Stein Garden & Home

I really love this store. I absolutely love all of the decorations and home Décor. There are things here that I can’t find at other places and I like that. Everything is super cute! Their displays make you want to buy EVERYTHING ! Lol The only thing is it’s a little pricey. The staff here were all helpful. I was greeted by everyone and everyone asked me if I needed help with anything and they were very nice and friendly about it. Good place to go for things for the home :)

This Stein’s on 27^th actually has a few more things than the one on Highway 100. I shop Stein’s for garden supplies– growing plants & flowers from seed, and Stein’s has a lot of that. Seeds, starter kits, they’ve got what I need.
Bird food and feeders, they’ve got a great selection here! They’ve also got a good selection of goofy bird baths, patio decorations and the like, and the old people love the Steins. (Got to love the Stein…). Nice location.

It seems like every time I go to this Stein’s, I end up annoyed. So today, I decided was the last trip to this location! We ran in for one item– a set of Easter lights. That they actually had and for a good price. We waited in line behind ONE PERSON for 10 minutes, while the person worked the Customer Service Desk, chatted on the phone, worked the computer, etc. Then we moved lines, which was moving a little faster. Only in that line, to be bumped and bossed around by the guy trying to get wood for another customer who’d paid, who wanted to walk through the check out line instead of around, and take his wood rack with him! And yelled at the clerk who asked him for something, and me and another customer who were trying to leave so he could get through the door first (empty handed– hadn’t loaded the wood yet– was too busy yelling at everyone and annoying customers) This isn’t the first bad service experience at this store– a couple times during the spring rush, we’ve been told to go inside for allegedly a faster checkout, only to get the world’s slowest and ill trained checkers! And don’t ask anyone where something is, or what something is. Or believe that spring bulbs are actually in stock just because they have the «Spring Bulbs have arrived» signs out front! So even though this store is blocks from my house, I have to trek to the 108^th St store if I give them my business at all.

This location is also the company headquarters.
This store gets the best merchandise and may have stuff that the other stores don’t because they are testing its marketability here. The 108^th street store is also a testing guinea pig.
Along with the old standbys for outdoor planting, they carry a line of Wisconsin native plants and every year are expanding their succulent selection.
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There is an array of beautiful flowers and plants. They have everything you need for creating the perfect garden. The staff are really nice and very helpful. I’ve noticed they have a fairy collection. The next time that I go there, I’m going to get the fairy collection plant. It’s really small and adorable.

This might be the worst place to buy a tree. To be honest, they aren’t really in the tree business.
My issue here is that they had a lot of trees, but they charge you for basic tree services!!!
$ 5 for shaking, bagging, help loading and a disposal bag? I can understand for the disposal bag, but seriously, make the disposal bag an optional cost.
These are standard Christmas tree services that shouldn’t be charged for. I was seriously in disbelief.
Also, because it was so cold the trees were all frozen and shaped like torpedos. If you’re in the torpedo business, you’ll probably pick out a great tree, but for people who don’t know what makes a good torpedo, it’s a crapshoot. I understand it was freezing, but get a heater to help open them up a bit! The smaller lots brought heaters to help open the trees, so Stein should have one too.
I’m disappointed with this Stein’s selection and services. We bought a tree from Sanfelippo Family Tree Farms just south of Edgerton and they didn’t bag the tree, but they certainly had more fair prices and helped us load it on our car.

It’s not the abandoned fast food joints that are bringing South 27^th St. down. It’s this weak excuse for a Stein’s.
I go to Stein’s every year, late in the season to fill out my garden. Generally it’s a pretty good place to find reasonably priced plants that are decent quality. I guess that only applies to the Highway 100 location on the south side.
We came to this location simply because we were in the area. We arrived shortly after 7 on a Saturday evening. It was slow and they were fully staffed, yet many of the workers were standing around talking. This usually doesn’t bother me, but when you are sitting outside with a hose in your hand while plenty plants in here desperately need watering, it’s not a good look. I knew exactly what I wanted when I came in, yet the time it took me just to comb through all the dead and dying plants was well over 30 minutes. I had to go to the Highway 100 location a few days later, since I couldn’t find Shasta Daisies that were in good enough condition. This is a pretty common flower, I’ve been buying the for years and never had a problem finding some that are good enough to buy.
I also had issues with the employees inside the store. We put a few plants in a normal shopping cart and decided to shop the inside for some things we needed. When we grabbed everything else, we were close to the registers so we decided to check out inside. With the look we got from the old lady at the register, you’d think we were robbing the place. I did everything I could to help this lady out, I picked up everything heavy items and faced the bar codes towards her so it was easy to scan while my wife placed every non-​heavy, non-​plant item on the counter. We had about six small plants, and instead of putting them on the counter and getting dirt all over it, I just picked them up and faced the barcode towards her to scan. That’s when she rudely slapped a cardboard box on the counter and said «Put them here». I don’t know if she had a bad day or if it was menopause, whatever it was it didn’t feel good when I’m spending well over $ 100 at her place of work. A simple «Please» or «Thank You» would have sufficed, but that seemed to be beyond her scope. As we were leaving I checked the receipt for a name so I could call the manager and complain, but sadly it was missing. I guess this crappy Unilocal review will have to do.
Save yourself time and trouble and shop at the Highway 100 location instead.

I’m a gardener, but I’m not obsessed. I find what I need here, and I’m pretty sure the obsessed people find what they are looking for, too. The prices are high, always, but the quality of everything here, including soil and plants, is pretty good. The staff are fairly friendly, albeit mostly high schoolers that couldn’t give two hoots about your blossom end rot and don’t have a clue what it is. There are usually a couple of resident experts, but you may have to ask around to get them. I also usually take a look here if I’m looking for just that perfect decorating item I haven’t been able to find, or a gift for grandma. They have a huge section of every store dedicated to the gifts which range from accent items, bowls, vases, candles, fake flowers, and accent tables. The name «garden and gifts» really does say it all.

I was given a rubber plant by my momma about a year ago. As my first plant I kept it in it’s original pot because I didn’t want to get too attached (I wasn’t sure if I was a greenthumb or a flora killer).
A year later and my rubber plant is happy and soaking up the love in my lil apartment. I have grown to love this plant, it has become a pet of sorts. I worry about it and am afraid of hurting it. I want it to grow and prosper and keep giving us that fresh oxygen!
So I decided my lil guy is getting too big for his pot and I needed an upgrade. I went to Steins and got potting soil and a big, funky looking pot (which I love).
I went to Target first thinking «aww, just give me something cheap» and the pots there were 25 bux. I decided I wanted to check out an actual garden center just to compare prices (I thought Steins would easily be in the 30 – 40 dollar range for a decent sized pot).
I was so wrong. Their outdoor section boasts a plethora of different sized and colored pots, and mine was only 10 bux! I was able to get a 20 pound bag of potting soil for $ 2.99.
I transplanted my little guy and he is now happier than ever.

I ws dissappointed in Steins. The prices are a bit high, and the quality of product is not great. I can be hard to return things here also. I’m not sure why, but whenever I buy plants from Steins, they die. I don’t have that same problem at some other stores, but here I do. I do like some of the novelty gifts you can find in the store, but overall it’s not my first choice.

Sort of disappointed. I’ve always though of Stein as a place I could go to get help with my planting and gardening needs. Seems like the only assistance I can ever find in the store comes from a teenager whose knowledge of horticulture is limited to none. I’ve found that the people at True Value Hardware have more expertise about my gardening needs then Stein. Unfortunately True Value doesn’t have the extensive live inventory carried at Stein.
Edit: Don’t expect to find much in the line of gardening supplies during the holiday season. Stein’s turns into a Christmas trinket store.