My wife and I had a stunningly bad experience here this week. Our visit went well for the first hour plus with the first two employees who helped us. They were both wonderful and helped us make our way through potential choices. Then, each of them left, and we were left to work with a different employee--Roberto--who did not interact with us until he came over to ask "are you guys ready to check out soon?" We let him know we were doing well, had decided to purchase several pairs, but had a couple more decisions to make, after which he let us know that he'd be taking his break in 20 minutes and that we'd need to make our purchases before then. I asked whether the store was closing for the evening, and he said it wasn't but that we'd had more than enough time to make our decisions about purchasing our shoes and that he'd be closing the store. My wife then spoke with him at the counter, informing him that we'd spoken with the other employees about ordering additional shoes in our sizes, etc., and asked whether we might have a bit more time to ensure we could get these orders in, and he said that he was supposed to take his break earlier, then trailed off under his breath.
At this point we decided it would be preferable to leave than to work with him, given his hostile and dismissive tone. I'm not sure what happened--was it that we're dark-skinned people and Roberto didn't trust that we'd purchase the shoes we set aside? Was it that he thought we looked a bit scruffy or young, not like people who'd purchase a few pair of shoes for the new school year? We've shopped at Clarks for most of our adult lives, and have loved their shoes during that time, but maybe it's time to take our business somewhere else in the future. read more