Magdalena T.
Yelp
I live in Greenpoint and I frequent many Polish establishments on a regular basis, so I'm pretty accustomed to grumpy, if not straight up rude, customer service. It takes a lot to get me pissed off, but hey, sometimes you come across a real gem.
Two men at the counter. One speaks Polish and appears reasonably nice. He bags my order. The other (English-speaking) man silently takes my card without looking at me or acknowledging my presence in any other way. I ask him to run the card as debit. "ID", he barks, "it's unsigned". I repeat that I'd like him to run it as debit, not credit. You know, where you enter 4 little numbers on a pin pad. "No", he says, offering no further explanation. "Maybe they don't have a pin pad machine", suggests the customer behind me. Well, maybe, but why not say so? Or make eye contact, at the very least? I fumble through my wallet and find my Polish ID. The man examines it closely, suspiciously. "Poland, huh", he says, disapprovingly. Uhhh...yep? Sorry? He keeps looking at it and comparing it to the debit card, veeeeery slowly, seemingly unable to decide whether to accept it or not. Eventually he spits out "You got other ID?" I say "forget it, I'll just go to the ATM" and leave.
The selection is fine, the prices are fine, but I'm not going to spend money at a place that doesn't value my time or business. Liquor is not hard to find in this neighborhood, and I'm willing to pay (or walk) extra to avoid dealing with needless attitude. You just lost my business, not that you wanted it in the first place. Congrats!