My Giving Tree Gift Shop & Art Gallery — Local services in Belton

In May, I enjoyed the Farmer's market and all the shops in downtown Belton. So much so that I wanted to go back on my next visit.

I flew in from Mississippi to see my daughter and granddaughters for the Christmas holidays this week. I looked up different little shops in downtown Belton so that we could do some last-minute shopping .

We had a wonderful lunch and had gone in a very nice store in Downtown. My last day with my girls started out Amazing!!

Finally, we made it to the store that I personally chose. That is when our experience downtown went south. I noticed an employee who was somewhat short tempered in her conversations with others. My thoughts were that she was probably tired, and there's no telling what was going on in her world.

We were all looking around and watching out for my granddaughters. My youngest daughter faced timed her oldest sister while walking in the store so she could find out what gift to buy her for Christmas. The same short tempered lady came right up to my petite 21 year old daughter and demanded she stop recording. While getting in her face and raising her voice and stating there is no video recording allowed. My daughter was raised to be respectful so, she waited until the employee was finished with her rant and said I am facetiming my sister Before my daughter could finish her statement, the lady also said there no picture taking, and there are signs posted everywhere. I then said Ma'am she wasn't recording or taking pictures, and we didn't know. So we left the store.

We talked about the incident for a minute and then went back to enjoying our time together.

We walked 2-3 streets over and walked around and found another neat place to stop. I kid you not the lady must have been following us around because 2 minutes into this store that same lady was bent over the counter pointing at my 2 daughters and me saying we filmed her whole store and we were merchants. She began to then yell and point. By that time, my motherly instincts kicked in. I approached her and calmly tried to explain to her what my daughter was actually doing. She got louder and kept going with false accusations. I even told her, that my daughter lives in Killeen and we live in Hattiesburg Mississippi and we aren't merchants.

I think she even called a man to come in the store to follow us. After this incident I apologized to the employee behind the counter. I even offered to show her my driver’s license. She said no, Ma'am I believe you. That same employee came to me at the end of her shift and apologized that this happened to us in a downtown shop.

My daughter said I did see two signs in the store about not recording or taking pictures, but MaMa I was face timing. The employee that did this today was uncalled for. I wholeheartedly would not recommend this store. As a matter of fact, Downtown Belton Development will have an email from me about this. I would not want anyone else to ever feel like we did today! Not being friendly is one thing, but going from store to store to warn them of these bad ladies trying to do whatever as a merchant is on a whole other level.

Carla...

Be cautious!!

While I was looking for a Valentines gift in the store (while dressed in full duty uniform), the owner followed me around and continued to stare at me. I couldn’t decide which gift set to get because they were both great gifts. I took a photo to send to the recipient. The owner got extremely upset stating others come and steal their ideas from the store. I was about to purchase one of the gift sets but I felt it was an extremely uncomfortable situation. I offered to show a copy of my text message and she began to explain why she doesn’t allow photos again.

As a first responder, in uniform, I felt very unwelcome. Also, as someone who prevents others from committing crimes, it was very assumption and judgmental of this employee/owner.

Hopefully, they take a lesson in customer service in the future. Be cautious if you decide to shop here. Very...

We thought a very expensive chain from the store owner and she was very awful about it breaking days after we FINALLY RECEIVED it 2 months after we ordered it. She originally ordered the wrong color. Anyway, sorted that out and NEVER went back. My husband, kids and I enjoy riding our bikes and she yelled at us for riding by her store stating bikes aren’t allowed. She is mean, greedy and heartless. Cares only about herself and her daughters. I don’t recommend interacting...