The Irish Gift Shop — Local services in Saint Augustine

While the shop had really cool and unique things to offer, especially for someone with a love of Irish history, it was hard to appreciate any of it as my wife and I were being followed and watched so heavily. Every time one of us turned around, a member of the staff was directly behind us or within 5 feet of us. We thought at first that this was just how they handled all visitors, and assumed there had been a problem with shoplifting. Upon paying attention and watching their interactions with other customers, it became quickly apparent that they were not doing this with everyone. Numerous other people came into the shop and were left completely alone to wander around on their own accord. Meanwhile, every time we went into a different section of the shop, the shop owner followed us. Also there are signs everywhere saying not to take photos of the different things, presumably because they want you to purchase it rather than just taking pictures of it. Anybody who can read can clearly see these signs, as they are quite literally plastered everywhere. My wife pulled her phone out to text our daughter to let her know what shop we were in so that she could start heading in our direction. No sooner had my wife pulled the phone out than the shopkeeper was brashly chastising her that there were no pictures allowed. We left promptly after this interaction, without purchasing anything despite the fact that my wife had intended on buying several of the “captive fairies” as well as a few...

My Irish wife and I visited The Irish Gift shop this past summer. We Christmas shopped, got Gifts for the kids and friends back home, and then my wife saw the Fairy grotto! Well, many fairies later (including a second trip to the store) we left to go back home. Michelle, the owner, was pleasant, helpful, and genuine. We left Florida not only happy with our experience, but felt like we had made a new friend! Now the story doesn't end there. This Christmas my Wife informed me that fairies were at the top of her Christmas list. Not finding any up here in CT, I made a "mayday" call down to Michelle at the Irish Gift Shop. She painsteakingly helped me pick out the fairies I wanted via many texts. She obliged me to ship them to my son's house, thus keeping my Wife in the dark. The "cherry on the Sunday" was when I went to wrap my Wife's fairies...Michelle had already wrapped them, in beautiful Irish paper with handmade ribboning! Needless to say Christmas was a huge success...my thanks to Michelle and the effort and obvious pride she puts into her store. We will be coming back this summer! Sincerely, Ted...

I come from a very Irish family and I was looking at a family crest coaster and decided to take a picture of it to show my friends. It was a very uncommon name so I thought it was neat finding it, after I took the picture I was greeted by a man who told me with zero emotion not to take a photograph thinking he meant of him I just turned at took a picture of the item I was looking at buying, that’s when he got irritated and mad with me saying I need to buy it if I want to photograph it, I left the store after that altercation to not further escalate things but then after I left, the employee would go to the windows watching me wait outside the building for the rest of my family, it got so bad that my brother in law had to tell the man that he doesn’t need to be watching me from the windows and that I am not the problem, then any time my sister took out her phone the employee would go up behind her and watch her on her phone, if your looking for a good Irish gift shop literally anywhere is...