Located on M Street in Northwest D.C., the Georgetown Brandy Melville store has always been controversial. As you hike up the sidewalk and get closer to the unlabelled store, a long line of teenagers waiting under two navy blue awnings comes into view. The line duration ranges from 15 minutes to an hour, and once you arrive at the door, you’re greeted by an often-disgruntled employee who will hesitantly let you enter. The store is cramped and crowded, with boxes of clothing piled up in corners of the room and customers squeezing themselves past each other to get one shirt off the shelf.
The physical atmosphere isn’t the only unfortunate factor of this Brandy location. Thousands of shoppers have visited and reviewed the store, giving it very low ratings, and the store gained hundreds more following the store’s recent scandal.
On December 29, 2025, the TikTok user @ilovegracieabrams1321 posted a short video of an argument between the store employees and herself. The caption on the video reads, “Your sign to NOT visit the Georgetown Brandy,” discouraging future customers from supporting the establishment. The TikTok went completely viral, reaching 6.5 million views and over 600,000 likes, and the comments were flooded with support from other shoppers who were there that day or had negative experiences there before.
The user posted another video the day after to give her curious new followers a “Storytime.” In the TikTok, she explains how she and her friend drove down from Maryland to visit the store. They arrived at the store around 5:30 pm, waited an hour and a half in a dormant line in freezing weather, and finally made it to the front of the line at about 6:40 pm. The customers had a very limited time frame to shop after waiting hours to get let in, as the store was closing at 7:00 pm that day.
The TikToker then claims that the teenage girl manning the door had a rude attitude, rolled her eyes when anyone in line asked her a question, and even raised her voice while cursing at customers to get out of the store.
However, the final straw was when the employees told the customers in line to check out that they wouldn’t ring anyone up after 7:00 pm. At this point, it was 6:54 pm, and the two girls were only a few minutes from paying when the employees told them that they weren’t allowed to check out. They were then asked to leave the store, and out of frustration, the two girls cursed at the employees while walking out the door.
Some students at B-CC agree that the Georgetown Brandy Melville isn’t worth the wait or the commute. Senior Ashley Payne says, “When I go to the Georgetown Brandy, they let people in three at a time, it’s kind of annoying. When you get in, you have to wait in a long line to check out, and there aren’t many clothing options, if I’m being honest.” Payne continues, “[The workers] aren’t necessarily rude to me, but they’re passive. If I say ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ they’re like, ‘Do you know the return policy?’”
After the upset with this Brandy Melville went viral, it’s hard to say whether customers will continue to stay loyal to it. A new Brandy Melville recently opened in Rockville at Pike and Rose, and Payne prefers this Maryland location to the infamous D.C. location. “Rockville’s [Brandy Melville location] is more convenient; it’s cleaner; there’s free parking for two hours…and, honestly, who wants to wait in a line in the freezing cold?”
