Richards Variety Store

Our family and several patrons will never step foot in the store again after our experience in the store.
Trying to return a Rubik’s cube for store credit since it doesn’t work correctly. We know the store policy «NO» returns. Simple a store credit would’ve been fine. The man expressed his displeasure and was acting as if it’s our problem. Crazy part was, it’s my sons birthday present and trying to explain to man the defects. If you could open the package prior to purchasing them that would be one thing. But you can’t. The clerk was extremely rude and so was the owner.
There was serval customers in the store hearing all of these complaints and the way they handled the situation. Several of them walked outside and said they too would never step foot in the store.

I always shopped (a lot) at Richards Variety Store, until today when I asked the cashier for an extra plastic bag so my 6 year old niece would carry her shoes that were soaking wet and he said no, he could not give me one plastic bag. I will never shop there again and I have told several friends about it.

If you happen to be in Midtown in a funky mood go into this store and you’ll find something to smile about. Variety is the key word here since they have books, rubber chickens, antique furniture, cookie cutters, sage sticks and the list goes on and on. Those board games and toys you played with as a child that you’ve forgotten about, well Richard’s Variety has them. This is an awesome and fun place.

I’ve had some horrible retail experiences in my life, but never have I had a store owner call the police to have me forcibly removed from their property because I was trying to return a $ 7.00 defective book light.
Yesterday I purchased a few items from the Richard’s in Midtown, including the $ 7.00 clip-​on LED book lamp for my daughter to take to choir camp over the Labor Day weekend. When we packed her bag last night I opened the lamp and clicked the button but it wouldn’t turn on. No big deal I went to Target and bought a different one.
Today I tried to return it to Richard’s. I had the receipt and package and had only had it in my possession about 18 hours. The cashier stared at it for about 30 seconds until I finally asked him if there was a problem. He said he had to call somebody «in the back» to look at it. A young lady came up and took it from him and walked away. I asked the cashier why I couldn’t just get a refund and be on my way as I was going to be late to an appointment and he said «a technician is repairing it.»
Technician? I came for a return, not a repair. I already bought a different light. After about 10 min the young lady returned and said «Ming said to give her another one.» But I explained that I just wanted a refund, that’s all.
Soon Ms. Yang appeared and asked me «what the problem?» I explained that I wanted to return a defective light and didn’t understand why this was so difficult. She said «you can’t leave lamp on 24 hours or battery die,» insinuating that I was responsible for the defective item because, in her imagination, I left it on for 24 hours. Why assume her customers are dishonest?
I asked her to just return the item and she said: «This LED light — not defective. Maybe bad battery. No refund because it not returned in perfect working condition.»
I felt like Alice in the rabbit hole: I was returning the lamp because it was broken but I couldn’t return it because it was broken. It would’ve been kind of funny except she then told me she had enough and ordered me to leave her store. I said I wanted to leave, I was late for an appointment, all I wanted was a simple refund. At that point she picked up the phone and said «I call police now, this private property and you trespassing.»
Never in my 35+ years as a retail consumer have I had a store owner call the police because I was trying to return a defective item. I never caused anything resembling a «scene.» I listened, flabbergasted, as she gave the police my description as if I were a criminal: «Ya, she about 40, chocolate top, blue jean, brown sandal…»
I stood near the doors and waited for the police. Meanwhile, Ms. Yang and the cashier hunted (unsuccessfully) in a drawer for a screwdriver so she could fix the lamp, I guess to show the police it wasn’t really broken?
A young officer soon came and asked me what happened and I told him that I just wanted to return a broken lamp was refused a refund, and explained that I was happy to leave as soon as the refund was issued. Ms. Yang then told him I was yelling «Defective! Defective!» all over her store and wouldn’t leave.
The officer was sympathetic, but explained to me that mine was a civil matter, and if Ms. Yang wanted me off her premises, indeed he would have to arrest me for criminal trespassing if I didn’t leave. So I left before I was taken to jail.
Don’t let the fun toys and cool gag gifts fool you — this is not a friendly place. I hope no one else ever has to suffer through this abuse and humiliation. In Ms. Ming’s store, «the customer is always wrong.» If not a liar and a criminal.

Found this awesome shop via Unilocal and it was exactly what we were looking for. Great gifts for ANYONE! Tons of unique puzzles and wooden toys for children and great adult gifts like The Big Lebowski kit inclusive of the «Little Urban Achievers Award.“I was impressed to see it also offered furnishings such has rugs and lamps. It’s a great location as well, Trader Joes is next door.

Great spot! Cool merchandise. We were looking for cards for a special event and they had just about everything you could ask for. I would highly recommend a stop here. It;s like the old five and dime stores form when I was much younger.

Officially in love. Everything you could ever need. Unicorn masks, novelty items, unique greeting cards, weird food gadgets, coffee table books, fun mugs… You name it. This place rocks.

NEVER shop here. I simply went to return something was made to wait for over 5 minutes while the owner inspected it. Then told me it worked when it clearly didn’t. I expressed my disappointment that a toy store I regular would fight me on a return and a man name Jack told me to «shut up»

Awesome store with awesome variety. The bad customer service ruined the whole experience for me and I left empty handed :-(

Dear owner (Jack) — do you see all the reviews on here noting your rudeness and ridiculous behavior toward customers? Add me to the list. At what point will you realize that you are the inappropriate one and not all of your customers? I will never return to your store and I will tell others of my experience. I guess you can get mad at the Internet now too and kick it out of your store…

How can you not love Richard’s Variety Store?
Childhood nostalgia.
Unique and quirky gifts.
Non-​traditional greeting cards.
Household goods you didn’t realize you needed.
Old and new toys.
Candy you haven’t seen in ages.
Helpful staff.
You can spend some time perusing the aisles and finding things to buy for yourself and others. For something different, go to Richard’s!

Buyers beware! Although this place has a lot of neat stuff, they have a seven-​day return policy after which they will not give any kind of refund or credit. I purchased a bicycle pump there. The first time I tried to use it, about three weeks after I bought it, the nozzle broke off. When I went to return it, I was told they will not give me money back because more than seven days had passed. When I asked where the seven day return policy is posted, I was directed to a totally obscured handwritten sign on one check-​out counter that was covered up my merchandise.
They sold me a product that was simply unmerchantable. What’s worse is that the manager I spoke with was extremely rude and offered no apology for the poor product I was sold. I have shopped here for years, along with my family, for gifts and just for fun. Not anymore. They just lost a family of customers over a crappy $ 12 bicycle pump. Nice move.

Who doesn’t like this store? The place is awesome. Along with browsing through tons of old-​school toys, novelties and cookware doo-​dads, I like their selection of jigsaw puzzles. Browsing Richard’s has been a must-​do, post-​movie thing for us.

Please do not shop at Richard’s Variety Store. I have never been treated this way in my entire life by a business.
They have amazing toys there and it’s a great place to buy gifts. My family has enjoyed coming here for years and we have spent hundreds of dollars on great gifts for our extended family each Christmas.
BUT… the man who manages the place is extremely hostile and unkind towards children and adults alike. We were stalked around the store the entire time and badgered every time the kids were looking at the toys that they set out to play with. They have passive aggressive signs littering the entire store about don’t touch this and don’t do that and minors not allowed without adults, etc.
This particular day my daughter was looking at a toy and for literally thirty seconds I turned away from her to put a book back on the shelf. When I turned back around he demanded to know if she was mine and commanded me to pick up the toy that she had just decided to set down. We weren’t tearing up the place. I was actually putting a book back where it goes. RELAX. I’ve got two kids. I’m watching both of them and trying to shop for gifts for them at the same time. And I’m doing a good job of it thank you very much.
He has acted this way towards me and other customers overtime he is on duty. I have seen him take shopping carts away from people in line and made them hold an armful of items so other customers coming in could use the carts. I have seen him badger, harass, and generally make people uncomfortable. He stresses everyone out. You can’t come in and just enjoy yourself, because he won’t allow it.
I had enough this time and asked him why he made everyone feel so uncomfortable. He replied, «not everyone, just you». He got in my face and I felt physically threatened. I never cursed at him, didn’t yell, didn’t call names, didn’t do anything but question him about why he was treating us this way. I asked for his name and he refused to give it. Then he proceeded to throw my children and I out of the store. For nothing more than daring to question his behavior.
I will never go back there, except to lay out my grievances with the owner, who I understand condones this manager’s erratic behavior. If you look through other comments on Unilocal you’ll see they got four stars because most people come and go without incident. But you’ll also see a litany of complaints of rude behavior by management and staff, so I know I am not alone in this.
You may go in here a few times without incident, especially if the bearded angry dude is not on duty. But your number is bound to come up at some point and when it does, it may be your kid that he snaps on or you or your spouse. It sucks to say I refuse to go back, but I can’t support this kind of behavior. Just because your store has cool stuff and a long history, doesn’t give you the right to treat people terribly. I don’t wish the people ill. I have no idea what has made this man so angry in life that he treats people this way, and who knows what someone’s life story is. Maybe he’s been through some crap. But I won’t be bringing my kids in there anymore because he’s consistently like that.
Please, do not shop there. Don’t give money to an owner that won’t address how their manager is treating people.

An eclectic place, but fairly expensive. Came here for journals and postcards. They didn’t have any loose cards, only a few boxes in the $ 10+ range. The journals are all $ 12+ with a few at $ 10. Most of what i needed i found on Amazon for 30% less, so at least a nice place to look. Otherwise just an everything store.

Such a great place to venture for gifts both serious and funny occasions.
Every time I go everyone is supper friend and nice.

I love this place, you could really lose yourself with everything that they have going on. They have games that you grew up with or maybe forgotten about, they even had some things that I never knew of as well as some things for the little ones. I loved that they had a variety of learning items for little ones. You can literally find any and everything you could be looking for. Where to start… picked ip a few items items for a bachlorette party, cool kitchen items, books, little knick knacks for others when the time arrives, cards and so much more… I’m pretty sure my bf got tired of me saying… oooh you remember this or how cool is that. Everyone should go in atleast once and it will become your go to spot for a little piece of wonderful.

This shop is one of the most fun, quirkiest, most random and crazy/​eccentric stores I have ever visited. I have yet to find a store to match Richard’s on all of these levels, which is a bummer, since I no longer live in the area. A visit back to ATL means a trip to Richard’s especially if I have a random need for a hostess gift, birthday card, random gift, something for a kid, etc. For example, the last time I stopped in, I found a ton of gifts that were fun and appropriate for my friend’s 18-​month old, a bunch of silly grown up gifts for a hostess goodie bag, décor and party goods for an event, oh, and some functional things like a broom and light bulbs. And then I decided maybe I needed to buy a bunch of cards and other silly crap. It was so much fun, and I spent like $ 80 without even blinking… and I bought a lot of stuff.
Seriously, go to Richard’s. It’s weird. It’s fun. You’ll laugh. You’ll find random crap that you insist you need. And random gifts for everyone you know.
Yes, their return policy totally sucks, but places that are eccentric in the way that Richard’s is never are super customer-​focused in this regard.

Richards Variety Store truly is a «Variety» store. I am really sure how to describe this store other than saying, «imagine a dollar store, except with expensive things!»
That being said, dollar stores are awesome and fun to shop at. This is the best store to look for gifts. The only reason why I gave 4 stars is because I went here for the first time at 6:50PM, not knowing they closed at 7PM. A store associate made it clear to me while I was shopping that they were closing in 10 minutes, and then shut off all the lights to kind of gently «push» me out of the store.
Now the moral of the story goes, don’t judge someone until you walk a mile in their shoes. They were probably tired and I wasn’t upset that they pushed me out of the store. It definitely does not ruin how I feel about the business. I definitely recommend taking a look through this store, but make sure you go early in the day!

I was walking around downtown with a few friends on our way to The Highlander, and saw this place. It caught my attention because it looked… Well, weird. And I am all for some weird. It really is a variety store in every sense of the word. You can find oodles of kitschy things here. From interesting books (cookbooks, «man» books, children’s books), housewares (individual ramekins, spatulas, baking dishes), old school toys, candies (American and international), costumes (the ever popular horse head is sold here), and so many other little and big things. This place is the perfect place to get a gift for someone who likes odd toys or things, or someone who has a sense of humor.
The store is huge enough that if you get separated from your friends, you might actually have trouble finding them. It really is a cool little store, and definitely a great place to take an out-​of-​town friend, as well. I’ll be going back for more explorations eventually, for sure.

Went to this store today for the first time with the kid I babysit. Very cool store. It had so much stuff! I was excited to go back and get my niece a few things. While standing at the register waiting to check out there were 3 or 4 young men (black) on the other side of the register looking at candy. The man that works there (white) was standing in the middle of the register area and angrily looked at the group of teens. He asked them what they were doing there and told them they needed to leave. One of the teens looked up and asked «we can’t buy candy?» The man told them to hurry. The lady behind me and I looked at each other like «did that really just happen?» Needless to say I told the man exactly what I thought of him and his store. The lady behind me offered to buy the kids candy but they left. I’m sure they were embarrassed, I was embarrassed for them. I have never seen such a display of discrimination so openly. This man should be ashamed and if he’s not the owner he should be fired! I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to cry and hit someone so bad in my life. What a racist prick. I’ll never go back to this store again.