I can not express how terrible my experience in this store was. I have truly never been treated worse by a business IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. If I could give them zero stars, I surely would.
I walked into the store, stepping out of an intense wind storm, to view something that caught my eye in the window. I was simultaneously talking with my brother on the phone, which, though admittedly obnoxious is certainly not unlawful.
I thought I'd be off the phone any second, but ended up chatting for longer than expected, distracted from my original goal of looking for the item that caught my eye.
Within a few minutes of me wandering around the store, quietly discussing an upcoming trip with my brother while looking at their items, and needing the space to finish my conversation, the cashier approached me, aggressively exclaiming more than asking "ma'am, can I help you!" It was clear she had an issue with me, which was abrupt and upsetting, as I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary.
I responded with a simple "no thank you", as I truly didn't need help. I knew my phone conversation would end at any minute as we were discussing a few simple travel arrangements, and I'd be able to focus on looking for what caught my eye in the window.
She returned two minutes later, again walking right into my space with no respect for my conversation exclaiming loudly: "ma'am, there's a very nice coffee shop down the steeet you can go to"!
I said, "no thank you, I'm just looking at your shirts, i don't want coffee. I'm a local and I'm looking for something for my mom (which I was), please let me be".
She then loudly interrupted my conversation again, at which point I plugged my ear, held up my hand and said "please get away from me"! And walked away. At this point I was getting increasingly upset by the atrocious rudeness and lack of respect I was being treated with.
While granted I probably should have left at this point, I dug my heels in and remained in the store, as I was confused by being treated this way for absolutely no reason, and I could tell that I was likely being racially profiled and perhaps profiled as a thief, neither of which I'm willing to stand for. I've never been racially profiled, as I'm actually white, so I was growing increasingly irritated with the circumstances.
When she came back a third time, again getting way too close to me, I calmly said, "I'm not leaving your store, I'm looking for something. Please leave me alone". This being the second time this woman got way too close to me.
Next, she got her manager, who approached me with the same aggression and demanded that I leave her store at once. they said they were calling the police, they had absolutely no reason to do, as I was doing nothing wrong. The other two customers now showed concern out loud for why they were treating me this way. At this point I decided to move on, and was making my way towards the door.
The employee returned with her phone on, obviously videotaping me, as I approached the door. I turned around and said "I'll be writing a negative yelp review. You have no reason or right to treat me this way you don't have permission to videotape me. Please turn your phone off". She refused, and I left.
An hour later, my mom returned to inquire about what happened. They told her that with people who are on their phones they assume that they are using their phones to distract from their real intent of stealing either merchandise or business ideas, and that with people who look like me, the protocol is to first ask if they speak English, this proving my feeling that I was being profiled.
The store owner unapologetically spent many minutes justifying treating me the way they did, rather than owning the fact that it's completely unreasonable to treat a customer this way, as can be seen also in the owners response below: instead of apologizing for unjustified and absolutely inappropriate abuse on their part, he goes on to blame me for being treated like a thief, tells me I'm exaggerating, calls me a liar essentially, blindly defends his employee, and justifies her terrible behavior, all the while making false claims about the occurrence as if he was there. In truth, the only two employees on the premises were women, not the man writing the response below. This is a perfect example of how you will be treated by this business: like a thief and a liar, right off the bat. No apologies.
I highly recommend you skip stepping into this store as if you have brown hair or a phone, or don't buy anything immediately upon entering, you'll certainly be profiled as a thief.
If you stand against racism or rude behavior also a great reason to stay out of there.
Believe me, you don't need one of their touristy
t-shirts badly enough to be treated this way. read more