Still trying to process what happened this afternoon. To give the owner some credit, I did come into the store today with three young children. If the owner were to tell this story, he'd say something about this lax parent waltzing into the store with her unruly children, letting them run wild, potentially damaging the merchandise or worse, hurting a customer.
But from where I stand, replaying what happened in my head, I came into the store, and while my son asked lots of questions, I really strived to manage my children. There was one moment when he told my daughter not to touch, literally as I was saying the same thing. I agreed with him! I doubled down on not touching. I thought, good, we're cool. Nope.
There were other customers in the store. An older couple, who he was pleasant with. They seemed to know what they were doing and knew him. They were super friendly with us. There was another woman with a child, likely around the same age as my son. He seemed completely fine with them. They didn't ask any questions though. When he asked if they needed anything, the child said, "no." Meanwhile, my child blissfully kept on peppering him with questions.
Unfortunately, my children, who I might add were not touching because they had been told sternly by him and myself not to, decided to pretend to be frogs, out of boredom. At this point all customers had left. All of them. It was just us. My son had selected a set and we were just trying to figure out between the two of us if he needed more track. Suddenly the owner yells, "No running!" I whirl around and call to my children, who come (unfortunately) running to me. As I'm kneeling down to correct my child, he comes up behind me and bellows, "YOU ARE MAKING IT UNSAFE FOR THE OTHER CUSTOMERS, I MUST ASK YOU LEAVE THE STORE." [Remember, we're the only ones left in the store].
My daughters burst into tears out of fright, my son puts down the set and quietly leaves the store. I grabbed the children and left. All children are in tears in the car. I'm shaking with fright. After we calmed down, we drove to EnterTRAINment Junction, where the staff sold us the exact same set for slightly more (~$10 more), but the staff person was kind, friendly, positive and upbeat. Also none of the merchandise was faded. It all looked new and nicely displayed.
Checking on Amazon the price is cheaper than both Dixie and EnterTrainment Junction. But I liked the experience of buying form EnterTrainment Junction and seeing the product in person and learning from their expertise. Oh, and being treated like a human being.
Needless to say we won't be back. I was happy I could end the day on a positive. My son has loved trains for ages and this was the big day we were finally going to purchase. He was super excited and then so deftly crushed by this man.
I know, I have kids. I know, it's difficult. Not everyone loves kids. No, you don't have to tolerate them in your store, but you can be kind. You can be empathetic. Considering I literally agreed with your rules and was working hard to manage my children, you could have told them not to run and we could have moved on. They were no longer touching. They listen.
So zero stars for this location. read more
