Botanica & Gift Shop — Local services in Milwaukee

I will never spend a dime here again. I’ve been a peaceful and loyal customer of this shop for months. But today, I experienced blatant discrimination and disrespect in what should have been a sacred, healing environment. As I allowed my daughters to hand-select their crystals as we’ve always done a woman emerged from the back of the store, not to assist, but to watch us. There was already a kind staff member helping us, but this woman (older, light-skinned, Spanish) approached us with attitude and told me we had to put our crystals in a basket something I’ve never once been told or asked to do before. I calmly explained that my girls were choosing their crystals for energetic connection. Her response? “Well, I prefer if you use the basket.” I repeated well my girls are choosing a crystal to connect with I don’t want to choose for them and now at this point she was basically shoving the baskets at my girls and. When I asked where this “rule” was posted, she had no answer. Just pushiness, superiority, and the kind of tone Brown women are all too familiar with. Her energy was aggressive, unnecessary, and rooted in bias not policy. The implication that I was doing something wrong simply for shopping with my children was both insulting and infuriating. I chose to leave. I left the crystals and my money behind and I let her know I’d be sharing this experience. This store clearly does not honor all energy equally. And if you are a brown woman, spiritual, and confident you may want to shop where you’re respected, not policed.

UPDATE: This response from management only confirms the exact energy I experienced in the store. Instead of offering sincerity or accountability, they chose to double down with a boldfaced lie claiming I made a threatening phone call, which never happened smh. What did happen is that I hurtfully had to walk out and choose not to spend my money there after being treated poorly, and as I exited, I stated I would be leaving a Google review which I did. That was the extent of it. I’ve been a loyal customer for some time now and this experience was deeply disappointing not just because of how I was treated in person in front of my children, but because of the way management chose to handle it afterward. This kind of response is exactly what keeps good customers away. I stand by every word of my original review, and now I see I was right to trust...

Very nice store! A huge assortment of candles, different types of smudges, crystals, incense, Florida water, herbs, body jewelry, and bath mixes. They also have orisha statues that are very nice. The atmosphere was calm and peaceful. The people that worked in the store were very helpful and pleasant. I love spiritual stores and they literally had everything that I was looking for as well as things that I didn’t even know that I was looking for. What I love the most is they have candles that are dressed and blessed already. Which is a plus. I’m...

I went in for some supplies that are not readily available near me. Large selection. Friendly & knowledgeable people working the day I went. They had a good selection of oils, herbs, candles, soaps, and incense among other things. When I asked for a specific herb I needed, the person helping me was able to take me right to it even though it was packaged with an alternate name I...