ZERO stars, stay away from this store! I unfortunately had an extremely unpleasant experience at the Modern State on 3rd avenue. I have shopped there on several occasions for various gifts and decorations including balloons for my son's birthday. Today, I stopped there to purchase an Easter basket for my son. I initially picked up a wooden basket, but afterwards saw a cloth option and put the wooden one back. I asked the black man who is usually standing around in the store (not sure if he is the manager) if there were any other cloth basket options and he said no. I then went to checkout and pay for the cloth basket, while the cashier was ringing me up, he (the black man) approached me with another cloth basket. I initially thought he was trying to get me to buy two, but then he stated that I had two cloth baskets, I told him that I only had one, but he continued to assert that I had picked up two. He then asked to check the Trader Joe's bag I was carrying, which was shocking to me, my guess is that he confused the wooden basket I had with a cloth basket and I explained to him that I had previously picked up a wooden basket and showed him where I put it back on the shelf. I also then opened my bag to show him that I did not have another cloth basket. It was extremely embarrassing and humiliating to be essentially accused of stealing an easter basket. He did not apologize and kept mumbling about another bag. I obviously did not purchase the overpriced cloth easter bag, left the store and bought one at Target instead.
I will never set foot in this store again and will make sure that my other mom and neighborhood friends will not either! I also unfortunately believe that this accusation would not have been made if I was a white woman. There are many google reviews about the rude customer service at this store, but the blatant racism was not something I was expecting and was very upsetting. read more