Siempre Mas

"I went to this store today, Siempre Mas with my white friend, I am a dark brown woman. My friend and I purchased the same item, the cashier gave my white friend a lovely store bag to put her item in. I cashed out immediately after my white friend and the cashier gave me a cheap plastic bag. As we went outside, my white friend said, why did the cashiers give you that plastic bag and gave me this lovely textured store bag and we bought the same item. I thought… why did the cashier do this? Why did she give me, a dark brown woman, the plastic crumbled bag and she gave my white friend a wonderful textured store bag, we went back to the store and I asked the cashier why do you give me a plastic bag for my purchase and you gave my friend a nice textured bag and we purchased the same item? She (the cashier) did not answer me … But we both know why she did this. I will never go back to this store, and I do no recommend any brown skin people to shop here."

"I don’t think I could peacefully keep the items I’d bought from this shop unless I shared my experience first. I’m a first time visitor of Maine and specifically Portland. It was incredibly refreshing to see and experience the diversity of this specific town, and their very chill traditions and approach to inclusivity. I try to remain aware as a POC in predominantly white spaces and not once did this make me feel uncomfortable… until I went into this store. I was with a group of 4 and 3 out of the 4 of us were POC. Besides two other customers, we were the only ones in the store. My fiancé is a white male and the only white male in our party. As I was shopping their sweaters and jackets, one of the store attendants (the woman of the couple) was in the back too. Except she wasn’t doing anything. She was just shuffling through jackets (mind you the same jackets my fiancé and I wanted to buy). She wasn’t counting inventory (there were 3 jackets on the shelf), she wasn’t putting anything on the rack, she wasn’t taking anything off of the rack. She was just counting, the same three jackets sitting up there for the entire time we were back there. She didn’t offer help and she didn’t ask if we were finding everything okay. And unfortunately I didn’t even realize she worked there until the very end as we were checking out (because I thought she was a customer and I was being polite so I could look through the sizes myself but she was literally in my way). She never moved. I have several issues with this and my biggest was that I was blatantly profiled and this has never happened to me before so I never even thought that it could. We bought items and supported this small business and while I somehow wish I could return my items, I’m glad I could share my experience and make other POC northerners and tourists aware that there are still racist and prejudice individuals out there, even in spaces that may act like they celebrate differences. Now I’m glad and I can keep my items knowing that I supported this business and proved them wrong of their discrimination."

"This store is a gem! Unique clothing, jewelry, souvenirs and much more at reasonable prices. Customer service is simply outstanding... Peter and his wife are amazing ..so friendly and they go above and beyond to help you. I'm from New York and visited this store recently. Upon arriving home, realized that I should have bought more of the lovely dresses. Peter was so kind enough to make sure what dresses I wanted and even shipped them to me. Much appreciate your services and will be back :) Best of wishes to you both. Geetha - New York"

"Nice store to get your fix of tie-dyed clothing. The store also carries souvenirs. The clothing is nicely priced and the staff is very friendly."

"My favorite store of all time. They have such a range of unique items. From Buddha to fancy jewelery boho clothing wall hangings the list goes on and on. Definitely something for everyone. Convenient location and easy enough to find parking."