Bedlam — Local services in North Providence

I went to this store not that long ago with my mom, planning on spending my $300 dollars leftover from my birthday money on some goth clothes, as I love goth fashion and the music. Please note that I had just come from school before I went to the store, so I was wearing just some grey sweatpants and a hoodie; not the ideal thing I would’ve normally worn. When I got to the store, the owner started off our interaction by aggressively telling us to wait outside because he just got to the store himself, and proceeded to lock the door. I also need to mention the fact that he was already 30 minutes past the time that they were supposed to open. So I say okay understandingly, and around 10 minutes later he lets us in. I start looking around at the clothes and I liked some of it. There was one velvet top in particular that I liked very much, and I thought it might fit me too. So after a few minutes of looking around, I ask Matthew a question. Don’t remember what it was, I just remember him telling me that judging from what I was wearing, I would want to look in the other room because those clothes are “more alternative” and “my style”. So feeling slightly weirded out that he said that, I went in the other room where my mom was looking. At that point I didn’t want to spend my money on this place, but I decided to just let my mom look and see if she liked anything. I planned on buying her something for her birthday if she finds something she likes. She saw how visibly uncomfortable I was and asked if I was okay. I just said yes, and we went back to the other room with the clothes I was looking at in the beginning. Then a conversation starts with Matthew a few moments later. I show him the top I liked, asking him a question about it. He then proceeds to say that it probably won’t fit me. He looks me up and down while I’m wearing BAGGY CLOTHES, looks at my mom who is on the heavier side, (keep in mind we have two COMPLETE different body types), then back at my body and says “you’d need a 3XL”. I had never felt so uncomfortable and upset in a store while looking for clothes. Throughout the rest of the time there, I ended up finding a few things I liked but the entire time he kept being very rude. Right at the end, I pulled out my money to pay for everything and his entire attitude towards me changed. He started acting all nice and smiling while talking about things once he saw the cash. In the end, I bought the clothes and went home. I truly regret spending ANY money on his store, and I think it was a waste of time going there. I won’t be going back. F.Y.I, the top I liked did in fact fit on me in the end, so no Matthew, I did not...

Summary: The man body shames, is rude, and doesn't understand how shopping for clothes and feelings about your body interact.

Long story: I walk into the store around 6:15/6:30 with my two teenage/young adult kids. On vacation and ready to spend. Store opens at 4. Cool store, lots of cool clothing.

We are the only people in the store. My kid asks the man at the counter if there are any skirts with pockets. He (with an attitude), says "I'm eating", waves his hand toward parts of the stores to show where the skirts are. I have never been talked to like that and am ready to leave, but my one kid still wanted to look. So we stay.

Man sees that one kid and I are done and interprets our faces correctly as ready to leave. He announces that "he's taking a break from eating" (btw his food was in a thermos that could have put the lid back on). He walks over and points to three section of various skirt lengths and goes to return to eat. I tell him that's not what my kid asked for. Kid and i go into other room. Man pulls out a few skirts with pockets. We return to main room where man says he pulled all the plus sized skirts with pockets. My kid is skinny (size M/L); I'm real world 3x. He continues to call the kid plus sized (kid also has an eating disorder history) and talk as fast as he can about what he pulled. Kid is trying to tell him that he's going too fast and to give them a minute. Man starts talking about how he's a size expert.

Listen, we are from New Jersey. Nobody talks faster and railroads better than us, but this man couldn't stop and wouldn't listen until I stepped in and told him to give us a minute.

The guy is like 3 feet from us and I'm trying to have a convo with my kid. We step into the other room and the man tells us the skirt is from a different room. I literally had to turn to him and tell him to back off bc we are trying to have a private...

I would leave zero stars if I could. The gentleman in the store, who I'm presuming is the owner, Matthew, ignored my presence when I first walked into his store, further ignoring me when I tried to initiate the welcome w a simple hello. Radio silence. I was confused, but proceeded to browse the store anyway. After about 20 minutes of shopping while feeling silent judgement and side eyes, I had picked out a total of four or five things from both the front and back rooms that I thought were cute and wanted to try on. After trying to get the owner's attention again to ask about fitting rooms, he actually acknowledged me this time, but very immediately aggressive, stating the fitting rooms were for trying on clothes that HE thought would fit me, not what clothes I picked out for my own body. I was shocked. I didn't asked for his opinion on my body size, what size to pick out, or his comparison of my curvy body to his "size 32". Matthew then went on to completely berate me for several minutes, straight up bodyshaming me. He said I should have picked out 2x (wear a large/10 in conventional stores), questioned my ability to pay, and honestly made me the most uncomfortable I have EVER been during a shopping experience. It was appalling to be so mistreated by this stranger who is hiding behind his dusty, dank storeroom. I will obviously never give him my money, and hope that this review saves someone some unnecessary judgemental bull** that he clearly dishes out on the regular. Save your money for a kind human being who deserves your time, attention and welcomes your business into their establishment, shame and...