VENDORS BEWARE. Until the owners deal with the current management, this place will continue to lose its best vendors and customers. We are seasoned vendors that spent two years in the Antique Gallery Round Rock. We had five booths in the mall at one time. It became painfully obvious that the manager was detrimental to our business. She creates a very toxic work environment for employees and vendors.
From the beginning, we experienced problems with the manager, Melody. She runs the establishment on a serious power trip. She is unprofessional, rude, dismissive. My husband still made a point to try to be friendly and say hello to her, but she would completely ignore him every time the entire two years we were in the mall. We know she also behaved this way towards another long-term male vendor. Employees of the mall told us they "walk on pins and needles." We witnessed her treat staff terribly and even fire them for simply being honest and doing their job instead of bowing their head down and remaining silent about known wrongs. We personally experienced several miserable and bizarre incidents with this manager. She was even hostile towards our 4 year old daughter. Customer reviews have echoed this sentiment as well.
The day following our move-out, we went to pay our prorated rent for 4 days and collect our check. Instead of issuing us our check, and keeping it with all the other checks at the front counter, Melody held ours in her office. She then proceeded to charge us an increased rent and claimed it was the new price per sq ft. We'd received no notice of this and rent there is not raised for current vendors, even when they've been there 10 years or more. Only newcomers pay the current increased rate. Anyhow, we paid the overcharge amount because she refused to give us our check otherwise. Unfortunately, there is no upper management in the mall above Melody. The owners live out of state and are unreachable. Other vendors I've spoken to have reached out to them in the past, but I'm told they do not care and will not do anything to improve the situation.
Beyond that, the mall will rent booths to anyone with little discernment regarding what will be sold. We believe an antique mall should be filled with interesting and unique vintage goods as well as valuable antiques. The core mall audience now mostly shop for average garage sale type stuff because it's plentiful at this mall and they are accustomed to finding it there. Shoppers looking for that special antique or design piece will shop other stores first because they don't expect to find it at the Antique Gallery Round Rock. It makes it tough for the handful of knowledgeable remaining vendors that do hold the bar up.
Lastly, the price per sf has gone up considerably for brand new vendors and it's 13% commission on sales for everyone. The mall doesn't have the clientele to support those rates, and they spend the bare minimum(if anything) on improvements and advertising. They aren't doing well and they expect the hardworking vendors to pick up the slack.
Owners, please do something about this manager! read more