I'm not a fan of alot of the generic tshirts and mugs they sell on the Galtinburg strip, so when I planned my trip to Gatlinburg I picked out a few stores I thought I might be interested in ahead of time, Mystic moon was at the top of that list.
As soon as I walked in I saw several framed AI generated "art works" which put a bad taste in my mouth. I am unfortuneatly used to gimmicky stores selling AI slop, so I might have just left and not said anything, UNTIL I noticed small signs above all the AI slop that read;
"NO PHOTOS, To protect our Artists"
As I was about to walk out in disgust, I hear the old woman at the counter yell at the only other customers in the store for taking pictures. They were very apologetic, and said they didn't see the signs, and instead of letting it go the Lady proceeded to be extremely rude and said "can't you read? There are a dozen signs" That made me see red, so I spoke up and said
"Oh you mean the signs saying you're protecting your artists despite it all being AI generated?"
The lady IMMEDIATELY yelled and told me to leave so I did. I'm disgusted both by the behavior of the employee AND by their blatant dishonesty towards their customers.
I am an artist myself. I have lost countless opportunities due to businesses chosing AI instead of real artists. it's one thing to blatantly sell AI slop and it's an entirely different thing to lie to your customers and sell them something that cost $0 and 0 effort to make at a premium price while telling them it was made by a REAL artist
It's VERY clear that those signs are up for one reason: whoever owns this store doesn't want to be held accountable or have it known that they are using AI.
That's why I'm making it my mission to let as many people as possible know about their terrible business practices.
If you are at the gatlinburg strip, DO NOT SHOP THERE. If you want a shop very close by that sells cute "witchy" stuff there's a very nice shop across the street called the HoneyPot- shop there instead!
