I have tried posting this review 3 times on Google reviews since this incident happened on Monday September 2nd.
My friend and I went to this store on Monday afternoon. The woman working there was very friendly while we shopped through the store. After we had made our purchase, she inquired as to where we were from. We informed her we were Canadians. We then informed her what areas we were from, me being from outside Toronto and my friend from Ottawa. This woman then stated (unprompted) that Toronto is a great city but that the rest our country was "going to shit".
She further inquired what our political leanings were. My friend stated, kindly but firmly, that we didn't like to engage in political conversations while traveling in the States. Undeterred, this woman proceeded to ask us our leanings and flat out asked if we like our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Despite not knowing any policies, this woman stated she liked his dad (our former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau) but had no time for our current Prime Minister.
Attempting to leave this store, my friend then stated Americans tended to live in a fish bowl with their news and Canadians tend to make more of an effort to understand world events. Additionally, We found it intriguing she only engaged in rather aggressive political talks with us after I had spent over 100 dollars in her store. As relatively well traveled Canadians, We understand Americans tend to be a bit more brazen with their political leanings and conversations. But this woman managed to both harshly insult our country while simultaneously trying to force us to divulge our political leanings even after we set a very firm boundary that we did not discuss such things. It was absolutely unacceptable and we will not be returning to this store - which is unfortunate as the store and items within were all beautiful. Very saddened and disappointed overall that from this interaction, a lot of the stereotypes Canada and the world has of Americans were reinforced. read more