Cherry Republic | Traverse City — Attraction in Traverse City

Traverse City has really gone downhill the last couple years and Cherry Republic is no exception. We went to the Cherry Fest in 2019 and the store staff was not as friendly as they had been in the past. We visited Traverse City again this weekend having been up north for a camping trip (the only vacation we could squeeze in amid the COVID pandemic). God forbid I slid my face mask down to sniff some cherry soap they had in their store and immediately a clerk pounced on me "Ma'am, pull your face mask up!". It seemed her only job was to walk through the store and yell (not kindly remind but to shout loudly at customers) to pull their face masks up as I watched her do this to several others. I pulled mine below my nose for a moment after about 20 minutes in the store as I was having difficulty breathing and she again pounced. I advised her I was having difficulty breathing and per ADA guidelines retail establishments should not discriminate on this as they could get into some muddy water. She did not care. We decided to check out quickly and leave the store. Upon checkout, the male clerk thoroughly inspected my husband's mask which he deemed to be too low on his nose. He promptly ordered my husband to pull his mask up. My husband said, "Look, can you just check us out so we can be on our way?". No, no...they would prefer to get into an altercation with you regarding proper donning of PPE. I understand this is your policy but let's go with informing and and enforcing, maybe. This virus escaped from a level 4 virology lab, I hardly think my tissue thin disposable mask is going to make that big of a difference people. Seriously. After these experiences I will not be back to Traverse City and probably not any location of...

Below was an original post that I wrote with a one star rating, however the store’s response to the situation was so amazing that I had to change my review to five stars. Although I felt discriminated during my visit, good has come of it. I was informed that this was not store policy and that it was an isolated incident with one employee and that would be corrected. I was promised that there would be actions taken to inform all employees of the rights of the disabled and that they were very sorry for my bad experience. They even offered me a birthday present as an apology! This store has always been a family favorite, and even though I had one bad experience there, I would highly recommend to anyone that this is a must place to stop into while visiting TC.

*As I walked in with my service dog today I was approached by a employee who informed me that she was required to ask for my dog’s paperwork even though he was clearly wearing his service gear. I was stunned as no one has ever asked me to do this. I told her his paperwork was in the glove box of my car and I was told I couldn’t be in the store unless I provided the papers. I left in the downpouring ran to get the papers and then I noticed that it went against the American Disability’s Act to ask me for further documentation. I feel what was asked of me today was discrimination against anyone with a disability. I was there to celebrate my birthday but instead was embarrassed and made to feel unwelcome. My dog was doing exactly what he was supposed to during this event, he was by my side, quiet, and working. I don’t understand why this company would require their employees to demand documentation when he was clearly a service dog. What a...

The place was fun lots of cherry items to chose from I'm from from Wisconsin so it was a cool thing to experience only downside was when I went to get a wine flight I was refused service because I was on my phone talking to my mom because I came to Michigan by myself and just wanted someone to talk to and one of the workers said he wasn't going to serve me if I was on the phone then said it was company policy. Where I see where he was coming from however we were talking before where I asked him about the tasting menu and he was very short with me which I wrote off but then he said that comment. I got put off by that then I went to the other side of the bar where someone else was working and she also ignored me. I heard them talking about me where he pointed me out and said that's her don't serve her and then other worker said she knows and she was ignoring me. Thats when I asked him what was wrong about me being on the phone he said it was rude again i see where he's coming from but at the beginning where I was asking him questions I was attentive. Like I said I was on the phone with my mother she knew what I was doing and she didn't mind me talking to the staff where I might cut off the sentence to her to talk with them. I don't have a problem with someone wanting my full attention but thought there was a better way he could have came across the situation then blatantly saying he wasn't going to serve me. I wasn't being loud i didn't try to flag him down I was being patient until he came to me and initially when he did talk I asked him questions. I just didn't like how he approached the situation and blamed it on company policy when I know it wasn't the truth and then told the other server not...