Bangles & Beads

Suz W.

Joined 4 months ago

This store has less unique inventory and individual beads than it did a couple of years ago, but their prices are very reasonable. I had a very disturbing experience today with the Mother/owner of the shop. I have shopped at this store for 10 years and now my daughter has joined the ranks and has shopped with me, never alone, for the past 2 years (she is 16). The owner aggressively spoke to my daughter about not "balling up" little plastic bead packages in her hand. She kept coming back at my daughter and telling her to put the packages down and to only look at them on the tray, not in her hand. My daughter was humiliated and shocked, a good kid who doesn't purposely do the "wrong thing". She couldn't understand, nor could I, why this woman was making a public scene about the tiny plastic bead bags with 1$ worth of rhinestones in them. My daughter put all the bags on the tray, then put all the rhinestones back in their proper drawers. She would not spend her money there. The owner followed us up to the cash register with an angry face and folded arms as I checked out. I asked my daughter to go to the car because I felt she was traumatized and was being bullied by this adult and I wanted her out of the situation so I could speak to this woman. My daughter wouldn't budge, later telling me why should she be run out of a store. So I was a good role model and told the woman that I liked her store and had spent a lot of money there (thousands) but what she did was humiliating. What followed was just a tit for tat with every sarcasm coming from her. She let me know she could care less what I thought or my patronage. She told me I was correct when she sarcastically said she was sorry and I called her on it - "you're right, 'I'm not'". I said "well, after this I don't think I can do business with you anymore"; her response was "I'm sure that's for the better". When my daughter was in the car she burst out crying and was shook up for the rest of the day. She kept saying "I'm a good kid, no one has ever spoken to me that way, what's wrong with that awful woman". I don't know, but people need to know that there is a reason why the people who work there are dour and unhelpful and not really friendly. From the top down; there is a very angry crooked work culture/environment that's palpable. You won't have a problem unless you are a frequent customer.....should be the opposite, shouldn't it?