Country Freckles — Local services in Wisconsin Rapids

I have never been treated so rudely by a small business owner. I stopped into Country Freckles with my mother while visiting my family over the holidays. My mother frequents the shop regularly and was excited to stop in with me while I was in town. The merchandise is beautifully displayed and it smelled wonderful in the shop. That is the extent of my positive experience. When I approached the register to purchase, I was confronted by the shop owner, Joanie, inquiring about my coffee. She asked if I had seen the sign on the door (about the size of two index cards). I regretfully had not, and promptly apologized and offered to take my coffee back out to the car. Joanie declined, as I was about to leave anyway, so I continued to the register to check out.

Simultaneously, she loudly and aggressively approached my mother, telling her how rude I was to have taken my coffee into the store in the first place. That times have changed. That she would never do that. On and on (and on, continuously repeating herself). This is after both of us had already apologized multiple times for a seemingly innocuous offense. After all, I had not spilled a drop and there was a free beverage station (coffee or cider, I assume) set up in the store as well. If the main concern was making a mess, then I'm not sure why a free beverage station was made available.

Nearing the end of my transaction--as I was a paying customer--Joanie circled back to me at the register to continue her berating. At this point, I didn't know what to say anymore, was honestly stunned by the interaction, and now regret making a purchase at all. While we exited, my mother commented to Joanie that it was probably best if we didn't come back again, to which she replied, "fine by me!"

It was an awful experience and a true damper on my day of holiday shopping and visiting my hometown. Be on the lookout for the "no beverages" sign, fellow shoppers. I didn't see it, and even after offering to correct my mistake and many apologies later, was still treated terribly. This is how customers are lost, especially in the fragile world of small businesses. Word-of-mouth...

After living in town for 2+ years I finally visited Country Freckles. I've heard good things about this shop but they've always been closed whenever I've thought about stopping in. The shop was HUGE, much bigger than I expected. There were so many cute things that I had a hard time deciding what to purchase. I will definitely be back! Most of the items were seasonal (fall, Halloween) so I imagine the selection changes often. I will definitely be back at Christmas time to see what is available.

Just a note, although the sign outside the store advertises a coffee shop, that area of the business is closed. That's OK though. There is a great local coffee shop just a few blocks up...

Went in with my sisters and my sister accidentally broke an ornament while trying to get an item out for purchase. She apologized of course. We all bought items probably adding up to appx $125. A couple days later my sister was looking at her receipt and noticed that she was charged $5 for broken ornament. It was a $10 item. How rude of the owner not to at least tell her that she would be charging her. What a cowardly move. And a terrible business practice. I will not be going here ever again. Many other nice boutiques in Wisconsin rapids and surrounding areas that I won’t feel a need to...