South Oats

The bitch in the front was rude as hell didn’t know what she had in the store not a good selection and stupid ass employees.
Update: went again for a friend and the guy there and girl were pretty cool knew everything about their grinders and glass ware. Weren’t rude wanted to help and have great advice as for the other girl with the dreads didn’t see her. (Bitch)

This place has gone downhill dramatically within the last year or so. They used to carry nice local handblown glass, but now, they only seemed to concern themselves with utensils you would see somebody putting to there mouth, on Breaking Bad. They sell «replacement» stems. (Hmm.) and «eucalyptus inhalers», that are great, if you want to tweak out for a week, lose all your teeth, and end up working the street; as many hookers around the South Oats area do. They’ve lost all of their workers, who ha ANY knowledge on the worthwhile products, and cater to a much lower caliber demographic.

This place is fantastic! They have an enormous selection of beautiful glassware, and a really eclectic selection of books. I’m a big fan of incense, and of the smoke shops on Oltorf (its competitor being Royal Smoke Shop) it definitely has the best incense selection. They also have an impressive selection of tobacco (I was initially introduced to South Oats by one of my good friends who is a smoker; it has the cheapest prices on loose tabacco in the area!)
Along with all of that, I’ve never had a not wonderful experience with the employees here. They’ve always been super nice and really knowledgable about everything the store sells.

This place is amazing.
Way cheaper than anywhere else in town I’ve gone.
They sell local glass stuff, including pipes shaped like animals and fruits/​veggies!
Huge selection of papers in a cool rotating case.
incense
cards
soy candles
gag gifts
stash boxes
glass jars
hippie clothes
Seriously, there’s so much to look at in here. We go in and just browse on a regular basis.
And for the most part, the people who work there are super nice and funny!
I don’t even bother going anywhere else.

Possibly the granddaddy of Austin smoke shops. I’ve been shopping here as long as I can remember; and I’ve never been disappointed with any purchase. I like the wide selection of hippie tapestries because they are the used all over my house. Sales are fantastic and the service is great.

Great little shop… usually only stop for a new issue of the Chronicle, but sometimes the «little things» peak my interest and I delve deeper into this eccentric head shop. Namely the novelty items.

First off I don’t smoke anything. So you are thinking what on earth are you doing reviewing a tobacco shop if you don’t smoke?
Just like Planet K, they have an array of gifts, clothes, candles, books and incense you can choose from. I’ve always pass by this place on my way to and from work. Everytime I go to Hai Ky and I am curious about this place despite the bars on the windows and door.
But I can see why they have the bars on the windows and door. They have a lot of cool stuff.
The clerks tend to leave you alone while you look around. To me that gives me a cool laid back atmosphere. Basically this place is one of the cool things I have discovered around my neighborhood.

So a little secret of mine is that I love to clothes shop here. Yes, at a head shop. They have some of the cutest, well made, unique, imported clothes here ever. I’ve not found another place with this type of selection — if you know of any, please PM me!
ANYWAY, I stopped in yesterday for my normal «I wonder if they have any new inventory» visit. The employees here have always been hit or miss — I like that they leave me alone and don’t talk to me that much, have generally been nice in the past (although at times extremely out of it, if you know what I mean), but yesterday was a rare exception.
There was a girl and a couple of guys behind the counter — typically there are only 1 or 2 employees here at a time and this girl was not one I’ve seen before, thankfully. When I walked in, I made a b-​line for the clothes and did my normal sifting. For the 5 minutes I was in the store, all the girl behind the counter did was scream at the top of her lungs any and everything that came to her mind.
For example, (and I mean, she was SCREAMING it. As if she was talking to someone a mile away):
ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!! I AM FUCKING HUNGRY!
I THINK WE’RE ALL A FUCKING EXPERIMENT FROM ALIENS!
There were a couple times where she wasn’t screaming at the top of her lungs, but still talking pretty loudly to her coworkers. Honestly, I can’t even recall what it was she was saying, but I know at the time I was thinking «wow, I guess they don’t have a ‘customer filter’». You know, the filter of things you DON’T talk about when customers can hear you. Yes, I know I’m in a head shop and this isn’t the «normal» place nor do they have the «typical» clientele, but I just could. not. take. it. anymore. Listening to her, that is. So I left without purchasing any of their newly stocked items.
I feel bad for her coworkers! Atleast I got to leave!
I will be back, because like I said, I love their selection here. But seriously, I hope that girl is nowhere near this place when I do!

One star for being within two minutes of my house.
One star for the staff always being friendly and honest about the quality of the products they sell there. Most every product I’ve ever bought there the person behind the counter has either had personal experience using or knows a friend who has.
One star for the high quality of products they carry — from talking to the clerks I actually get the sense that they handpick them and make sure they are worthy of being sold by the business.
One more star for the incredibly eclectic mix of gifts and products the sell. From bedspreads to incense to coffee mugs to «waterpipes» to posters to tee-​shirts to disc golf discs. Pretty standard fare for a headshop, but they’ve always seemed more organized than Planet K or the Gas Pipe.
They do however, lose one star for having more limited hours than most of the other headshops in town.