Forget Me Not — Local services in Christchurch

I went in to find a New Zealand made gift for my uncle who lives in Tokyo so thought oh why not a NZ souvenir shop. All of the items out the front of the store and most of what I looked at inside the store were all cheap and not made in nz. Shop attendant showed me where the NZ made products were, there was not much of a selection and were charging almost $60 for a NZ made item. The shop assistant followed me around the store. I said I will come back and have a look another time as it did not feel very hospitable. The lady then asked me " well are you going to buy something or not ", I left the store then one of the people who was sitting behind the counter became very hostile, followed me out of the store and accused me of being racist. The shop assistants' were extremely rude. One of the shop reps started yelling at me and the police were called. Very bad experience and rude staff. Would not recommend shopping there. This shop uses New Zealand/ Aotearoa to market their products, yet most of the items in the store are made overseas? I did not want to mislead my Uncle. I try to support New Zealand and was constricted to the selection of cheaper made overseas items that were promoting New Zealand vs the small selection of NZ made items that were...

I had a horrible experience for just a small gift at this place. My mother went inside to buy souvenirs at this place before it closed. Just five minutes after she noticed that it was damaged. As the shop was already closed we decided to go the next day. When my mother went inside alone to get it exchanged the person was extremely rude and told her straight no without listening. This was extremely disrespectful as it was her first time buying something from the country. When I went inside and politely asked for a solution the person did not even want to listen and gave explanations that it was our fault. I can guarantee it wasn’t as she did bring a lot of them and we are not sit and check each one individually. Luckily we noticed a faulty one quickly but were unlucky because of the time constraints. This was extremely disgraceful and disrespectful to treat someone who has come to New Zealand for the first time. I did not take anything back from the shop and returned the damaged...

NOT a Nurodiverse friendly place!

My 12 year old son went in with my parents and grams today and was touching some of their stuffed animals they had in a bin out the front (as he absolutely loves them and collects them) and they had a go at him for this! My son completely shut down and the lady continued towards him stating "he better buy them if hes going to touch them".. My Mum had to stand between them and explain the situation (that he is Autistic) as she kept going at him! My son then walked off very upset!! My grams had to educate this lady. The ladies excuse was that she "couldn't tell that he is Autistic" 🙄 my Grams told her that she should change her aproach regardless of this because you never know who youre talking to. Very unapologetic and understanding person! 🙄 Disgusting behaviour regardless of a "visible disability or not".

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