We are an Asian American family, traveled around the world and always purchased a few souvenirs at local stores and normally had lovely conversations with stores owners during the purchases. But our experience with the lady at Felix Cartelismo was the worst experience that I do not want any visitor to go through.
The moment my daughters and I stepped into her store, I sensed her hostility towards us. She followed and watched us like we were thieves. In hindsight, we should have left, but I stayed around with my daughters, just wanting to help them to buy a few flamenco dancing posters to decorate their dorms. We had a small conversation among ourselves about which poster to buy. Without noticing the store policy, my daughter picked up a poster to ask our opinion. The store lady rushed over, angrily asked my daughter not to lift up the poster and forcefully snapped the poster away from my daughter's hand. We were stunned by her reaction to a normal behavior from a customer, possibly any customer, who simply picked up a poster for a better look or an opinion. She scolded us for not following her policy. We would have apologized to her if she pointed out her policy in a friendly manner. Further, we would not have picked up her poster if we saw the policy. When I told her that she was acting very rude and should not treat her customers this way, she shouted at us and said we should "go back to our own country" and demanded us leaving her store.
After left her store, my daughters and I were so upset, not quite understanding what just happened to us. We were helping a local business and were scolded by the business owner, asked to leave her store and demanded to "go back to our country". Is this because we are Asian women? She didn't follow any of the other (non-Asian) customers in the same way. I do not have an answer for the hostile treatment we received. read more
