Marketplace 3301 — Attraction in Billings

I have grown up that you always treat your customers with respect, as they will be the ones to get you business by word of mouth. I have worked in retail customer service, as well as the medical field, which believe it or not is the ultimate customer service.

But one thing you don't do is treat your customers subpar. My daughter and I decided to go to an antique shop here in our new town, we knew we had about a half an hour to look around before closing. When we walked in, I had made eye contact with the guy behind the counter and smiled, he rolled his eyes. Okay, I chalk it up that he must be having a bad day. We all have those, so I ignored it and we continue to walk and look around. Within 5 minutes, the guy walks past us and turns off the back part of the stores lights. Mind you, there are lights still on and we had approximately another 20 minutes before closing. My daughter picked up a little heart antique pillow that I told her I'd buy her. As my oldest is standing there looking around, back facing the front of the store and I am looking at a display of bones, the other worker that was there came walking up behind my oldest, places her hands on her hips, looks straight at me with a glare and says, we are closing. I was taken aback but my oldest daughter turns around and sternly goes, I know! The lady gives a smirk rude look at my daughter and then we get ready to leave. However, even though it broke my daughter's heart, I refused to give them a dime after the encounter we had just had. I told my daughter that I could make her that pillow, even though she was clearly upset. She asked why and I loudly said because I won't buy from people that are rude and not put their customers first.

I'm not sure if it's a midwest thing but I have always grown up that you allow that customer to finish their shopping as long as they respect it and not carry it on forever...especially since according to their website they didnt close for another 15 minutes. We weren't even in there 10 minutes before this happened.

I think it would of been different had she come up and said something along the lines of "Excuse me mam, we close in 15 minutes, this is last call. If you could please being your items up to purchase, we would be glad to get you checked out."

But instead it was very rudely done and uncalled for. It made me feel like we weren't welcome from the moment we stepped in the door.

I get that there are some people that abuse it but that doesn't mean you should treat people in a rude and disrespectful manner.

For me, first impressions are everything and unfortunately this place will not be getting my business from...

Before I get to why I’m only giving this one star, the antique store is very nice, lots of antiques, well laid out, they have coffee, which is great, and lots of vendors. All this does not matter to me if I encounter a rude employee. We didn’t know it was about closing time, a little warning or a heads up you know 15 minutes or something would’ve been nice. But this lady decides to come upstairs to get us and proceeds to turn the lights off before we reached the steps. This little girl that was up there was scared and I used my cell phone light so we could get down the steps without falling. As I was going downstairs, I asked her if she could get a key and grab something for me real quick we still had five minutes or so. She said she would be down there in a minute and that somebody else was down there, but the other lady was ringing people up So I was waiting on the lady from upstairs. I know when she came down the steps because she started turning off all of the lights downstairs too, and there was still four or five people in the store. When she came up to the counter, I asked her if she was going to get me that item and she said “oh no I can’t do that now, She would have to turn something Back on and it would take 10 minutes. I have been looking for this item for three months since I’ve been in Montana, Finally found it there, but I didn’t want to carry it around because I had just started looking in the store, So after all that time, looking for this gift for my stepdad, And the few hours I spent in there, I guess I learned my lesson ( people don’t care if they make a sale if it’s not their items they’re selling ) I had other items to buy, but sat those down and left. So just so the vendors know, because of one rude employee, They lost out on a sale tonight. Just to be clear, this is the lady that closed on Saturday December 7th. It was the tall lady, not the sweet girl working the register. Thanks for letting me vent, next time I’ll go to Yesteryears...

This place is incredible! I spent about 2 years looking for a sweet old trunk at every antique store/market/fair I could find, and every one I found that I loved was several hundred dollars. As badly as I wanted one, I couldn't afford to shell out that much. Enter Marketplace 3301: BOOM, most amazing trunk, and it was less than $100! I will definitely be back here for more furniture/gifts for friends and family... Make sure you have HOURS to browse, because you won't...