St-Hubert street
Today I went for a walk around St-Hubert street in Montreal. I first stopped at LL Lozeau. I wanted to have a look at the Canon Powershot S80. But it was so crowded. I waited around the counter to be served for 10 minutes without even an acknowledgement from a worker to say “I’ll be with you shortly” or something. So I left. Too bad! They won’t get my business then!
I walked by a store and saw the very crowded/unusual/eye-catching store front of Art Kéo International.
I stepped inside. I was positively overwhelmed by the crowded little store. Classical music was playing. It was nice and warm compared to the cold day outside. I started walking around the little store. There were things everywhere… Left, right, wall, floor, ceiling! It was a combination of new things for example candles, cushions, vases, etc. There were as well art pieces like paintings by Keo Kosal, the shop owner. I also saw a lot of recycled things like old metalic objects turned into a nice sculpture. And imported objects from Asia. And the list goes on and on. Everywhere I looked it was like finding a treasure! At the back of the store in a cage little birds were singing. Somewhere in the middle of the store there was the owner at his counter, talking on the phone in an asian language. I smiled at him and he smiled/nodded back. I really enjoyed my visit at the store even if I didn’t buy anything. It felt like a museum a bit. It’s worth a visit!
Art Kéo International
6341 rue Saint-Hubert
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I’ve had the opposite experience with the same LL Lozeau, but with the same result. I walked in, some comes over and very eagerly says “can I help” (in French. I tell him I’m shopping for a camera and want some information. His face turns to a frown and he says that he was about to close, has logged out of the computer, “but I suppose I can help if it won’t take too long”. I didn’t waste his time. I left and will never return.
Seems a bit hasty to write them off when they couldn’t help you because they were crowded or because it was just before closing. I’ve worked at a couple photo stores and it takes a while to explain the plethora of features of different cameras to help determine which one is best for the customer. Or even just the features of one camera can take a while. If the place gets crowded it can take a while for salespeople to get free to help the next customer. I don’t know if they have it, but a take-a-number system at least would let you know where you are. The odd thing is that there is a lot of downtime for a job like that. Nights and weekends can be hectic, but weekdays are excruciatingly boring.