I witnessed disability discrimination here.
I'm checking out the men's shirts, and I see a worker, a young woman, and her service dog. I got excited because it was a really cute dog. I think it was a cocker spaniel dachshund mix. I wanted to meet it, but I noticed the vest. It said on the vest very clearly, "PLEASE DO NOT PET. I AM WORKING". So I just admired the dog from afar.
About 10 minutes later, I'm in the pajama section and I hear a man say to the woman "Can I pet your dog?" The young woman says politely, "No sorry she is a service dog. Please don't pet her." The man responds rudely, "then why is she on the floor?!" I immediately make a face because I was shocked that someone 1. doesn't understand that workplace service dogs cannot be interacted with based on the Americans with Disabilities Act and 2. He said it very aggressively and rudely. The woman is taken aback and saying "I have to have her by law." Then he says something else as he walks away from her. I can't remember what it was, but he walks my way.
I'm making a face because I am genuinely disgusted by his rudeness, but i don't say anything to him. The girl talks about the interaction. She is not happy, understandably, and continues to say that he was rude to her. Not to anyone in particular, but just around her. The man yells back at her "calm down Jesus!" I'm trying to focus on finding some product, but I'm still thinking 'you were the one being rude, why are you acting like she's off or something.' Then the man comes into my aisle and attempts to talk to me. He goes, "I was just worrried that I was going to step on her dog. That's why I said something."
I open my mouth, but then choose not to say anything. I really didn't want to get involved with him and end up in an argument, so I kept searching through the racks. The guy walks away. About 5 mins later, I'm in the jacket aisle, and the young woman, who admittedly is still talking about the situation, is approached by someone. I don't see who it is, but they say, "you need to talk to me later" or something like that. The young woman says, "am I in trouble?" The person responds, but I can't hear her. "Ok," the young woman starts, "I just don't want to get in trouble for something i didn't do." The person then walks away. The girl begins to talk in front of me about how unfair this is. I tell her "yes, it is unfair. You didn't do anything wrong."
The girl looks relieved and comes over to me and asks if I can let her manager know that the guy made me uncomfortable. He didn't make me uncomfortable, but I told her I would tell a manager that he was the aggressor, not her. I go over to a worker and ask them if I can speak to their manager. The worker goes to the back and lets me know that the manager is busy, but will talk to me in a few minutes. That's fine with me, I see a lot of things I want to look at in the meantime. The man is still in the store. In fact, he's talking to the workers as well. I overhear him ask after someone, and it seemed that he may have worked there in the past or maybe he is a very regular customer.
He's also talking about the situation with the workers, and they all give non-committal answers. Honestly, they were just trying to do their jobs and not get involved, so it was particularly rude of this guy to keep talking to them about it. The young woman comes over to me, and I let her know the manager will be coming soon. She says, "You can ask for the other manager." So I go to the front and ask for the other manager, not the female one whom I originally asked for. The person at the counter (very nice girl) calls for him, but then tells me that the female manager is coming up front instead. I'm thinking, 'I thought she was busy,' but cool. The woman is a small, older white woman with very blonde hair.
When she walks up, her eyes are traveling all over me, taking in my appearance. I am a tall, large-figured black woman with natural hair. I was dressed in jeans and my fiancé's Carhartt and definitely looked bummy. I can tell she's already not a fan of mine, but I'm thinking I'm literally just trying to make sure this girl doesn't get in trouble for essentially being discriminated against by a rude customer. I let her know what happened. I told her the man was rude to her, and the young woman responded very politely, letting him know that her dog was a service dog and could not be pet. Then this happened. The manager goes, "i don't know if i believe that. That's not in her character." Then she walks away...She doesn't say anything else to me, just walks back to the back.
I walk away too because I really don't even know what else to say. I'm pretty shocked that the manager would essentially just dismiss me and ultimately accuse me of lying for the girl. I will not be back. read more