Hawthorn and B.
Google
I found Grey’s online after wanting to find a local cheese shop that might have some options that are not available at the grocery store. I was excited to see the shop and was very interested in purchasing some cheese. My husband and I drove 45 minutes from across town to visit the shop. It also happened to be the Friday after the large ice storm we recently had, so we were happy to be able to support a local business after they had to close for a few days due to the weather.
Upon arriving, we parked in the garage and walked around for a good ten minutes trying to find the shop. There is no good signage to show you exactly where the shop is, and walking around in 25-degree weather trying to find it was frustrating and we almost left. We finally found it, and upon walking inside, it was a warm and inviting space. There were two employees in the shop/restaurant area – one was helping a customer at the register and the other was talking to a friend/customer from behind the cheese counter.
We were looking at the wall of non-cheese items, which seemed like a nice selection of crackers, mustards, honeys, and other accompaniments you could purchase. We walked up to the cheese counter and started looking at the cheese in the refrigerated display. We went back and forth between picking up cheese to see what it was and patiently looking up to wait for someone to acknowledge/help us.
While we stood there, another employee came out from the back of the restaurant to bring samples of cheese to the customer at the register and promptly went back into the kitchen. The friend/customer of the other employee left, and the second employee that had been behind the counter moved out into the restaurant and started wiping empty tables.
At this point, we had probably been in the shop for a good ten minutes. None of the employees acknowledged we were there, not even to say they would be with us shortly or to offer a hello. At this point I was frustrated, so we left to go to the bathroom in the hallway and didn’t go back in. I’m not sure if we weren’t “hip” enough for them to even say hello to, if we didn’t look the part or what, but being completely ignored in a tiny shop for over ten minutes was beyond rude. I was so excited to visit this shop, but the experience left a bad taste in our mouths. As they say, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”, so we will find other places to spend our money.