It's several hours later, and I'm still baffled by my first experience with this "boutique." Mostly, I'm baffled this place remains in business given what was my shocking experience today. 100% knowing that I did nothing to provoke any of the negativity fuels my desire to share my experience and my trust in knowing I can't be alone. Others have undoubtedly had a similar experience.
It began with zero greeting when I walked in, despite the employee making eye contact with me. Instead, she was preoccupied with glaring at my 4 year old daughter who, mind you, was thrilled to be going with me to look at grown up things. For all appearances, we were just a typical mama and daughter walking into a local business in our sundresses and sandals happy to be doing "girlie things" together. Furthermore, my daughter is a well-behaved and well-mannered child.
To my surprise, my daughter was sternly warned 30 seconds upon entering the store not to touch the mannequin next to her. I was taken aback, but said nothing.
While I looked at jewelry on a table, my daughter noticed bubble wrap laying loose on the floor below and bent down to investigate, but before she could, we were given another stern warning and dirty look. The woman said there was glass inside the boxes, yet my daughter was not near the boxes.
We're now 3-5 minutes inside the store and nobody has greeted us or asked if I was looking for anything in particular. We make our way toward the middle of the store when a second woman approaches, only to notice that my daughter had a small lollipop in her mouth and then say with a tone of emergency "Don't touch the clothing with that" as if my daughter had rubbed the lollipop on something. So I asked, "I'm sorry, this is the third time in 5 minutes my daughter has been warned about something she hasn't done and it's a little much to be honest." To which she softened and said "It's just that there's no food or drink allowed." So okay. I conceded that point and told my daughter to eat what remained of the lollipop and give me the stick. I felt that the mood had shifted at that point for the better, and this woman then asked me if I could use help picking anything out. I shared what I was looking for and for the time being, she was polite and helpful in helping me find a few things. When I walked to the checkout counter to decide between two pair
of earrings, I was shocked to notice the price, which was astronomical for an unknown boutique in a grocery store plaza in North Naples, yet I still considered purchasing just one pair. The woman quickly grew impatient with me, and I became uncomfortable as the mood began to turn negative again, in which case I didn't feel good about pulling out my wallet. I said, "I've decided against all the earrings" in a polite way despite being uncomfortable. She then said, "So, you're not getting anything?" in an accusatory tone. To which I simply said, "That's correct." Then she walked away.
There was no "Well, thanks for stopping in anyway" or any kind of civility. She just walked away. I lingered a moment at a display before leaving to give her the chance to redeem herself, but nope. Nothing. So my daughter and I walked out.
After looking at the business Facebook page just now, I have leaned this woman is the owner, so I am even more baffled. What a joke. What a sham business! Zero idea of how to run a customer service based business! I walked in there ready and willing to give her my business!!
Of course, I had no idea until I was inside that the "boutique" has a lot of knock-off wannabe goods, which in my opinion equates this business to nothing better than a dirty trunk in some back alley in NYC filled with fake designer accessories. Get out of town with your knockoff CoCo Chanel apparel and jewelry. If I had known the store carried such street-vendor items, I would have never walked in. And now that I know what a sham the owner and store are, I will never walk back in.
Furthermore, I am blasting this anywhere a review can be blasted because that's what she earned and deserves. She's a complete joke and a scam, clearly, and so is her "boutique." read more
