Catawba River Antique Mall — Attraction in Belmont

Since posting this review, the owner of Catawba River Antique Mall has contacted me. She was very apologetic and very nice. She was understanding to my situation. The conversation couldn't have gone better and she ended up making it right by giving me a gift certificate to the antique mall as compensation. I will continue to shop here as this is my favorite antique mall in the area.

I've been shopping at this antique mall for 3 years now and have spent quite a bit of money. I've never had a problem with any of the merchandise and the staff has always been very friendly. Yesterday I bought some dishes that were shrink-wrapped in bundles. When I got them home and removed the shrink wrap I noticed that there were defects (cracks and holes) in the glaze which makes them not food safe which defeats the whole purpose of buying dishes which I now can't use. I know their policy is no returns and in the three years that I've been shopping there, I've never had to return anything. On this occasion, I figured that they would make an exception and allow these dishes to be returned because I couldn't inspect them prior to purchase because they were shrink-wrapped. I bought them sight unseen. I attempted to return them today and explained to them that the dishes were not food safe. The woman at the front desk proceeded to tell me that it's not their policy to allow returns and that some vendors would allow returns but some won't and that she could call the vendor to find out. She came back from making the phone call and informed me that the vendor would not allow returns and that her husband inspected the dishes and that there was no problem with the dishes except maybe a few discolorations and that in the future she would not shrink wrap any of her dishes. That's wonderful that in the future she wouldn't shrink wrapped the dishes but that doesn't help me now. I have dishes that can't be used safely. The woman at the front desk didn't even bother looking at the dishes to verify that there were defects and just said " I believe you ". I even went further and explained to her that she just lost my business and it didn't even phase her. She just said "I understand". It's absolutely unbelievable to me that a company in this day and age is willing to throw away all of my future business and any of the business that I would have referred to them from friends and family over $14...

I found several items however I'm a little tired of the micro-agression that's being displayed here. As I've been doing this for years (shopping in Antique markets) and always do my best to make the process smooth for the employees, vendors and considerate of the other customers and I make large purchases...it was annoying to first be chastised by a customer pushing an empty basket btw I was taking tags of of several things I PURCHASED so the cashier would have the tags for the items to put into the system for the truck to pick up the items nect day. "Those who do what I do understand this process also EVERY OTHER ANTIQUE store I've gone to has either understood or adopted the process. This store did not. It went from the Karen to the floor employee not making any sense at all about why I shouldn't pull the tags off of the 50 fishing rods because sometime else could want to buy it...sir I'm buying these "what are you talking about. Then the young ladywho rang me up then had to tell me not to pull the tags off. I asked what would have been a better way to get the tags from 50+ items that weren't going to be picked up until the next day. She suggested having one of the employees follow me around the store and gather items I wanted to purchase 🤔 so don't know how that would have worked out. Then to add unconscious- bias to the micro aggression. The young lady at the counter asked for My ID ! Now mind you I was leaving behind 1000 dollars worth of merchandise to be picked up. Which means I had to leave my name and phone number. On top of this...NO ONE ELSE was asked for their ID. On top of all of this... what I was purchasing was fishing rods, old trunks and duck decoys! Really?! Have you seen me? Why in the Hell would I want to scam you for any of this?! . Y'all need to do better. The racial energy is high and Im sick of it! You can thank the nice vendor who sold me the ducks that I went through with...

The owner felt I unfairly reviewed them so I will alter my wording to be more exact. I have been coming to Catawba River Antique Mall since they opened. I have made purchases there many times. My last visit, which was on a Saturday, was very disappointing to me. I shop for antiques and they were few and far between. There were customers there shopping and finding items they liked, but I did not. I support Small business at all times. Vendors are having a harder time finding merchandise and brick and mortars are finding it harder to keep going. It is obvious that Catawba has their customers. If you are looking for a place to shop for lots of treasures, It's a good place to walk around. If you are solely looking for antiques, You will still find a few scattered here and there and they have a section of cases filled with glassware and other items. For myself, it is too far for me to come to not be able to find something. I will return if they get more antiques coming in. But for the time being I was just disappointed. And that's about as fair...