Awesome shopping experience. I will definitely return.

This is a very cute and quaint little card and gift shop. Every time I’m in the area I make sure to stop and see what new whimsical things they have. I love that I can find unique cards made by local and small businesses. Shelly the manager is very knowledgeable about the cards and stock they carry and even showed me a card that is specifically made for their store because it is requested so often. I recommend checking this gem out if you are in the area.

I have been a customer for many years. I was in there today. When I went to the cashier to pay, he told me the amount. I gave him the money and he continued to text on his phone while I stood there waiting for my change. Shame on him. And shame on the store manager who obviously has not adequately trained the staff. I have been treated rudely by the woman who works there too.
This is so unacceptable I will never go back there again. Do not use this store. Papyrus on fourth street has just as good a selection and the staff is much more customer friendly.

Saturday the 21^st of March, the lady working there was behaving in a manner that I can only describe as racist. She treated me very differently from the two other customers who were there at the time, continually asking me if I was ready to pay, while the other customers (2 middle aged white women) were apparently free to «take their time». WTF? I never had this problem there before. She was extremely nervous and strange around me. I want to complain to the owner. I never had this problem there before, and I have been shopping there for many years. Normally, I love to come in and get unique gifts and cards there.

The two stars are for the GREAT selection of gifts and goodies — I always walk out of here with something I can’t resist. The three missing stars are for the consistently rude and/​or awkward, unpleasant staff. Without fail, I am lured into the store by the eye candy in the window, make my selection, and my bubble is burst at the register with a snippy dour employee ringing me up without a smile or a thank you. I always vow not to come back, but I do… and you’re welcome! I really have to stop (shopping here) — there are plenty of stores on Solano and in the Berkeley area with friendly service and equally tempting selections. Today my children were scolded for playing with… drum roll… the stuffed animals in boxes on the floor. This is the part that totally throws me off. The store strikes me as a child-​friendly store replete with stuffies and toys, but honestly, keep your kids away — they are never welcome here. Jeesh, come on ladies of Greetings on Solano, let’s work on this attitude, you can do better for our neighborhood! Read some of these reviews and take them to heart.

I have never written a review before but I am compelled to do so because of how rudely I was treated today. I went into the store to buy a card for my niece. I had a few raw almonds in my hand and as I was about to reach for a card the woman ran over to me with a tissue and yelled at me that I wasn’t to touch the cards because I had food in my hands and I would ruin the cards. She was in my face and demanded that I empty my nuts into the tissue and chastised me for eating in the store. I was so stunned that I couldn’t even tell her that I’m not a child and that she could have asked me nicely instead of berating me and she therefore lost a customer. Instead I just turned around and walked out of the store. Too bad since it has great cards and cute little gifts. But they won’t be getting any more of my money.

Avoid this place! The woman working there is incredibly rude. There’s a bunch of other shops nearby that are worth your time and money.

My daughter and her friend just went in to buy a little trinket and the woman working was rude to them and slammed the door on them. Not shopping there any more.

Okay, so I went in to the store to buy an electronic therapist toy. The nice woman behind the counter looked around the store with me and then called another store to order one for me (as they were out). A few days later, she called and said that the toy had come in.
About a week later, I walked into the store to inquire about the toy. A different woman was there, and she seemed annoyed by my question. She said something like «well, you didn’t pick it up so we sent it back!» I asked her something like «Perhaps it’s still on the shelf.» «No» she insisted «we don’t sell those here, only at our other store. We sent it back because you didn’t come in!» I was too stunned to say anything so I just walked out.
Overall, cute stuff, good selection of cards, fairly expensive. Sometimes there are helpful kind staff working there and sometimes NOT. Take your chances :-)

Cute cards and gifts but the woman that works there, (middle aged, heavy set) is so friggin’ rude she makes you wish you had spent your money elsewhere.
My crime was asking her for a children’s size in a shirt I liked. I swear she huffed, before she walked over and acted so put out I couldn’t believe it. It’s not like I was being an a-​hole or demanding. I begrudgingly took my purchase to the counter and paid and she couldn’t even muster a thank you. If it wasn’t the only place to buy Oaklandish shirts in the area, I would have taken my business far away from here.

Wow – can’t believe I haven’t written an update in six years.
I have bought many greeting cards, earrings, socks, knick knacks
(ie. Mr T sounds key chain and other sound key chains), wrapping paper,
tee shirts (ie «Cats for Peace», etc), soaps, lip glosses, ribbon, magnets
with cute to irreverent quotations that can be suitable for the childish to
the sarcastic folks in your life, and a lot more.
Truly a shopaholics dream come true and a husband’s nightmare.
As I say to Mr Rinky, «Greetings is made for people like me,
not curmudgeons like you.
It’s kind of embarrassing and flattering that the staff recognizes me
and says stuff like, «I haven’t seen you for awhile – where have you been?»

Greetings is your average small-​sized card store. There are Cal-​themed cards and postcards with famous quotes up front. As you meander to the back of the store, there are more occasion-​oriented cards. Center islands contain stationary and journals — the usual card store stuff. Their card selection is good, but not the most extensive or creative from what I’ve seen at other shops around Berkeley. Nonetheless, I was able to find the birthday card I needed and another «Thinking of You» card for the future without any difficulties.
Would I come back here again to look for cards? Most likely, if I am in the area. However, I would not go out of my way to come here again.

Yes, adorable little card shop. But it gets 1 star for the worst customer service ever. I have had the misfortune of trying to shop there several times when the woman who calls herself the «buyer» was the only person manning the store. I was treated with such contempt I thought for a moment I was talking to an insurance company rep.
The last time I was in the shop the store had exactly the little gift I was looking for, but I walked out without buying it because the hostility of this woman caused me to want nothing more than to get away from her as quickly as possible.
I would have assumed there was just something about me she doesn’t like if it weren’t for the fact that I have heard her, on several different occasions, being equally dismissive and rude to customers both on the phone and in the store.

This is the cutest store! They have so many unique gifts and one of the best greeting card sections! You can spend hours cracking up at the cards they have. It beats getting the cookie cutter cards at Walgreen’s. They have t-​shirts, stickers, cute wallets even cute sink guards. You can find all kinds of little treasures here! If you are in the area you have to go check it out!

Wow I had no idea how awesome this place was, ran in there today to grab a last minute gift and after tinkering around for 20 minutes in there it turned into the hardest decision ever, trying to decide between 6 or so different things and everywhere I turned I’d find something even cooler… Once I started flipping through their incredibly interesting book section I knew I had to come back another day. Ended up buying a really cool cupcake bath bomb that looked just like a real cupcake, sprinkes and everything, it was perfect. Highly recommend checking this place out if you’ve never been in before.

Great, great, great store! They have such awesome stuff, both for adults and for kids. I love their buttons. They’re cheap and funny. I got 3 of them for about $ 4!

I haven’t been in Greetings in a very long time, but I do know that at the height of Beanie Baby-​mania, my friends flocked to Greetings to buy Beanie Babies. My Grandma would also go there and buy out what seemed like their entire stock of Beanie Babies and store them away somewhere in her house, because she’d give me and my brother each a new Beanie Baby every time we saw her consistently for about 2 years or so, then when we moved to the East Coast, she would still give us Beanie Babies when she visited us or when we came back to CA to visit her.
From the other reviews it sounds like Greetings has far more than just stationery and cards! I need to go back there next time I’m in Berkeley and cruising down Solano Avenue!

I found a receipt from this place today when I was putting together my Hanukkah mantle.
I miss this store. It great cards, games, toys, silly stuff, shirts-​every last minute gift, or thought out gift imaginable.
It is too small of a space to give it 5 stars, but I really really like to shop here-​especially for those last minute gifts!