This is a complaint about the upsetting customer service that I received in Carol's Hallmark shop, which is located at 549 E. Michigan Avenue, Saline, Michigan, just south of Ann Arbor.
A middle-aged woman whose name I did not get waited on me. (It may have been the owner). I went into the shop to buy holiday cards. Not Christmas cards - holiday cards. I do business with people all over the world - Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, atheists - and my primary intent in buying these cards was to send out a very generic holiday greeting to all of these business contacts. For obvious reasons I do not want to insult someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas by sending them an inappropriate card.
Unfortunately, though the prospect of buying generic holiday cards seems like a very basic request that any Hallmark store should be able to fill, that was not the case here. The store was packed to the brim with all of these ugly Thomas Kincaid cards with their evangelical overtones - there were maybe three boxes of holiday cards in the whole store. And as if that weren't off-putting enough, this saleswoman made no bones about letting me know how irritated she was by my request. I said, "I'd like some holiday cards. Not Christmas ones. Holiday ones."
She rolls her eyes and says, "Oh, well! Heaven forbid that it should say Merry Christmas!" Then she starts trying to sell me the Kincaid Christmas cards, whipping out one box after another and handing them to me. I got more of the same attitude when I went to the cash register with my holiday cards, more indignation from her about what I was buying. I felt judged and cornered. Then when I wished the woman a happy holiday, she gets in my face and says, "Well MERRY CHRISTMAS to you."
I was personally raised in a Christian household, and I'm respectful of Christian beliefs and observe Christmas myself. But I can sense narrow-minded evangelical prejudice and judgment a mile away. And that's exactly what I got from this woman. She seemed ignorant, hateful, and impervious to my needs or my feelings as a customer. I felt like I was being waited on by Jerry Falwell! I'm happy to shop at individual Hallmark stores, but I won't be shopping at this one again, that's for d*mn sure.
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