This past Summer I was looking for a private violin teacher for my daughter and am very pleased to have found Nissa. Her instruction is not only about technique, but also explains the how and why of it. She makes sure my daughter understands the lessons they work on together and always asks her if she understands, or has questions. They discuss lesson plans together, as Nissa is very cognizant of what my daughter is capable of accomplishing and what she needs to work on further. While a lesson plan is always a main focus, Nissa has helped my daughter prepare for school assigned pieces as well. My daughter looks forward to her lessons.
Overall, Nissa is very organized, her studio teaching is well guided, focused, and at a pace that is suited for the student.
Ms. Nissa is a great teacher! My son has been taking lessons from her since last summer. I can see that he has greatly improved his violin technique. She is very patient with him, and always encourages him to do/try his best.
Ms. Nissa is the third violin teacher my daughter has had and she has been the best. We met her when she was filling in for a previous teacher and right away I was able to appreciate her teaching style. My daughter has been with Ms Nissa for almost 2 years now and she just loves this class.
The owner and sole employee keeps irregular hours, asks that you come “by appointment only,” and hardly even responds to texts and phone calls. Friendly guy, good wares, and authentic atmosphere otherwise. He can repair broken instruments for a cost, and makes his own for you to buy. Various types of guitars are available, but the selection is small. Wouldn’t recommend anyone to go to this store, honestly. Probably cheaper than Guitar Center, but it isn’t worth the inconvenience and hassle of getting in touch with the owner just to visit his shop.
6. Best Buy
Address: 2358 S Harlem Ave, North Riverside, IL 60546 , Riverside , Illinois , United States
Nothing special about it, just your average best buy.
Good atmosphere and fair prices
Need of better customer support at the computer area
Visited the electronic department staff is dry.
Today I went with my family to pickup some electronic goodies and in front of us were this 60’s plus grandma shopping and a bit lost in the store… What called our attention was how the staff were making jokes about her…
This is unacceptable! I realize that this could happen to my mother and makes me really angry. Shame on you BestBuy!
Very poor service.. disrespectful geek squad manager
7. Redbox
Address: 2600 S Harlem Ave, Riverside, IL 60546 , Riverside , Illinois , United States
This place is great, especially Gaby has big heart and helps you any time u need extra time.
Excellent service! Best prices!!
Thanks to Elizabeth Jesus and lupe they made it fun when I go to the store and ask for a loan and always get me what I need! This store is one of the best ones.
Pretty cool. Been going here for years and the people have gotten better, but the prices haven’t. Just loaned a pair of studio 3 wireless beats by Dre and they offered me $100 mind you these were purchased for close to $300 and they can’t even do half price… but eye wouldn’t go anywhere else!!!…Overall 7/10
I been calling this store and the number its not working i had to pick up something yesterday but no answer
Everyone was very nice and explained in detail how the loan work and what payments I should make to my best advantage
I bought stuff there before and had a very good and store experience. However, when I recently called to ask a simple question I was met with one of the nastiest attitudes by one of their female store clerks. She didn’t even say anything after she (rudely) answered my question, just hung up. Will not be returning. The world is nasty enough, people can at least do their jobs pleasantly without all the attitude.
Very slow and not too friendly
They are very stupid here. They told me my wife’s one carat vintage genuine diamond (that was certified by a gemologist) was man made, not only was it certified by 3 other pawn shops and an upscale gemologist at a jeweler in Elmhurst, man made diamonds have only been around a few years and this was a vintage stone. They then told me my wifes antique .925 silver bracelet was silver plated..925 was stamped on the bracelet and certified by another jeweler also.They are trying to lie to people, it seems to scam people into selling them items for far less than they are worth. Buyer beware here. These women working here do not know expensive fine quality jewelry from cracker jack box rings.
9. Discoteca Flores
Address: 6304 W Cermak Rd, Berwyn, IL 60402 , Riverside , Illinois , United States
Customer service was above and beyond. Took my mandolin to get set up, the gentleman behind the counter (sorry never got his name) said I didn’t need to do that, fixed the bridge, tuned it up, give me some tips and it plays great. Been stopping by for years now I know why I keep coming back.
Amazing customer service! Took my sousaphone to get some parts fixed along with a clean up and it sounds amazing after the clean up! Will def be coming back and recommending to all my music colleagues!
The place to go in the area as an upright bass player, or really any musician in general. It’s very clear that they genuinely care about their customers and will go out of their way to make sure you are happy. I was on a tight budget for a midrange bass and they went out of their way to make sure I was getting exactly what I wanted at an extremely fair price, including setting up multiple basses with my preferred string and letting me keep one at home for awhile before paying. They also let me take it back a few times to make adjustments to make sure the setup perfectly tailored my needs. I expected to just get a decent plywood but ended up with a caved top romanian bass I love due to their helpfulness and flexibility.
Don’t go to Guitar Center or play russian roulette buying online, go support this local shop. I’m 45 minutes out and it’s well worth it.
I have had great success with Kagan.& Gaines..
Since my daughter started Violin back in 2006
They were able to help me with a 1/2 size , a 3/4 violin and now my daughter is in a full size French made violin.
Excellent service and knowledge of violins.
They have helped my daughter become the great young violinist she is, as this is where it all started for my Alexis.
Having a great selection of violins to choose from.
45 dollars for an on the spot (30 min) electric guitar restring, minus the price for the strings, is a little steep, folks. I appreciate the good work, but I can get the same treatment for a lot less at A Sound Education off Ogden.
Really great staff, knowledgable and well stocked.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to justify shopping there any longer for my business because their three day return policy and extremely limited store hours make it difficult to get back over there within the period.
(I’m unwilling to pay a 20% restocking fee for unopened cables)
Hate to say it because I wish my business was going to an independent store rather than the corporate or online big boxes.
I hate to agree with the user below who complained of a dishonest experience, but we are going through the same. I’ve read all of the other 5 star reviews and notice a pattern: it seems that for violin and stringed instruments, this is a great place. For renting brass/woodwind instruments via their monopoly with the school districts, they are subpar and dishonest. We should have just purchase a used instrument which would have resulted in us obtaining a superior instrument at, I am not exaggerating, 1/4 the total cost. We just had to call them to stop processing our credit card when we noticed we had been paying an abnormally long time on my daughter’s VERY USED, VERY DENTED saxophone (4 years!). We were “reassured” that, coincidentally, they were just going to call us as well as our payments happened to be completed. Yet they have no records of all the payments that we made, and are asking us to provide payment records going back to 2017 to “prove” how much we have paid in total. Luckily for us, we can easily provide them as they have all been made on the same credit card for years. We are also disputing the amount owed as our daughter’s original “nicer” model saxophone broke, was taken in for repairs, and she was given a loaner, student-model, older and dented sax. Her other one was never repaired and instead she’s just had this one forever. We were told at the time it would be “worked out.” Now they want us to pay the same amount as they were going to charge for the initial instrument to keep this replacement instrument permanently, as they also claim to have NO record that any switch was ever made or that the original saxophone was ever brought in for repairs. Typically, I endeavor to support neighborhood shops, but not when their record keeping is straight out of Mayberry. This is taking a lot of our time and energy to sort out, and we’ve ultimately laid out over $2300 to own an instrument that I have found at multiple music stores online for around $600 and under. We understand that renting the own is typically more expensive, but this feels like being swindled in every way. Extremely disappointed. My husband has been playing music for over 40 years – he also used to play saxophone – and his mother is a professional classical musician. He is used to dealing with all sorts of music shops and has never had an experience like this one.
13. Berwyn Recording
Address: 6519 26th St, Berwyn, IL 60402 , Riverside , Illinois , United States
Top notch drum room, great talent behind the board, latest gear, and priced right!
Great work on different setup with recital. Use of video taping each students performance.
The employees I dealt with have no sense of what makes a good musician. They cussed me out on the phone before I even got there when I had to reschedule for a family emergency. Do not give this illegitamate company with unprofessional staff your money.
Dylan helped me find an album for my grandson. Very helpful and neat store
Would recommend you stop in
Really neat place! Loved the plant and record collection. We’ll definitely be back! For now, we got some new beauties to add to our ever growing plant collection.
This store is a great addition to Brookfield, go check them out! They have a wide variety of music to suit anyone. The owner is super friendly and can give you great recommendations on Vinyls and advice for plants!
16. Hot Topic
Address: 7501 Cermak Rd RM H7A, North Riverside, IL 60546 , Riverside , Illinois , United States
I LOVE this store! It brings back memories of my punk rock/alternative phase. Lol
I like going there they have really cool stuff and a really cool environment,just hoped that they had more viarety of anime merchandise to choose from like Black Butler,Soul Eater,Noragami,Blue Exorcist,etc.
Great for graphic shirts
Good sales. Good store. Especially if you’re into anime’ or music.
Very expensive
Very little variety and selections
They have a pretty rude staff… especially the two cashiers in the front with colored hair….. i went in to buy a shirt that eas 10 bucks online i show it to her on my phone… they respond very rude.. yeah.. but were not online… plus we cant order it for you either… in a really nasty tone… will not shop from this location again….
17. Aunt Diana’s Old Fashioned Fudge
Address: 29 E Burlington St, Riverside, IL 60546 , Riverside , Illinois , United States
Great fudge, and asstr chocolates. The turtles are excellent.
My favorite candy shop. The caramel clouds and chocolate covered pineapple are my favorites.
Caramel is delicious!! Everything in here is Amazing!
Fudge is delicious. Peanut brittle is great.
When they are on. Wow. Some of the best carmal candies I can find. Nice selection.
Like walking into an old candy shop from back in the day. They have a good selection of hand made candy as well as some of the popular packaged candy.
Purchased walnut clusters and LG bag of cheese popcorn. Candy tasted like it was old and the popcorn was gummy. I live 40 min away and was so disappointed. Ended up tossing it all. The girl who waited on me was very unfriendly too. Don’t think I’ll be going back.
My friend wanted some fresh hot popcorn. The lady behind the counter said they only pop it fresh when someone in the back wants some. I asked what if a customer wants some? No answer. This is the second time in a few months this happened. We won’t go back. Old Fashioned Candies in Berwyn has better prices and friendlier staff.
I purchased some chocolates and pretzels with chocolate for a group of friends, the chocolate isn’t good quality but the worst part is that the workers at this establishment are NOT friendly, so I won’t be buying again. It’s not like their sweets are worth looking at unfriendly faces. Sweets are supposed to make people happy, the irony, they should eat some, maybe that will help them.
It does not have everything. But nothing like a locally-owned store.
Easy in-and-out shopping Deli is wonderful.no waiting.
Great shop. Always has something unique.
Meat selection is good same w produce.
Staff is helpful and friendly
Beer and wind selection is great as well as craft liquors.
Love it
Wow that’s awesome
Friendly service. A place to get hard to find Bohemian foods.
really nice local independent shop with a great selection not usually found in big box stores
Small, over priced. Wish I could like it.
Overpriced and a poor selection of products. 2 stars for convenience.
I had a very bad experience in that store, I went shopping and went to the section of fruit and veggies and I grabbed a package of strawberries and they were moldy, I grabbed my strawberries and I grabbed a bag and I started to remove the bad strawberries with mold and I put them in a little box that there were bad strawberries, the worker here a man approached, tall with glasses and half chubby, and he yelled at me are you going to take the strawberries and I said yes and he then told me what are you doing and I told him taking away the bad ones, and he told me which ones are bad and I told him these! and yelled at me, you’re disgusting! my face was what did I just say? he turned around and went back, he came back and he was looking at me with a bad attitude when the only thing I did was take the bad ones out of my package of strawberries, I think he treated me that badly because I’m Hispanic, The truth is that I felt very bad, I felt a knot in my chest when he yelled at me that I was disgusting, I would never go back, I do not recommend it!
20. Luscombe Music Inc
Address: 122 W Vallette St, Elmhurst, IL 60126 , Riverside , Illinois , United States
They are small but mighty. I will be going here for more sheet music in the future.
The staff here are so incredibly helpful! Every time I come in they are able to help me get exactly what my children need. And the rental policies are great too!
I knew the owner Mr. Fred Luscombe. He was very kind, wise and knowledgeable and helped me quite a bit as a new band director. His daughter now runs the store and she continues to be just as kind and helpful as her father. The store is neat and well stocked with musical merchandise.
The teachers are great but the instruments and rentals are not so great, since the recent downsize, you can’t find some things there.
Yearly music by the pound sale is AMAZING
way over priced
Extremely unprofessional. We got on the wait list, waited 2 months and got a call saying they had a spot for our day and time. We returned the call the next day saying we wanted to start as soon as possible. Office called us back saying the the instructor, Elizabeth Olson, should be calling us to make the final arrangements. She called the Sunday of MLK weekend, we were with family the next two days. We connected Tuesday and she wanted to do an assessment on the day we agreed on but a time that didn’t work and wasn’t agreed upon. She said she understood and arranged the following week on the original agreed upon time and day. We accepted, then she messages us and said she found another client that would use the extra day and bumped us out. When we questioned her motive, she said this is just business.
