Aaron Brothers Art & Framing

Went here to check their picture frames. Was greeted by someone in framing as I browsed their selections. Young thing who seemed friendly enough. After grabbing about 9 frames – some very heavy and awkward – I headed over to the cashier. No one to be found. So I went to the framing area and asked the same young girl to ring me up. She came over, was quiet as a mouse, and rang up my sale. I was looking at some other items near the counter. As I turned back towards her, she had left. Apparently she was finished with me. No «thank you ma’am», or «please come again… AND here’s the best part… no bag for me to carry my frames out the door! She never asked if I wanted a bag. Just up and left me there. Feeling awkward and a little embarrassed, I summoned her to return. She came back as I had to request a bag. Holy cow!

Went in to buy some art quality liquid water colors. They were nice enough to greet me when I came in and asked if they could help. When I asked where the watercolor paints were located they were not sure. Seems odd for someone working there as that is pretty basic and the store is not that big. When I got to the counter with the items I found on my own to buy them no one was to be seen. Finally I saw someone at the framing but they said they were busy and to wait a minute. Saw someone in the back and they said they would be with me in a moment. After waiting for 7 minutes at the register I left and bought my items at Michael’s instead.

I went out of my way to visit Aaron Brothers in Issaquah because I had gone to the one in Tukwila and bought a ton of precut mattes believing them all to be the same size and finding out when I got home they weren’t.
I was undertaking a large framing project and none of the other framing stores had the variety of the size that I required. I find that Aaron Brothers has one of the largest inventories of in-​stock picture frames in the area. But the matte problem on my hands required me to return six mattes that weren’t reflected in my receipt, because the cashier at the other store used the quantity key and didn’t check to see if they were all the same, and buy six more, hoping that three matched the other seven I had already bought.
I was immediately greeted upon entering and the lady quickly assisted me. She saw what happened and explained with the holiday season many stores had holiday help that still needed training. She grabbed me three of the mattes that I needed within five minutes of being there. The other three pictures required custom mattes and after looking at them she made a matte recommendation that would draw out the colors in the pictures. They were fairly busy, so she gave me a pick up date of two weeks later. Ten days later my pictures were ready to pick up.
I thought they did a stellar job as the pictures were such an odd size. The matte recommendations were perfect. The blue lines simply pop with the blue pinstripe matte. They took excellent care of these original art pieces and had the frames perfectly wrapped. The sales associate whom I picked these up from opened each picture, showed it to me, and re-​wrapped it with care. I was very impressed.

Just wasted 15 minutes to be told they can’t put wire on the back of two pictures because they are understaffed? They asked me to come back tomorrow. Why would I? Need another framer in Issaquah. Don’t go here if you need simple things done. A waste of time.

Framing is the focus at Aaron Brothers.
Art supplies seem to be just a small sideshow, though I bought quite a bit of stuff here when I lived on Cougar Mountain, which was several years back.
However, on my recent visit, I came to the conclusion that their inventory of drawing supplies, e.g. pens and pencils, is very weak and limited. Also prices are much more expensive than Blick and Daniel Smith.

I ended up here after the Southcenter location was out of stock of what I was looking for. Not only did they honor the promotional pricing that Southcenter offered me, they offered quick friendly service. Not a convenient location for me, but I have already recommend this place to friends of mine in the Sammamish area.

I came in yesterday trying to find 41 of the same document holder. While Issaquah did not have any, Erinn called all of the local stores and arranged for them to hold them for me so I could pick them up the next morning.
She was great! Thanks!