Joynes Ben Franklin — Local services in Grand Marais

This store should be embarrassed to evoke the name of the great Benjamin Franklin who championed personal liberty and freedom. I cannot use hand sanitizer due to sensitive skin, but I was wearing gloves and had a scarf over my mouth and nose when i entered. The man at the door told me I couldn’t shop unless I used sanitizer despite my gloves. It’s unfortunate how many businesses in grand Marais are suffering due to recent events, not exclusively COVID related, however, perhaps you would have better luck keeping up business if you had more understanding for personal limitations and were more polite to potential customers. I have been shopping here for over 20+ years and will likely never come back.

Reply: I understand the need to have a preparedness plan in place, but I also think there should be a more polite and understanding way to handle those who would like to give you business but perhaps cannot adhere to the policy as is. I cannot use hand sanitizer, not to mention over a hundred different kinds have been recalled and frankly if I have to use a sanitizing solution, I’d like to use one I know and trust, additionally I was already wearing gloves as a preventative measure. Being entirely rigid and uncompromising, as well as having no recognition for outliers to the general rule or the reservations potential customers could have feels less like necessary safety measures and more like harassment and hostility. If it was truly about stopping the spread of COVID, then I would not have been asked to don nylon gloves instead of those I was already wearing, as the gloves offered to me could already be contaminated having been exposed to the air and transferred hand to hand. My own gloves, made of a thick but porous material (similar to that of a mask) would be less likely to retain the virus than the non porous...

I wouldn’t shop there right now. I had one employee come to the back of the store where I was trying to choose some Minnetonka slippers and she literally trolled me - telling me to pull my mask higher. So strange. It might be easier for the store to just take temperatures as shoppers come in. Does anyone care if you’re healthy or only how your masks fits your face??

Ps we appreciate the owner responding. Maybe speak to employees and remind them that when customers come in with masks on its because they’re respectful - no need to follow them - it’s embarrassing. I was wearing my mask properly but was all the way in the back and no one was anywhere near me So I quick pulled it under my nose to get a good breath. Right then the employee told me to pull it up 😞. I looked around and there were no other customers near and I felt faint. We’d been on the pier for a long time prior in 85 degree weather and I have low blood sugar. I certainly will pray for your business - we understand small...

I love to stop by this store every time I visit Grand Marais.

A little story from my last visit. I just stopped in to pick up a novelty bottle of maple syrup and a pair of socks, and there were quite a few people in the store. I got to the register and Tyler asked if I needed that wrapped for travel and I said yes, that would be great. Tyler took 2-3 minutes wrapping that glass bottle up and even taped it too, which I really appreciated. Even as a couple of customers waited behind me to purchase items, Tyler wasn’t rushing either the wrapping or me and took his time to make sure the glass wouldn’t break in transit.

Whether you’re a regular local customer or you’re here once on vacation and will never be back in the area again, you get the same 5-star treatment and customer service here, and that’s why I enjoy getting...