Design Menagerie — Local services in Lenox

I had a great experience at The Fernery (new store by Design Menagerie). I was just poking my head in, having resolved to buy nothing further on this particular trip. But Mary gave me such a warm hello, I just had to go in and then I was enchanted with the quality of the clothing. Oh myyy. Needless to say, thanks to Mary (and a lovely assistant whose name I don't recall, so embarrassing because she was great too!) I wound up spending far more than the nothing I had budgeted.

I just adore my new clothes and new shoes and new hat. But most of all (photo credit, Mary) just LOOK at these PJs! From Italy. So soft and darling!

After the sale, I realized they (totally inadvertently) put a different pair of PJs in my bag. But now I was home and three hours away. Cristal was so patient with me and nonjudgmental that I wanted ONLY those I tried on (the hanging up pair) not a fresh crips pair in the cloth envelope from Italy. She stuck with me until the exchange was completed, and I'm so grateful because I even thought (which could have been taken the wrong way by Cristal, but wasn't!) that they sent the wrong PJs.

Go visit their stores. Such great stuff! Everything is final sale. I see people grumbling about this, but thinking from the perspective of their owner, I can only imagine impulse purchases, mind-changing and how rather than this being a negative, it really means to be thoughtful about what you buy. Which we consumers need to get into the habit of doing anyway.

All in all, a 10 out of...

While the products at this store are lovely, I was quite disappointed by some of the staff’s behavior on a recent visit. When a mother had her daughter wait outside to finish her ice cream, as not to dirty any of the merchandise, a staff member was unappreciative and callous, rolling her eyes and saying openly in front of the mother to a fellow employee, “Looks like we’ll need to clean the windows tonight,” both dismissing the mom’s efforts to be respectful and embarrassing her by implying her daughter was unclean. Later, the same employee told the children to get off the furniture, upon which they had been sitting respectfully, because she had recently made a sale and she didn’t want the kids to ruin her product. It’s understandable to take care of your merchandise but I’m not interested in patronizing a store which repeatedly treated children and families...

Design Menagerie was the last store I went to as I had perused 5 or 6 boutiques in the area. I am visiting and all the staff at the other boutiques were lovely and friendly. I found the owner’s (?) attitude quite abrasive. There is a 3-4 foot space that is not blocked off which looks like one could walk right through to the other side of the store. Guess not! I was asked not to walk through the cash register area as if I was there to steal something. 1) it was NOT blocked off and 2)I would never speak to a customer in the tone she spoke to me. Will not visit this...