Branhams Candies — Local services in Halfway

I hate to give this place a one star, because I've been going here for years and have had nothing but good experiences. But after yesterday, I cannot say I'd want to ever go back.

So my friend was going to pay for some candy there, but us as a group were taking our time through the store to check everything out, and play with the pinball machine in the back. Because we were taking our time, my friend put what they were going to buy in their hot topic bag so they didn't have to carry it the whole time. This set off the owner of the store, who alleged that he was stealing those items and trying to shoplift.

Now I can understand why something like that was deemed suspicious, and I don't necessarily blame the owner for taking action. He took what he had put in his nag and told us to leave. Had it been just that, I wouldn't even be bothered to make a review on this.

But on the way out, he comes behind my friend and shouts right down the hallway to half the mall "HEY EVERYONE WATCH OUT FOR THE SHOPLIFTER OVER HERE." And says this multiple times in as loud of a voice as he can muster. Mind you, all items that he thought were being "stolen" were IN the store at this point, and the owner was OUTSIDE his own store as we had just left. We talk back to him because there's absolutely no need for this sort of behavior when everyone complied with the demand to leave, and NOTHING had been stolen. And he kept this charade up for something like 2 whole minutes, telling us off for absolutely zero reason, and absolutely embarrassing my friend. Who, by the way, OFFERED to pay for the "stolen" items before being told to get out!

And of course he wasn't done. He then goes back into his store, as we kinda wander around the game store in the corner wondering what just happened. He then comes back OUT OF HIS STORE, and starts taking PICTURES of my friend with his phone, still yelling out to everyone like he was before. By this point a security officer was alerted to what was going on, and calmly told us we should just leave. Judging by the officer's tone and demeanor, this clearly wasn't the first time he had seen this, and seemed to be embarrassed for us.

I completely sympathize with a small business owner that they don't want their stuff stolen. There's a lot of small items in the store that can easily be carried out unpaid, and I'm sure this happens a lot. Regardless of the fact that my friend was absolutely not trying to shoplift, I get having a reaction to something like this. What I cannot sympathize with is taking everything OUT of your store, YELLING at people who ultimately took NOTHING, SCREAMING down the halls to everyone to make a scene and embarrass someone free of any wrongdoing, and TAKING PICTURES of said person without consent for seemingly zero reason at all. That is flat out unacceptable behavior, and imagine my shock when I read multiple reviews corroborating that this has happened for YEARS to other completely innocent people. What a sad way to handle a situation that wasn't even a situation...

store felt miserable immediately upon stepping in. no greetings, no “anything you’re looking for in particular?” just sad and dead. and it became obvious why that was the case after what happened to my group.

worker (manager, probably the owner?) yelled at my friend for putting a 3 dollar candy in their spencer’s bag. (if you don’t want this happening, provide transparent baskets at the door or something — this also will make it way more obvious to you who’s actually trying to steal. no one wants to carry everything they’re buying + their bags in their hands. you can’t afford to provide these? be kinder to people, handle situations with more care and you’ll gain the profit to provide these.) friend was trying to explain themselves, owner kept shutting it down and told our group to leave. my friend ends up just paying for the thing and leaving, but my other friend and i stick around for a bit because she still had some stuff in her hands. this guy proceeded to get on another employee that was positioned more in the center of the store about how “embarrassing” it is that he’s “not catching stuff like that”. poor guy was just apologizing the entire time too. after this, him and the employee hover my friend and i as we’re looking at stuff and figuring out what to do next. it was the grossest feeling i’ve ever had in ANY store in my entire life. we eventually just put the stuff back and leave.

reading the reviews and seeing that he does this to innocent kids unapologetically too is so disheartening.

if the owner, or whoever that guy is, left the store permanently i guarantee the vibes would be way better. it’s easy to tell that he’s the main source of the low morale. don’t go here unless you have a thing for feeling humiliated, gross, and...

Stopped in here to acquire about TCG products several times. On one visit, one of the staff was assisting me with choosing from their selection of TCG products when the manager came and verbally berated the staff member for "not working" in front of me and all of the other customers, despite the fact he was quite literally assisting me with purchasing a product (and was the only one actually assisting customers in general, since both people working by the register were on their phones and unresponsive, and the manager was in the back). After awkwardly cutting off the conversation, I was unable to receive further assistance from the manager, as he was not as knowledgeable as his employees he was so adamant on demeaning in front of customers. I ended up purchasing something based on the employee's advice anyways, just to hopefully save him from some further backlash of seeming like I wasn't actually a customer, but still regret giving the establishment any money. Genuinely abhorrent behavior on the part of management at this place to publicly bash your employees when they're doing more to serve customers than you are while actively deterring people trying to make a purchase, I would say I don't know how the establishment is in business, but with the prices charged for TCG products I'm not surprised they stay afloat regardless of poor...