Aloha Grove Surf Shop

Surfing lessons were really fun and the intructor was very helpful.

Went to Long Branch on a scorching hot summer day specifically to rent a SUP. I paid $ 40 for a 4 hour rental. Board was an inflatable which was surprisingly really sturdy and very comfortable to stand on. One of the workers brought our boards down for us, which gave us free beach access (score!). Would def rent SUP boards from here again.

So, to preface my review, I’d like to say that I did actually buy something here, and that the selection and (for the most part) quality of clothing offered at this shop is decent.
However…
I’ve been into this store twice now over a year apart. Both times, this extremely nasty female employee has been in there. I believe she is either an owner or the manager, but I have absolutely no idea how. She is the rudest, loudest, nastiest, and most obnoxious person I’ve ever encountered working retail. The shop is very cosy (aka extremely tight to walk around) and just walking through I noticed I had knocked a hat off one of the shelves. I quickly picked it up though, because this lady was tearing through the place yelling «Oh God look at this mess!» or «what the hell happened over here!?!» while examining the pile of folded clothing that had fell over on the other end of the store. This teenage boy was there while I was in there, and knocked a rack off the wall and the lady tore ass over to him yelling and freaking out.
This older gentleman was trying on swimsuits, and had a few piled on top of his fitting room door and the lady came over yelling at him too. She asked him if they were all his, and he was like «yes, I’m trying them on…» and she freaked out and said he could only try on five at a time, and he simply said he was alone and had no one to hold the sixth. Like, really lady? She just has really poor customer service skills. I was only in the store for about a half hour, and I saw her approach at least ten people. She kept saying, «That’s it. I’m gonna just leave and go home I can’t take this sh*t anymore,» acting so annoyed and pissed off.
In addition to bad customer service, the store has very poor advertising. There is a typed up sign above basically every rack, shelf or stack of items telling you the percentage off, and then handwritten in are all of the exclusions. For example, «30% off all shirts» (no volcom, reef, o’neill, fall shirts, long sleeve). So basically, three shirts on that entire rack are 30% off. She gets so annoyed when people ask any questions (especially about price) and she is constantly yelling at the other employees. And I remember the last time I was there over a year ago I had asked if there were any additional sizes for an item I was interested in, and she looked at me with disgust and said, «are you going to BUY it if I have one in your size?» Well, perhaps b*tch if it fits lol that’s why I’m asking.
They didn’t have the size I was looking for in anything I was interested in… and not just because of my particular size, my boyfriend found multiple things he would have purchased if they had his size but only one thing was in his size.
Although we did purchase an item, I would most likely never go back there. I felt guilty actually buying something from a store that had such atrocious customer service.

Let me preface this review by saying my dissatisfaction with this store is regarding their poor customer service. I’ve shopped here many times over the past couple of years. They are a moderate to pricey shop; I love their selection of clothing and beachey stuff but after yesterday’s unfortunate incident, I will not step foot into this store again.
Here is what happened: my friend’s daughter, an 11 year old child, picked out a pair of flip flops ($ 30). Admittedly, an adult should’ve watched her try on the flip flops before her purchase but it didn’t happen. She asked the clerk to cut off the tags and walked out the door to meet the group outside. The adults noticed right away that she should’ve gotten the next size up. So we had her take the flip flops off right away and since we were planning to go on a walk, we did, deciding to take care of the exchange on our way back.
I walked into the store with the child to make the size exchange. The woman behind the counter immediately had an attitude; she stated the store will not accept any returns or exchanges without the tags. Luckily they found the tags behind the counter. But the attitude did not stop there. She examined the flip flops and the time of the receipt, then accused the child of walking in those flip flops for the past hour. She refused to process an exchange. She then asked why the kid had no adult supervision to monitor her shopping. It didn’t seem to register with her that all we wanted was a different size. Her attitude and the accusatory way that she spoke to me and my friend’s daughter, an 11 yr old child, was aggressive and uncalled for. She finally decided to give my friend’s daughter her money back and I was more than happy to accept because this means the kid can spend that money at a store where they will appreciate her business. Did she have a point about adult supervision? Yes. But she didn’t ask the kid about adult supervision when she happily took the payment.
The whole incident left a really sour impression with me. I just can’t believe the store would treat a child this way.
And this is why I will NEVER shop at Aloha Grove and I will be telling anyone who ask me not to go there.