Intimidating shopkeeper towards foreigner customers
I visited Finlayson shop at Forum Helsinki with my son on Friday this week. I didn’t plan to buy anything but see if there’s something meets my interest then I’d but it. I didn’t like the shopkeeper lady from the old generation who gives intimidating vibe, right at the first time I entered the shop, someone who never learns that foreign-looked customers are high-spending market segment according to research in Finland, so please set a proper gesture or treatment towards it, while working at an international brand company.
The shopkeeper watched my boy and told him not to go closer to the display with certain tone (surprised but understood that it’s quite fragile, fine). She let us checking around.
I went to the cashier, she asked about the apron that once was kept in my hand which I put back & didn’t buy at last (she saw me holding it), for I bought an elephant softy for my boy as the exchange with higher price than the apron. She showed intimidating expression & kept staring at my bag which I put it on the cashier table in front of her. I could feel that she was suspicious that I STOLE the apron which I didn’t execute buying it for I didn’t like it anyway. If I would have stolen it, why would I dare to put my bag in front of her eyes?
After she managed to observe over me with her intimidating sight, her eyes landed on my other bag and then asked why I had a Finlayson duvet cover in my other bag? She thought I had stolen it from there too! She should have known her own store’s arrangement well, where the spot for same duvet cover put in there. The duvet cover I was taking with me was bought from Iso Omena branch earlier time. That kind of duvet, in her store are put/displayed on the very high rack & I definitely will have needed a ladder or her help to reach it from up there.
I kept calm during the tense cashier drama as I didn’t want to terrify my boy.
I came back 2 minutes later to the store after finally found the duvet’s receipt & showed her the receipt from Iso Omena to prove to her that I’m not a thief. She really looked into it!
She said “thing’s clear now”, no apologies or nice sayings having known that she’s wrong after what she threw around on me.
Is it in Finlayson or according to her, we are forced to each time buy the item that we hold in our hand?
Particularly here, was she suspicious that I stole the apron for only €12 because that we are foreign looking persons?
There was another foreign customer who came just because she saw me in there, the person doesn’t look relax either with her explaining in those arrogant gestures.
I took quite long texts, time & energy right here because I’ve felt harassed & my mood was blown up for whole day because of this incident. So Finlayson could also improve their workers’ manner to be more pleasant, because in this era, customer experience is the thing that can survive a company to last long and social media is a very impactful tool! I have been using Finlayson products a lot for 15+ years and this incident has really put me down.
August 7, 2021
Unprompted review