Botanica spiritual house — Local services in Chesapeake

This would be 5 stars, but the manager’s attitude is SO nasty. I have been shopping at the store since it first opened when the owner, Maria, also managed the store. I am so proud of the progress she has made in adding more selection and becoming more knowledgeable of things I asked her to bring into the store such as Orisha products.

However, her daughter now manages the store & Maria is rarely, if ever, there. Her daughter seemed to be annoyed that my friend and I were there, she wasn’t knowledgeable of products and she didn’t seem to have any interest in them or in helping us either. That was my friend’s second experience as I referred her before, but even I didn’t believe that she had such a bad customer service experience until I came back and witnessed it for myself.

The manager was a bit more friendly when I explained that I was an original customer and I asked about Maria & two little brothers who used to be in the store, but it shouldn’t have taken all of that to get a warm response.

Before I mentioned her brothers, and asked how Maria was doing, she matter-of-factly explained that Maria was “busy doing other things, so I’m the manager now.” 🙃. Based upon other comments, I see I’m not the only one who experienced her unwelcoming, irritable energy.

The selection and prices at the store are AMAZING, but I’m not buying anything from a place where I’m made to feel like a burden or where management doesn’t have knowledge of their stock. ESPECIALLY at a metaphysical/Spiritual store!! 🤦🏾‍♀️ lol.

Energy is real and I don’t want any of whatever she has going on coming into my space 🙅🏾‍♀️.

Hopefully they can get some better replacements because I really used to love that store and I referred people all of the time. Now,...

I love this store; I think it has a great selection and good prices. The candles and Florida water are very expensive in my opinion so I don't purchase those items from here. However, I can understand that businesses have overhead costs and other factors which affect prices so not a big deal.

My biggest gripe with this location is that there have been a quite a few times I have inquired about items in the store and the young lady at the register had absolutely no idea what the item was for. The owner is very knowledgeable but I think it's a poor business choice to have employees who are unfamiliar with all the products. As a customer, if I see an item being sold in the store, especially within a small business, there is no reason for employees to be unaware or uninformed about the store's inventory. From a business perspective, that's a potential loss of a sale because who would purchase an item if I don't know it's purpose? Especially at a botanica. A way to remedy this is to have signs explaining the item's meaning and uses if it is not already written on the package. Or create a binder of all the store's inventory with a description for the employees to refer to. I've never been to a botanica where all the people working there didn't know what the items were for. I don't need an elaborate description, just enough to make an informed decision to purchase.

Additionally, I wish they sold more spiritual colognas like Pompei, Gardenia, Tobacco, Orange, etc., palm oil and such. Saint John's root, abre camino herb, tobacco pipes, etc. for Espiritismo practices. For the spiritual baths I wish they were in both English and Spanish or had an card near them that translated the directions...

I've been here six times now. After reading all these amazing reviews, I keep coming back expecting, or hoping, to fall in love with this place, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Yes, it's a well stocked store for its small size, and many of the items are nice ... but they can also be bought in other places. Moving on, while I can semi overlook the majority of the employees following me around and hawkeye-ing me every time I pick up something for fear I and everyone else are raging thieves, I can't ignore the fact that I feel only aggression and negative energy within this store. On three occasions, I brought my best friend and two of my daughters, separately, and each one said the same thing each time we left, so I know it's not just me. The young black lady, who was nicknamed Sunshine, had a radiant personality that overflowed with positivity. She was this store's saving grace. I'm honestly not inspired to go back again.

Oh, and you might consider changing your hand sanitizer. I can easily understand why you might like everyone to sanitize their hands, but you should seriously consider offering a sanitizer that doesn't smell quite...