Verbal assult by store owner

We walked into Petland Sunday evening on January 25th, 2009 to look at a sheltie puppy that we were considering purchasing. The price was $1500.00, which I could not afford at the moment. We would have the money in two weeks and had intended on returning then to purchase the puppy if he was still available. We were playing with the puppy and when we went to give it back, a woman, also a customer there, asked us what kind of dog it was. We replied that it was a sheltie and she told us that she had two of her own. We asked her where she got her dogs and she replied that they were from a breeder in state. We asked her if we could give her our phone number so she could call us with the name of the breeder so we could do some comparisons between dogs. The woman agreed and as we were attempting to give her our phone number, a female employee rudely told us that if we were going to be exchanging breeder information (which we were not) that we needed to leave now. We did so without complaint, even though we were not exchanging breeder information. We were standing outside of the store, in the general mall area, talking to the woman when the owner of the Petland came storming out and accosted the woman verbally, yelling in front of at least twenty other customers and mall patrons, telling her that she had no right to be stealing his business and customers. The woman was shocked and very apologetic, trying to tell him that we were just exchanging personal information but he wouldn't stop yelling long enough to even hear what she was saying. We stepped in at that point and defended her, but he merely turned and yelled at us as well, telling us to get out. We were already outside of his store, so we left the mall to escape any further wrath.

We were deeply disturbed and offended by his inappropriate behavior as was everyone within hearing distance of the confrontation. We will not be returning to buy that dog, nor will we ever set foot in that store again. In the past, we have frequented the store and spent large sums of money there, but the owner's behavior was so wildly inappropriate and offensive that we cannot, in good conscience do that again.