The Apothecarium Dispensary of Maplewood — Attraction in Maplewood

Subject: Urgent: Complaint About Unacceptable Service and Discrimination at Your Maplewood Location

Dear Management Team,

I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with the service I received today at your Maplewood, NJ location. As a loyal customer who has been visiting your establishment for years, I have never experienced such disrespectful and unprofessional behavior from your staff, especially from your general manager.

Today, after struggling for 25 minutes to find parking, I waited in line for about 20 minutes, only to be informed by the staff that the Wi-Fi was down. Despite this, customers who had cash were able to proceed with their purchases. When I finally reached the register, I suggested to the tender that it would be helpful to inform customers about the cash-only situation upfront. Instead of receiving my feedback professionally, the tender responded with sarcasm and disrespect, asking, “What do you not understand? It doesn’t work.” This was completely uncalled for.

Unwilling to deal with his condescending attitude, I asked to be assisted by someone else, but the general manager intervened with an equally dismissive and condescending attitude. I asked her why she was treating me this way, and she pretended to assist me only to tell me that the transaction wouldn’t go through and to come back later. I made it clear that I wasn’t willing to leave and that I would wait until the issue was resolved, as this was not the first time this has happened. Over the past year, this location has had recurring Wi-Fi problems, which have previously been resolved within a short period.

After leaving the checkout area, I observed other customers completing their purchases, which confirmed my suspicion that I was being unfairly treated. I returned to the register, where a different tender assisted me without issue. Before leaving, I attempted to get the names of the employees involved. At this point, the original tender yelled at me, calling me a child, despite me not addressing him directly.

I then approached the general manager in the lobby and asked for her name and the contact details of her superiors. She responded dismissively, saying she would contact them about me herself, further escalating the situation. Her unprofessional and condescending behavior, along with the tender’s disrespectful conduct, is completely unacceptable.

This experience was not only frustrating but also felt discriminatory and targeted. I am deeply concerned about how I will be treated during future visits, given today’s incident and the manager’s lack of professionalism and customer service skills. No customer should be subjected to this level of disrespect, especially not at a business that relies on regular clientele.

I request that this matter be investigated thoroughly and that appropriate action be taken to address the behavior of your staff, especially the general manager. I am also requesting that your team look into the recurring Wi-Fi issues, as this appears to be a long-standing problem that significantly affects the customer experience.

I look forward to your prompt response and to hearing how this matter will be resolved. This kind of treatment is unacceptable, and I hope that no other customer has to endure the experience I had...

This used to be the spot. It was clean, quick and the weed was good. The last 6 months or so there has been a drastic change in the way things are run there or something. Every time I get an 1/8 from there now it’s dry as sand and crumble to powder in the grinder. Every time. The same weed at lemon22 or queencity is fluffy and crumbles in the grinder like it should. So I can’t blame the weed companies for that one.

The bigger issue though, is management. I don’t think is the mangers but the management if things like online e ordering and lines in the store. More than once now I’ve ordered online and an hour later my order gets cancelled. More than once I’ve ordered online, been alerted it’s ready, driven 20 minutes there only to be told “oh it’s not ready want to just cancel that order and buy it”; well… no not really the point was online order - in and out. I realize that’s probably a me-thing.

But the biggest issue now is the management of lines. It used to be: walk in, get in line, wait your turn. Medical had a separate line.

Then it was one line for medical, one for in person and a side room where I like orders were picked up. In and out.

Then It became 3 lines in the main store. Medical, walk in, online orders. That should be fine but the walk ins get taken before the online orders. So the walk in line burns down and the walk in line moves at a snails pace. Why? Why have the online ordering?

I went for the last time yesterday. The online order line was easily 70 people deep. They were talking the walk ins 4:1 to online orders. People in the line were asking why. The manager came out the back and yelled “make sure you’re taking 2 online for every walk in” while I was in the front of the line, all 5 registers too people from the walk in line. So now people in the line are getting loud. When the next register opened up I walked right up to it and the register guy said “sorry man I’m taking walk in next” so I pointed out he had taken 3 walk ins in a row, and he took me. The walk in line cycled at least 5 times before I got from the back of the line to the front. This isn’t the first time either. So I’m going to switch to queencity in...

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to formally lodge a complaint regarding an unacceptable experience I had at The Apothecarium in Maplewood on April 9th, 2025. As a longtime customer and an Air Force veteran, I have always expected and appreciated respectful service, and I have never encountered an incident like this at any business before.

On that date, I placed an online order and proceeded to the store to pick it up. After completing the pickup, I received an email stating that my order had been canceled. Concerned about how this would impact my loyalty points, I called the store immediately to have the issue corrected.

The receptionist was unable to assist, so I asked to speak with a manager. A manager named Kayden took the call, but instead of helping to resolve the issue, he was dismissive and unhelpful. When I asked for his name and to speak with someone else, Kayden refused to provide his name and abruptly hung up on me.

At that point, I was just down the street, so I returned to the store to try and resolve the issue in person. Upon arrival, I again asked to speak to a manager — and to my dismay, it was Kayden who met me at the door. Instead of addressing my concerns, Kayden immediately began yelling and screaming at me to leave the store. His behavior escalated to the point where he approached me in an aggressive and confrontational manner, as if he intended to start a physical altercation. Other employees had to physically intervene to hold him back. This all occurred in plain view of other customers at the store entrance, leaving me shocked, embarrassed, and deeply disrespected.

This level of aggression and hostility from a manager is completely unacceptable. No customer should be subjected to such treatment, particularly not in a public setting and especially not from someone in a leadership role.

I hope The Apothecarium takes this matter seriously and ensures that no customer — veteran or otherwise — is ever treated this way again. I would appreciate a prompt response regarding what actions will be taken to address this...