I'm sure a large part of your mom's decision to pay was the unexpected nature of the woman's reaction, but I never would have agreed to it myself. Out of curiosity, I did a little internet searching and found that even if there had been a "you break it you buy it" sign posted (which there wasn't) it's not really enforceable under the law. From what I understand, you would have to be acting in an extremely negligent way (juggling the statue, for example) in order to be held financially responsible. And even THEN she would have had an extremely difficult time proving/enforcing that, probably even having to take you to small claims court.
Maybe I'm just the suspicious type, but I'm a little afraid that you both got scammed. Clearly the table was in a poor spot (owner's fault) and was hard to see (owner's fault). Being right next to the cash register, it was also in an extremely high traffic area so the chances of this type of thing happening multiple times is pretty darn high. And doesn't it seem a little convenient that it happened to be something she paid retail for? Why would a store owner ever pay retail for anything? Where's the profit in that? And any type of inventory list that she "happened" to have handy is hardly proof of payment on her part.
Plus, just the fact that she offered to give you a discount shows that she was negotiating with you....which right there proves that she knew you didn't HAVE to pay anything at all.
Even if it wasn't a scam, she's clearly a wretched business owner. Honestly, she's very lucky that your mom didn't fall and injure herself on that table or it would have been HER that was paying out.
Since you've already paid for the item (and assuming you can't stop the payment), your options are fairly limited. I would go onto as many review sites as possible, most especially Google maps which MANY people will look at since it's in a "tourist town" and share your experiences. All you have to do is open up Google, click on "maps" at the top of the page and do a search for the business. Once you find it, there might already be reviews listed. If you click on the reviews you should be able to follow the prompts to leave your own. Let me know if you need any further help with that.
Really, people need to be warned about this business and, if they still choose to shop there, at least they'll know to be extra careful where they walk and what they touch. Also, it would be really nice if you'd let all of us know what the name of the business is so we too can avoid it like the plague....especially those of us with little ones!
Here's that article I mentioned earlier: http://legallad.quickanddirtytips.com/you-break-it-you-bu...