The Spice & Tea Exchange of Frederick — Local services in Frederick

The owner was incredibly rude. My husband and I visited the store because I needed to buy a unique gift. During our time in the store we were wearing masks because of the COVID-19 restrictions. At one point my husband pulled down his mask to smell the difference between a few teas that I was picking out for this gift and absentmindedly forgot to pull it back up. The owner ran over to my husband and proceeded to yell and berate him because his mask was down. My husband lifted his mask over his nose and apologized for taking it off. Then the owner got all up in my husband’s space and proceeded to try to humiliate and belittle my husband even further by saying, “Pull it up higher. It needs to cover your nose even more.” My husband did pull it up the 1/4” higher to please this irate man.

Although all joy had left me for even wanting to purchase anything at the store, my husband asked the man if we could get some help and we were given it. I counted to 10 before speaking to the owner because I was so livid with his power play.

We are not rebels. We were not trying to make a statement. We had no agenda to “fight the system.” My husband made a simple mistake that anyone might have done. This owner could’ve gotten his point across with kindness, but he chose to act like a bloated tyrant and verbally abuse my husband. Such a disappointment. I won’t be shopping there again.

After leaving the store I hugged my awesome husband telling him how much I loved him. His response was, “He’s...

My wife and I had an experience like many others. We walked into the store with our masks on and my wife saw a spice she was interested in and pulled her mask down slightly to smell the product. The owner ran across the empty store and began yelling at us. I tried to talk to the owner, but he was determined to be rude and berate us. After reading other reviews this seems to be an ongoing issue. Even avid mask wearers make mistakes. In this case the store is selling products that people smell. It is reasonable that when people go to smell a product, they may unconsciously pull the mask down to get a better smell of the product. Obviously, the owner is extremely frustrated about how often this occurs. The store sells scented products that one would like to smell. the scent is the entire selling process of these items. If the owner were smart and did not want people smelling his products perhaps, he could remove or tape shut the samples until he feels it is safe to display them again. You would imagine that after having to yell at people every day for the same behavior that perhaps you are doing something wrong. This guy needs to chill out before he runs all his business off. If you like the product that he sells but not his store, then you can call the store in Alexandria and they will gladly ship your favorite...

I am sad to say that we experienced the same encounter many of the others have with the shopkeeper (owner?). This afternoon we wandered into the store ready to enjoy the savory scents and make a purchase. I was adjusting my mask as I entered the store and it was fully on by the time I was inside; my mother had hers on. She lowered it for a 1/2 a second to breathe deeply of the wonderful spices. Immediately, a man came running out from the back yelling at us to put our masks on. He was at least 50’ away in an empty store. We tried to explain that our masks were on and that my mother had moved hers for a second to take a whiff (I originally thought he couldn’t see that our masks were on because he was so far away). He would not stop yelling over us as we tried to explain that OUR MASKS WERE ON. The man was truly an angry maniac and would not stop yelling at us. We did nothing to deserve this verbal accosting. He has an angry, ugly demeanor and should not be running a store and dealing with the public. We quickly decided that we did not need to stand there being treated so rudely by a man who clearly did not want our business or our money so we turned around and left. We will...