JOY Closet — Attraction in Gardner

I would hate to assume that what my mother and I experienced yesterday was racism, but it really felt like it. As soon as we walked in with my toddler, a volunteer working there felt the need to say immediately “Really, you aren’t allowed to bring ANY food or drinks in here”. That was our greeting. We were forced to leave my child’s drink (a small bottle of water with a collapsible straw and tightly closed lid, OUTSIDE of the store’s door). Later on, I politely asked the same woman if I could put a couple items on a side extension to the front desk area at check out. She cut me off before I could finish asking and said “No. You need a cart”. Later on, I approached the register with a voucher I was using for the first time. My mother had one as well. We were let know that we couldn’t purchase any toys with the voucher (I was misinformed by the woman I received mine from). The other worker felt the need to walk over to a poster with the voucher details and pointed at it with a blank expression on her face. Thereafter, when checking out, she scanned my mother and I up and down and asked if we were in the same household, assuming we were abusing the voucher system.

It is safe to say I will never purchase from this location again. I have had wonderful experiences when donating, but didn’t expect the upright disrespect from the employees. You WILL get accosted if you are a person of color...

I'm absolutely alarmed by the racist, rude things that I have heard while in this store and I'm not the only one according to other reviews. I' m disgusted by the social media accounts constant complaints about people leaving furniture and not following the directions posted. For a facility that is ran by elderly volunteers from the First Presbyterian Church. I expect better. It takes the same amount of time to post a free furniture post on the site page as it does to complain and negatively respond to any post that offers alternative solutions. I mean what would Jesus do, certainly not that. Maybe the Pastor should cover some more sermons...

I was looking around with about a couple mins till close. There were other customers still looking around as well. A woman came from a room in the back passed by me and rudely said…we’ll have you go ahead and get in line we are about to close. And kept on walking. She didn’t approach anyone else, she just kept on walking to the front of the store. Mind you I and my daughter have donated lots of items to this store. This store is an affiliate of a church and is based off donations. They could at least wait till the time they close to accost their customers and include everyone that’s still looking around not just...