Old Strathcona Antique Mall — Attraction in Greater Strathcona

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one:

I witnessed my first ever diet-Karen here today, and for that, I am thankful. I say diet-Karen because she had most of the classic Karen-cliches down, she made sure to screech that she was an important person because she had spent "thousands of dollars here", "is a mother--why can't you think of my children who aren't with me!?", "why can't you accommodate me because I'm special" etc etc. but she missed one integral Karen move, and that was to summon the manager herself, honestly, a rookie mistake but I digress. This Karen was angry because this Antique mall has the wonderful tradition of the "Kids Christmas Shoppe"-- a small booth reserved only for children under 12 to go to, pick something they want to personally give someone as a gift, and purchase. This area of the store is very clearly labeled (something our antagonist freely admitted she had seen, and just chose to ignore), and it's a small insignificant portion of the store with simple yet tasteful items. Karen had found herself a plain-looking scarf, and decided she couldn't live without it. Yes, a beige and brown scarf was the reason why she thought it fit to harass, threaten, and just plain get mean, to one very patient and soft spoken cashier who doesn't make the rules. She wasted his time for a good 10 minutes, and when another employee tried to walk by, she proceeded to try and waste her time, both getting the same sympathetic response, but their hands were tied. She could have left without her purchases to really make a statement about her dissatisfaction, but demanded he ring her through for her other items while insisting that she will "never shop there again", over and over and honestly it was becoming a bit tiresome so I piped up, and told her to just leave if she doesn't like the way she's being treated. Admittedly, I don't work here, and I didn't need to step in but one can only watch a grown woman do her best to reduce a young man to rubble for absolutely no reason for so long. Luckily, the manager/owner soon came quickly after I diverted her attention, and this Karen was unable to move the owner no matter what threats and other petty tantrums she tried to pull. Good. I'm so happy that the place I chose to shop has management that genuinely cares about the wellbeing of their employees, and will stick by them when they're just trying to do their job. 2020 is tough on everyone (yeah, you're not the only one who's having a weird time, Karen) but just because things are different doesn't give anyone the right to spit venom--especially at a retail worker during the most stressful time for retail workers of the year. Lady (Karen), if you're reading this, shame on you. Kudos to this small business for sticking with its employees, for thinking of fun and unique ways to include kids in the holiday spirit, and for having such strong and polite people behind the cashier table. I've always enjoyed the items you have to offer, but now I'll be back knowing that the people who work there are just...

I like shopping here. I bought...hundreds, maybe over $1000 worth of decor for my new place here last time I moved. And I have no issue with a bag check policy, even if it's a little ridiculous in a mall located in a foot-traffic/car-free friendly neighborhood where a lot of people are going to be carrying a functional bag. (Like, does the cost of full time uniformed security at the door make sense? Is this city full of oddly specific kleptos stealing $35,000-40,000 worth of vintage dishes and knick knacks every year?) BUT, I'm SICK and TIRED of the discriminatory profiling that they seem to use when determining whose bag is checked and whose isn't. As someone who looks "indie" and lives car free, yep, I don't look fancy when I'm in this area and stop in and I often have a bag that's big enough to hold a couple of reusable bags or a book or something. Not a huge bag, but not a tiny evening bag. Today I went here with my normal shoulder bag and was required to check it in leaving my hands full of the items (coffee, wallet, phone, expensive headphones) that I didn't want to leave in a locker and counted 4 women with larger bags or backpacks than mine that would have walked past the same gatekeepers I did and clearly had not been required to put their bags in a locker. It appears that the uniformed security and an older female staff member were at the entrance the whole time I was there...1/as someone who's worked in retail for years - the people I've caught stealing often don't look like the people who might be stereotyped by certain others as being possibly bad 2/It's absolutely not acceptable to profile customers based on a stereotype 3/it's your business - you want to profile me and subtly treat me differently than other customers making me juggle my belongings in my hands based on the assumption that I might be a thief while others can shop more comfortably with their things in their bags - well then I don't want to support your business. There are several times that I've been here and very very much noticed this, I don't think it's a...

If there's two prices listed on an item, you should get the lower of the two. Toom my 13 year old daughter there to spend her birthday money and wanted to get a motorcycle license plate in addition to everything else she carefully planed out. Plate stated 5 dollars clerk wanted to charge us 25. Someone took the time to write a $5 sticker and put it on the item so that's the price it should sell for. Needless to say she was sad to put it back.

*EDIT In Response to the reply by the mall. The current Fair trade laws in Alberta are clear that the advertised price or lowest of the item would be the one honored, in this case there shouldn't of been a waste of time of calling to see if someone will honour the price, or checking to see, the fact of the matter is it was advertised at a price which should of been honored, not lets see if they will. The team member was helpful and did offer, but at the same time it shouldn't of been a conversation she had to deal with. The item was tagged at a price and should be sold at the price. The "vendor" can suffer the consequences of not following vendor policy and thus reducing the risk of those transactions to your great staff by someone who would be more adamant or make a scene. It would also allow you to follow consumer protection laws in Alberta. Now this being said, there are instances with the types of merchandise in the store that removing an original price tag would affect the value of the item. And thus it is practical that a "K-mart" sticker or other store sticker would not be honoured because of the item and I think that is common sense. This was not the case with the item in question though. It was a...