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| - I've never had a bad experience at a thrift/antique shop before. Sometimes they're not as neat as I'd like. The price or quality of items might not match up the way it should. Most times this is in a specific booth (or few) within an otherwise great shop. I can forgive that, especially since most shop owners are friendly and helpful.
The Treasure Mart is a completely different experience. Occasionally, when my mother comes in from out of state, we get together with my sister and/or mother-in-law for a day of thrift shopping. My mom had done some research prior to one of these days and had a list of places to visit. I'd never heard of the Treasure Mart and was curious to see what we'd find. We walked in and I was first struck by the badly organized, smelly mess in front of us. I didn't actually touch much of what was in there because so much of it was clearly junk. The shelves were randomly piled, a floor-pile of picture frames included some that were broken, and they were selling stained kitchen items. Eew. I noticed plenty of jewelry that were low quality and even missing small settings. When I walked towards the back I saw a person in a particularly messy "employee only" sorting area who looked homeless, but she turned out to be one of the owners. The only helpful piece of information we were given while there (no hellos. even!) was that their prices slowly drop the longer an item is in stock.
My mother and MIL found a few things that they liked and purchased, but I didn't. There was plenty of glassware, and a few nicer items in locked cases. The other owner mostly complained while checking my mom/MIL out. I wasn't impressed and didn't think I'd be back until my mom called me after she'd gotten home. She had really liked a milk glass punch bowl in one of the cases and wanted me to check in a week later to see if the price had dropped. I agreed to check it out, and intended to buy it for her either way.
I called ahead to find out what their hours were and let the owner know that I'd be heading across town from work at the end of the day to look for something specific. When I arrived at exactly the time I'd told her (and a half hour before their stated closing time), I was surprised to find the front door locked even though the open sign was still out. I bumped into the owners outside when I walked back to my car and told them I was the woman who had called about stopping out a couple of hours earlier. I let her know that I'd left work early that day to make it across town with time to spare, that I knew exactly where and what I was looking for, and that I'd buy it right then if it was there - if they could just give me five minutes. They were extremely rude, saying that they'd decided to close early, it was just to bad that I couldn't have come earlier, It didn't matter that I'd told them when I was coming or that they were still there, and that if their hours were inconvenient I should come back on the weekend. They slammed the door in my face and I left.
I was stunned that they'd treat a customer who gave them advance notice of stopping out this way. While I can understand the decision to close early on a slow day, the rudeness was a shock. Especially compared to a majority of business owners in the Madison area, and in the antique/thrift world in general. I haven't gone back and have no intention to. If the smell and junky contents weren't enough, I absolutely refuse to patron a business who won't work with a customer who went out of their way to communicate and plan ahead.
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