STORE REVIEW: The Head Nut

Store, I am disappoint.  Located in the ever-crowded Reading Terminal Market, The Head Nut fails as a spice shop on far too many levels.  It first showed up in 2012 as a branch of their location in Philly's suburbs and has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since.

Now, to start with the good, one thing the store has going for it is selection.  They have many spices on hand, but they also feature nuts, candies, dried goods, coffee, tea and flour.  They even feature gluten free flour alternatives.  The store is simply packed to the point of bursting with variety.

That's really the only good thing I can say about it, though.  As far as I'm concerned, if a store ultimately sells good spices, I can forgive a lot.  That's the most important part, right?  I mean, I'm going to a spice store to buy spices.  Well, the quality of the spices here is a bit lacking and I've had to throw out some of their wares because it was just flavorless.  I'm certain that the cheap plastic jars holding the stock don't help this at all.

The buying process is awkward and unintuitive.  Nothing is pre-bagged.  Instead, you must take each jar up to the counter where the spice is measured and bagged.  If you're buying 5 different things or more this is just not ideal at all.  This could be forgiven if it were clearly indicated somehow with a sign or by the staff, but it isn't.

The staff tends to come off as apathetic.  This is the worst part of the experience.  While you're trying to figure out how to actually buy the spices, the staff won't bother explaining how that works to you.  Or anything.  If you're looking for something in particular, you're just as likely to get a blank look as you are actual help.

The baggies are sealed with twist ties, so if you run out of room in your jar and have to keep some paprika in the bag (an all too familiar occurrence for spice fiends) it's probably going to spoil.  Last I checked they did not appear to sell jars, so even that is something that must be addressed elsewhere.

I suspect the fact that this store is an offshoot is to blame for a lot of the problems.  It certainly seems like there isn't a lot of care put into running the place.  It doesn't have a whole lot of internet presence either.  There is a mention on Reading Terminal Market's website here but there isn't much actual info.  The original main line store has a (rather atrociously designed) website here and they will ship their spices, but I'm not reviewing that location.

I can't help but give The Head Nut a big thumbs down and a very disappointed 2/5 anise stars.  Their wide selection is their saving grace, but they fall flat in every other way.