Very unpleasant staff at this Laderach location compared to others. I've been to two other stores prior to this and have always been met with very friendly and helpful employees. Laderach's hazelnut milk chocolate is my favorite chocolate and I always buy some when I see a store despite the expensive price -- it's that good. There's actually two locations closer to me but I was out at Woodbury Commons for a shopping trip I was pleasantly surprised to find a Laderach store. My experience here, however, was far from pleasant. When I came in with my family there weren't any customers aside from someone paying at the register. I was standing nearby the counter so I could order and waited. There were three workers in the store, two were actually busy either attending to the customer paying or preparing chocolate, and one was just standing there next to the counter obviously uninterested in helping us. I figured the worker at the register would just help us once they were done with the previous customer. We waited a while until the worker who was just standing there, Patricia, finally went to us and asked if we needed help. I said yes and asked if I could get the Hazelnut milk chocolate and instead of just asking me to repeat myself she rudely told me to "speak up". Mind you I wasn't mumbling or speaking softly, I was speaking clearly and louder since I was aware of the glass between us. I thought okay, maybe she is hard of hearing but I did think it was strange for her to speak to me in that way. I also feel maybe she assumed I didn't speak any English either because I am Asian and there are a lot of foreigners who visit the outlets. If that's so then I hope Laderach teaches their employees cultural sensitivity. Then when I went to pay and had my card out she paused for a moment and looked at me with a judgemental look on her face for who knows what reason. I thought it was odd but then I ignored it once again, glad I'm getting my chocolate. While paying, I was waiting for the card terminal to prompt me to tap/insert she told me "do something with it" as if I was stupid and didn't know how to use one. I wanted to tell her that I was waiting for the terminal to say something but I decided against it. Once again the way she was speaking to me was rude, but I ignored her and paid, said thank you and left. It was when I was leaving when my boyfriend mentioned how rude she was speaking to me. I thought I was the only one who felt uncomfortable with this interaction. I'm not exactly sure what I could have done to be treated this way, I came in respectfully and waited patiently despite being the only customer not greeted when I came in.
This experience left a very bitter taste in my mouth. If Patricia (an older lady) tries to help you, ask for a different person to help you. She definitely has some sort of bias, otherwise she just has a horrible way of speaking to others. I don't suggest this location despite how good the chocolate is. The only reason why I continued to purchase here was because I love this chocolate but I definitely won't be purchasing here again and do not recommend others to go here. If I'm paying that much for chocolate I would hope I'd be treated a little better than what I went through with Patricia. There are much better locations with better customer service. read more