Mina M.
Yelp
We recently moved from Los Angeles to Austin and were thrilled to spend Saturday exploring with a new friend, from the Austin area. We happened upon Toy Joy, due to the local vegan ice cream shop Sweet Ritual, which has a new pop up location inside Toy Joy.
We entered where the ice cream/candy portion is in the shop and patiently waited to try a few of the flavors. My other half is vegan and he picked his ice cream and paid. Afterwards, the three of us wandered the rest of the shop, finding fun toys to purchase.
While we were wandering around, one of the sales clerks walked up to my partner and I and whispered that there was a new rule that required any bag to be kept at the front counter, or left in the car. She motioned that my friend also needed to adhere to the rule, but once the sales person saw my friends tiny wallet, said my friend didn't need to leave her wallet anywhere.
I was a bit surprised and taken aback - as normally that's not a requirement when browsing in a store. I also found it incredibly odd, when after I put my small purse in my car - there were several other people who wandered the shop with much larger hand bags/backpacks and who were NEVER asked to put their bags at the front register or back in their car.
Now, one can only speculate as to why we were asked. Our group of three as a whole, is over the age of 25, well mannered and brought no kids. Two of us are over the age of 30 and look Caucasian. The friend we were hanging out with is a Texas native, and black. After we were told by the sales clerk about the "new" bag policy, the clerk made her way back to the register, passing a couple of other people, with purses or hand bags. I watched a few very blonde/white women with large tote bags walking around and the sales clerks never mentioned the bag policy to them. There was only one other single time, that I saw her mention it to another group of 2 women, and those women did not appear to be Caucasian.
However for me as a business owner, I think it's important to bring this incident to the open and have a discussion as to why it was put in place and the oddness in the fact that it only targets certain people within the store. I've had my business for 4 years and have sold at countless craft fairs and markets. While it's certainly different than a brick and mortar, theft can be problematic and cause for concern. I've found ways to mitigate theft though and how to handle it, to ensure no one feels like they are a target, especially because of the color of their skin.
If you are going to have a policy on leaving bags at the front register or inside the customers vehicle, please post signs on the door and windows, informing customers of said rule. Have a sales clerks stand at the door to enforce said rules, before customers enter the premise fully. And make sure they tell every customers - because targeting only 2 sets of people, rather than the whole 15 or so customers, makes those customers question your reasons.
