The Amazing Brentwood — Attraction in Burnaby

Today I had an extremely bad experience in your Brentwood store. I don't usually make reviews, but I am very protective of my family because they come from a background of many hardships before their life in Canada now. There are some thing I completely understand due COVID 19. However, my family and I wore masks prior to entering the store and we used hand sanitizers upon entry. Now, my parents do not come to visit me in Vancouver often, so I would like them to have a good experience every time they do. They come from a small populated town in BC that is an 8 hours drive from Vancouver, where retail selection is few and has cold winters. I thought, hey lets take them to the new Sporting Life. I heard that selection for jackets is great! However, my Mother finally finds a jacket of her liking, decides she wants to look at it. This one tall, male, caucasian manager comes walking past a few sections just to tell her she cannot touch anything based on rules. Now it wasn't the rules that upset us (even though he literally walks past 3 groups of people to come just to tell us that). It was the way he spoke to my parents. He said we were "tucked away in a little corner" and then proceeds to tell us in a very demeaning tone that we aren't allowed to touch anything, 3 days we get it. Now I am not the type to blame it on discriminatory behaviour, but 1) he did walk past a couple sections just to talk to us.2) He walked past 3 groups of other people and did not speak to them about them touching things and trust me, they 100% were. 3) He basically stood there to watch us to the point where we felt super uncomfortable where my Dad just wanted to leave. Oh yeah, 4) When I went to go look at footwear on our way out the store I literally watch him not speak anyone else about the rules. Now it was just this one individual that spoke to us like that. ALL the other employees were super nice and didn't mind helping us in a very kind manner prior to his completely offensive customer service. We left very shortly with my Mom completely upset because when she looked around, every other customer were trying things on and touching things and were not spoken to. One last comment, based on previous customer reviews I have read, seems like it was not his first time picking on customers. I am choosing to believe that Sporting Life is better than that and although my parents will not longer be going to any store in the future, I hope my next visit will not make me or others feel...

DO NOT SHOP HERE – THEY TREAT YOU LIKE A CRIMINAL THE MOMENT YOU WALK IN.

Let me give you a glimpse into how this place operates: my sandals broke, so I headed to Sporting Life, the only store in the mall that sells Birkenstocks. Seems straightforward enough—until I walked in and was treated like a suspect instead of a customer.

At the entrance, the security guard demanded that I check my small Kate Spade purse backpack. Meanwhile, my friend walked in with two totes, and my son had a backpack—both allowed in without question. But apparently my small purse was the red flag of the day. When I explained that my wallet and essentials were inside, the guard told me to take them out and check the rest. I refused. Instead, my friend stood at the front holding my bag while I shopped, because I wasn’t about to trust a store that immediately assumes you’re going to steal from them.

And the kicker? He smugly assured me there were “four cameras watching the exit.” If you have that much surveillance, maybe try using it to prevent actual theft instead of alienating paying customers.

When I finally got to the back to pick out shoes, not a single staff member was there. I brought a sample shoe to the front, asked for my size, and was told I had to go all the way back again—where I waited alone until a manager finally fetched the pair.

At this point, I was done. I grabbed my bag from my friend, paid, and was then asked if I wanted to sign up for their rewards program. Really? After being treated like a shoplifter, ignored by staff, and made to feel like my presence was a problem?

No, I won’t be signing up. And I’ll never step foot in this place again. Sporting Life has made it clear they don’t value customers—just control. If you want to be watched, doubted, and inconvenienced every step of the way, by all means, shop here. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and spend your money somewhere that respects you. And before someone from corporate pastes the same tired, robotic response— “We appreciate you taking the time to tell us about your experience... We value your feedback and will pass it along...” —maybe stop copying and pasting and actually start listening. Countless customers have called out this invasive, inconsistent bag-check policy, and nothing ever changes. If you truly cared about customer feedback, you’d fix the problem—not keep recycling empty apologies behind a contact form no one...

I had a disappointing experience with one of the staff members who was rude and dismissive (November 26, 2024). When I asked for assistance, they didn’t acknowledge me and made no effort to communicate that they were helping someone else. After following them across the racks, they still didn’t check back with me, and I had to repeat my question. At the time I first asked my question, they weren't with another customer so I didn't realize they were busy. I would have been happy to wait my turn if they said something like "I can help you in a bit I'm just helping out someone else now," instead of making me discover that on my own.

When I asked again, they looked at me like I was unbelievable for not checking if it was available online myself. They made me search it up on my phone, impatiently hovering beside me and was visibly annoyed at me when the website prompted me to input the location, and I was confirming that it was "Brentwood" but they begrudgingly said I was supposed to put in the postal code as if it was obvious. That was not intuitive there was no need to be so annoyed. The item I was looking for ended up not being in stock but maybe they could have pointed me to the direction of the section it'd likely be available in, so I could find similar items. And what if there's an internal inventory system different from the website idk? There's no harm in asking questions, I even asked so politely and patiently. What's the point of having staff on the floor if they're just going to sigh and redirect u to search it up yourself online. I don't even write google reviews but such a brief and simple interaction didn't justify the poor attitude I received. I approached politely, expected basic assistance, and was met with dismissive behavior.

NOW THAT IM READING ALL THE OTHER COMPLAINTS THIS IS SO VALIDATING BUT SO DISAPOINTING AS NOTHING HAS CHANGED FOR YEARS. HOW IS THIS STORE STILL IN BUSINESS WITH SUCH HORRIBLEEEEEE CUSTOMER SERVICE. Extremely lame. zero stars. Will my review actually get acknowledged with the generic "We appreciate you taking the time to tell us about your experience in our store. We sincerely apologize for the experience that you had in-store. This is not how..." or will this go unnoticed with no active...