This is a tough one…read more
First of all, there's some REALLY cool stuff, but most of it is waaay overpriced. $650 for a Kentucky Fried Chicken light? Really? This is Maggie Valley, not Manhattan. That's about double what it's worth. Next, the owner is EXTREMELY outgoing...to the point of making you uncomfortable. Sure, he's friendly, but he appears to be on a constant caffeine or sugar high, bouncing off the walls. Don't get me wrong...I appreciate when someone is friendly, but this was to the point of being intrusive, and a bit creepy.
Topping it off was the picture taped by the front door of President Biden made up as a terrorist. Look, I get it...it's his shop; he can do what he wants. But it's my time and my money, and I don't give a rat's crap about his politics. Yeah, yeah, I realize we were in Trump country, and the multiple life-sized cardboard cutouts of the guy only reinforced that, but I don't have to deal with that sort of nonsense. I actually found something I was interested in (one of the few reasonably-priced pieces in the store), but that interest dropped to zero when I saw the Biden picture.
If you're willing to throw your politics under people's nose it just tells me you don't care about honking off a certain percentage of your potential customers...and that is a stupid business move. The smartest thing this guy could do would be to to dial back the in-your-face approach to customer interaction and keep his politics under wrap. Then he just might skirt around the ridiculous pricing.