Old Mission General Store — Local services in Peninsula Township

VERY RUDE OWNER!!! My family & I live in Traverse City. We have stopped in the store on our way to the beach for sandwiches & drinks several times. In the past, we have experienced good customer service from the friendly woman owner. We also loved the old nostalgia of the place. We thought it would be a nice addition to our itinerary when my sister & her family came to visit.This particular time; which would be our last time, was a horribly different experience. I went in ahead to order our food & my sis came in shortly after pushing her infants stroller. The older man, whom latter I found out is the owner, was at that point taking my order & stopped to yell very loud & rude at my sister: HELLO! HELLO! YOU CAN T BRING STROLLERS IN HERE!!! MABEY IF YOU WERE A HANDICAP!!! It embarrassed her. My sister took her stroller out to her husband then joined me. We asked for pizza slices for the kids & the man told us they had no more pizza slices available but could make whole pizzas for us. This was fine considering we had several kids with us & needed 2 pizzas anyway. A normal slice for this place is 1/4 of a pizza. We asked the guy if he could cut the 2 pizzas into 6 slices each. He then stated VERY rudely: OUR WHOLE PIZZAS ARE CUT INTO 8 PEICES, NOT 6!! We thought he might have misunderstood so we asked again if he could possibly cut our pizza in 6 to accommodate our needs. No, he didn t misunderstand; he repeated his last response even more loud & rude. Actually, the whole time we were giving our order he was treating us poorly with no respect. At that point we realized he was just being a big jerk & really didn t care about what his customers wanted. We would have left but the place is the only place to get food for miles & miles. I was embarrassed, & shocked at the treatment we received. I do want to mention that all the prior times we went there, this man was not around. It figures, the one time I bring out of town family there & speak highly of the place, this happens. After my guests left to go home I called the store to speak with the nice woman about our concerns. After all, she is the one who knows my family by face since we ve been going there over the last 4 years. I started to explain what happened & how embarrassed I was, (this is when I found out it was her husband) she never apologized wanted my number to call me back at a more convenient time. I told her I didn t want a call back & that I will not be returning to her store due to her husbands lack of customer service. About 3 minutes latter I received a phone call, answered, it was the man to say very rudely I was told you had a problem with your visit yesterday to our store. I responded with a Yes, you were very rude towards me & my sister. He then started: no, you were actually being rude & when I looked at the cameras, I saw you being rude. Well, the funny thing about this was that we weren t there yesterday , it was a few days before that at that time so he didn t even know what he was talking about. Secondly, my sister & I were not at all rude towards this man . especially enough to be able to see it on the camera !! Lol! & to someone taking our food order! This was false. I was so over it that I just interrupted him saying, No, you were rude. Have a great day. Then I hung up. When I called the store, I asked for the woman, told her I didn t want to give her my number to discuss it anymore & that was that. He obviously looked at caller ID. Himself calling my phone to pick a fight with me was just CRAZY! Then he actually called my phone AGAIN after I hung up on him & he left a threatening message filled with lies about how he has me on camera making a scene & being rude to him & that I M not allowed back in the store!!! LOL!! What a twisted, narcissistic, piece of work! I found this quite hilarious after the scared feeling of him harassing me went away! Word of mouth is EVERYTHING & I will be telling this to EVERYONE I know or whenever this place...

Ever feel like you’ve been PUNKED!? Wow! Beware of the owner(s)! They will verbally attack customers for no reason! My husband and I simply stopped for a scoop of ice cream, this past Sunday. We were browsing through the very confusing, dimly lit, dusty store, where nothing had a price displayed on it, when an older man busted through the front door the store demanding to know “who’s grey car was parked across the street” (supposedly blocking the neighbor’s driveway)! BTW the car wasn’t truly blocking much, if any of the driveway. Anyway, the man pointed his finger directly at me and I said, “No sir we drive a truck.” Then he walked over to the older gentleman who was trying to check out at the register and this man stated, “Yes, that is my car.” The older man who busted thru the front door (we now realize is the owner of the store) started to scream at the customer telling him he needed to move his car right away.! This prompted the customer to scream back and say, “ I would already be gone if I would’ve gotten some service over the past 15 minutes and this “blank” young girl is not smart enough to ring me up properly.” This launched the owner into another verbal tirade, stating, “You will not speak to my employees like this, & demanded that he leave the premise right then and there!” Then the owner, Jim, berated this customer all the way across the street & into his vehicle! Fast fwd: My husband & I STILL paid for OUR ice cream & then decided to drive around to the local beach to sit and talk about what we had just witnessed. We were obviously still a bit shaken up. This is when a couple local gentleman overheard our conversation (& saw our ice cream) and said, “Oh you guys must’ve just witnessed Jim at The Old Mission General Store!?” I was like “wait, what?” These two gentlemen told us that this has been going on for some time now and to “go read the Google reviews!” Moral of the story: 1) Beware 2) In reality, this is a very sad situation & for safety’s sake don’t take your family here & 3) We hope Jim gets the help and intervention he needs, before someone...

My husband and I went for a bike ride yesterday and stopped at this store. I will share my husband's write-up since he, as a very calm and emotionally solid individual, was able to put into words the experience that we had...

"If you enjoy being berated by a mentally unstable owner after inquiring about the status of your grilled cheese sandwich order after 40 minutes of waiting, then this might be the place for you. We had stopped here numerous times in the past to get a quick snack or refreshment and thought that on this day it might be nice to enjoy a light lunch before continuing on our 40 mile bike ride. When my wife asked about our order the owner/cook snapped back at her saying, “Oh the Queen is upset she hasn’t been served yet...” and when I came and asked what was going on, he declared that I was the King. So in keeping with what I thought was some rather eccentric bantering way in connecting with customers, and my newly ascent to the throne, I jokingly said that as King, I demand he return to the kitchen and finish our order. Well he became completely unhinged at this point, and after further “niceties” and us asking for and begrudgingly receiving our $9.42 refund for our grilled cheese, we were asked to leave the premises. He then proceeded to follow us outside and verbally abuse and berate us. At some point he declared that we were now banned for life. How quickly we had fallen from grace when only minutes ago we were the King and Queen. I know this all sounds rather bizarre, but I guess the truth is stranger than fiction. In retrospect it was all rather comical, except the verbal abuse part."

Banned for Life PS: By the way, if you need snacks, Mapleton Market and "Bad Dog Deli" are other nearby options. That's where...