Out of the Closet - Brooklyn — Local services in New York

Out of the Closet opened in Boerum Hill approximately 5 or so years ago, & I have been shopping in the store, considering every visit a treat since the store opened - until yesterday, March 12th. More on this visit later on in the review.

Out of the Closet generally has innovative, exciting, creative unusual things for sale, & you know that you are purchasing items in honor of a worthy cause. One of the things the Boerum Hill Store is most noted for are the Windows & Store Decorated fabulously, ghoulishly, creatively, fantastically, for Halloween (once the windows are decorated for Halloween, you cannot purchase the items in the Windows until after Halloween, for which I respect the store!).

The store has also begun to sell new items like masks, gloves, wax lips, etc. to wear for Halloween, which adds great levels of gaity to what was once a somewhat down at the heels, but loveable neighborhood on Atlantic Avenue. (My husband, who was an artist & phota-p?grapher & I moved to Boerum Hill in 1996; I have seen unbelievable changes in this neighborhood, some for the good, some for the bad, in the past 6 years.).

I have purchased 2 sofas & 1 ottoman from Out of the Closet, clothing, books, a wonderful set of Frido Kahlo & Mahatma Gandhi dolls, & a lovely etching of the Buhhist manifestation of the White Tara from the store, all with the assistance & good humor of the staff & manager of the store over the years. Until yesterday when, I was met with the most misogynistic, power hungry man I have ever had the misfortune to meet. His name is Rolando, he is one of the sales staff, & I met him when he was speaking to a friend of mine from the excellent Salvation Army store just about 1 block away, also on Atlantic Avenue. Yes, I did a no-no, in a spirit of exuberance, when I saw a pink & white carry tote, similar to IKEA totes, in which someone had brought in a donation. I rushed over to try to claim the bag, in my spirit of exuberance, knowing that no one could love it as much as I would.

Rolando proceeded to chastise me, as if I had performed some great sin: to lecture me on store behaviour as if I were a child, to dis my plea that I was actually a good customer of the store by saying he had never seen me there. He said he would call in the cops to stop me from shoplifting, when I was clearly walking away from the doors towards the dresses. He saw me looking at 2 dresses & said he would not sell them to me. What - he is denying sales for a worthy cause, just because he did not like me, because, I surmise, he blamed me for interrupting his conversation with my friend, when, in truth, it was my friend who began to speak effusively to me. As a final blow, Rolando followed me over to the ceramics section (thus leaving the front doors & the cash register in the front of the store) with a camera to take a photo of me (intrusively), probably to post it at the front desk, to bar me from the store. His actions were both verbally and openly abusive, in a way I have never never before been subjected to, over a stupid mistake on my part, which I guess was a threat to his sense of power in the store.

The end result is that, as I skulked out of the store, I heard him make a disparaging remark about my being rich!!! What again ... a person who has lived in Boerum Hill since 1996, who has been a widow for o6 years, who shops with pride in Out of the Closet and the Salvation Army & Housing Works, & knows there is a gorgeous Goodwill on 61st. Street in Manhattan!

What I would like to ask the Manager of Out of the Closet is whether they really wish to have an employee who insults a 70 year old woman, who refuses to allow her to purchase items at the store, who makes snap judgements about a customer he does not know, & risks having the store given a bad mention at a number of the other local stores? I went to Betty Bakery after the incident, burst into tears when asked how I was - and received much needed support from the staff&clientele of the Bakery, ALL of whom said they would March right over there & Express...

i went all the way to the brooklyn location (because i love the chain) from upper west side the manager on duty was rude about my donation i brought and heavily emphasized about not accepting “dirty” items (everything i brought was recently washed) i was uncomfortable but continued to look around as id already made the journey i found it odd that everything was labeled “male” and “female” as the other locations i’d been to (seattle, san francisco, and east hollywood) all separated it into “masculine” and “feminine” as a nonbinary person, i was hoping it would have been organized in the latter manner. i brought this up to the manager and she gave a hetero-normative response of “well that’s just how we do it here” i tried to explain to her that it would be friendly to nonbinary people and also those just exploring outside styles to have it organized as other locations do and she said “well we have an lgbt center upstairs so” this was back in November and i still think about it. i have no plans on returning to...

Was super excited to come here today with a friend of mine- found some boots and went to the fitting room area to be berated at that I need to sit on the couch instead- no clear direction. My friend found a bag that she liked and was yelled “DON’T TOUCH THAT. ITS NOT FOR SALE.” To which we apologized and purchased the boots and left. We called the store later that day to hypothetically see if we can somehow name a price as we really liked the bag, to which we were left on held for 25 min. After 25 min, my friend was yelled at that “YOUVE SHOULDVE SAID SOMETHING, ITS NOW YOUR FAULT YOU DIDNT GET IT.” I called while we were on hold to see if maybe they forgot we were already on hold- before I could speak, I was yelled at even louder, “WERE YOU INTERESTED IN THE BAG? IT SOLD. YOU SHOULDVE SAID SOMETHING”, then hung up. Never...