October 2023 by Shauna Powley
I have been a customer of this charity shop for many years now, both buying and donating. I have found the staff to be friendly enough but never had much interaction with them other then at the till, I have always dismissed the comments other local people make about them being uppity and snooty in here as I have never experienced it myself however today it finally happened.There was something in the window that I wanted to buy, seeing that the staff were busy I didn't see the need to trouble them as it is literally just a shelving unit in front of the window, (its not as if I had to clamber inside their window display to reach it) literally just a case of picking up what I wanted off of the shelf. Well no sooner had I picked the item up then a staff member came charging down from the till with her voice raised 'STOP DESTROYING OUR WINDOW DISPLAY'. My immediate thought was that she must be joking, but when she rounded the corner I could clearly see from her face she wasn't! I said 'oh I'm sorry I didn't realize the things on this shelf are not for sale?' To which she responded 'they are but we are sick of people like you coming and trashing this shelf, it is right in front of the window it is the first thing people see and it is always a mess!' I replied assuring her I have not 'messed up the shelf' and that I simply removed the item I wanted to buy and had not touched anything else on there. She said 'well if you've got what you wanted come away from that shelf' I hesitated for a moment, she then raised her voice once again and said 'NOW PLEASE, AWAY FROM IT'! At this point other customers were looking and I felt so awkward and uncomfortable being shouted at by another grown woman that I said forget it, put the item down and left.It is a shame as they have been closed for a long stretch of time and on their first day of reopening they lost my sale, and my future custom. Fair enough if they don't want people to touch the shelving unit in front of the window, a sign wouldn't go amiss? Even handling the whole interaction differently, approaching me with a 'hello can I help you? Is there something on this shelf you are interested in?' would have made the whole experience completely fine! No instead I get shouted at, embarrassed and made to feel like I had done something wrong. Gutted really as I am a big lover of charity shops and there is only one other in Tidworth, oh well at least I've never been treated like a criminal in the other one!
