Burlington, Pleasant Hill CA

This was one of my favorite discount stores when it was in Concord. Now a days, I've had too many bad experiences to just turn a blind eye to. Part of reviewing places is matching expectation with reality. That's why it's possible to rate high-end stores lower than discount.

So it disappoints me to rate Burlington at just 2 stars, but that's as generous as I can get.

It's Christmas eve, 2023, and my tradition is to shop for one final gift on this special night. The selection of possible gifts, and their prices were very goog, and found what I needed quickly. And according to my watch it was still an hour from store closing. Oh but it wasn't.

I've been noticing recently that they close their doors early, so that by closing time, all registers can be turned off, and customers were out the door. It's not like Target next door, and every other store I shop at, that remains open until it's posted closing time.

No, no, no. Burlington picks an arbitrary time to lock-up its doors, and tells its customers to stop shopping and take their items to the cash registers.

Not sure why any store would start reminding people with money to spend, literally an hour before the store's posted closing time, to hurry up and finish, and get out quickly. To me, this is rude, and irritating.

If I show up to shop 45mins from midnight, and midnight is the posted closing time, and the doors are already locked, I'm not happy. You would think encouraging customers to shop and hunt, and stay in the store looking around.and take your time doing that, makes for happier buyers, spending more money. That's Retail 101.

If Burlington wants everyone out, lights off, employees gone by midnight, then post an earlier closing time, like 11: 30. Your advertised Midnight closing time might be a little too late to achieve a midnight blackout in the store.

Lastly.on Christmas Eve, when shoppers are plentiful but panicking, and you've locked your doors an hour early for one reason only, to save employee wages, still try to value your customer's time and feet comfort, and get more registers open.

At early closing time, Christmas eve, 2023, the people in line to pay for their treasures was oppressive. The entire queue was filled with frustrated people, plus back again to men's shoes.
And how many registers were open, accepting customers' money, moving the line along? Hint: the store has 10 cash registers, and this is always a busy day for shopping in American retail. Crowds are always guaranteed.

Well, let's guess 8 registers. NOPE.then it must be 6 registers, otherwise why go thru the expense of having so many cash registers, but keeping them dark on the busiest holiday shopping day? NOPE, wrong again.

Burlington could only manage to have 2 cash registers open at closing time on Christmas eve, with atleast 50-70 people in line.

That's an insult, and closing early is rude.

The store has great prices, decent clothes & other items, but is severely understaffed and management doesn't bother to help cut down the line. I watched a supervisor slowly, one hand at a time, put items into a cart to restock while one single cashier dealt with a line of over 20 people. It's inexcusable that these people are paid probably barely above minimum wage while having to deal with lines of 20+ people all on their own, with no support from supervisors. This was the worst I've seen it, but there is usually a max of 2 cashiers with a line taking 15 minutes to get through. I feel dirty for shopping here and supporting a company that refuses to give its staff proper support.

I worked here previously as a loss prevention associate in 2020-2021 before I quit, and the last few times I've shopped here I've been treated like a shoplifter by the newer employees. The LP at the front (young blonde white girl with the lash extensions) does not know how to do her job as she was glaring at me and my friend (who is also a former employee/supervisor) for doing nothing but shopping, and the only other person she was staring at was a black customer browsing the coats. Literally nothing suspicious going on and they train you to catch certain behaviors/body language that shoplifters have. She was literally just profiling based on clothing and skin color. The cashier Ella was rude and implied that I was going to steal. AS I WAS AT THE REGISTER.because i inquired about the price of some of the items she scanned because a lot of items are mislabeled (and i know this from working here, when they lose a sticker for an item they just grab something else that may have been the same price, copy it, and slap it on) so looking at the small screen i did not recognize some of the names of the items so i wanted to see what was what.she acted like i was going to grab the bag and run out. The staff was not this incompetent and rude when i worked there, because someone else was managing the store and she knew how to run it. New store manager has rude associates and disgusting store, & STOP DISCOUNTING BROKEN/OPEN ITEMS AND THROW THEM AWAY! EWW! There was a dubious, unlabeled glass bottle of murky brown liquid in the food/seasoning aisle and there was chunks of what i can only assume is mold floating around inside.only label was the clearance sticker.and a lot of the clothing is dirty and stained, beauty products are opened and gross. Everything is a cluttered disaster. Get more staff and teach some of these people how to recover a sales floor.

I love this store it’s always full the the only thing is that people steal and there’s no security and these thieves make it so obvious it’s funny. Big bags no cart they take the hangers off and then they go to a place where there is no cameras like the dog accessories, suitcases area

The hours are wrong they closed at 10 pm on Thursday do to theft! No line fast and organize.

You guys accused somebody of stealing because you have a lady in the front that doesn’t know how to greet people and when she was on her phone didn’t see somebody come in and she assumed they stole a shirt when they did not and now you guys are trending on the Nextdoor app and you guys are getting an article written in the east bay times and they’re doing a new segment on abc 7 on your side. Must feel proud. And the fact you guys did not apologize to the person. Amazing. Lawsuit headed your way

Staff was very rude to me and my children. I'm in mourning and needed to find an outfit for a funeral and instead of being greeted with a hello I was confronted with a very rude employee.

I have a 6y autistic child that has a support animal thats a bird she cant go no where without that bird or the moods come in bad so i was was told by an associate that she was not allowed without legal paperwork I have all the legal paperwork in our luggage since were not from the area so i was told to leave the premises worse worse customer service very disappointed.

Pro: free parking, variety of clothing products.
Con: huge line & bunch of registers but only 1 cashier, needed more staff.

Way bigger and better men’s section than Ross or TJ Max. Plenty of parking and wheelchair accessible. Only downside is how understaffed this place is. If there’s more than 10 people in the store, expect long lines or having to wait for the one person who manages the dressing room to finish their lunch break.

Update: Making a return 15 minutes after purchase because I didn’t realize how bad the stitching was. Sometimes the quality can be hit or miss, so check the seams before heading to checkout.

Is the 3rd time this week I come to shop here I liked it here but this time my wife wanted to use the restroom and the cleaning lady decided to close both men's and ladies and told us to go use the ladies room else where or wait 20 minutes and my wife couldn't hold it if you're a woman you know what I'm talking about so I went and got the manager and gave me the same answer I told her I'm shopping here not at another store finally they let my wife use the restroom the cleaning lady told me to shut up because my wife was already using the restroom very rude I'm never coming here again even if I have to drive farther

These stores can be hit or miss, but so far I’ve had great experiences at this location. Found some exceptionally good deals on quality items. Would definitely recommend.staff is very nice which is refreshing these days.

Had a good selection for my kids but it doesnt have many large mens clothes the way it used to

Nice store but its next to in n out burger so parking is kind of clustered. It makes sense since that shopping center has a really good selection of stores!

Long line and just 1 or 2 cashier broken toys an no discount instead you ask to the cashier to bad.not recommended

If I could I would give zero stars. This is the worst Burlington that I’ve been to. First of all the manager is super rude and not listening to what you are saying. I bought a jacket that had stain on it which I didn’t catch until I got home and when I tried to return it the manager kept saying you used it because we don’t sell stained jackets…but how can you catch a stain if it’s covered with the back collar…I kept swearing that I didn’t use it and I bought 300$ worth of stuff that day.why would I even lie for a $35 jacket. She embarrassed me in front of all the other customers. Worst place to ever shop.