Store #93
02/10/17
12pm MDT
This was absolutely the worst grocery store experience I've ever had.
I came to do some grocery shopping here yesterday, and have never been so disrespected. It took me about an hour and a half to get everything I needed; before I got to the register, I realized that I had forgotten my debit card out in the car. So I wheeled my full cart to the self-checkout lines and asked the 2 associates standing there to watch my cart while I went to the car to get my debit card. They BOTH agreed, and I went out to retrieve my card.
Not 5 minutes later, I returned for my cart. I walked directly to the self-checkout lines where I had left my cart with the 2 associates, and it was no longer there. Neither were either of the associates. I found someone nearby and asked if they had seen my cart; they said no. So finally, one of the associates who had promised to watch my cart while I was gone to grab my debit card came back. I asked him what happened to the cart he promised to watch, and he literally simply shrugged. I asked him again, this time with MUCH less patience in my voice; I was pushing being late for work, and didn't have the time for the BS. He answered that "someone" had taken my cart, and had begun to put my items back. I IMMEDIATELY became heated, and told him to call his manager ASAP.
The manager came, and as it turns out, it was him (the manager), Carlos, that made the call on putting my groceries back. He literally admitted this to me. Apparently, he assumed that since I was Black and/or didn't look like I "belonged" in the area, that I was just ditching my groceries because I couldn't pay for them. When he came to me, he was IMMEDIATELY argumentative. He did not once let me get a clear sentence out without interrupting me. Clearly he needs some kind of sensitivity training to be able to properly deal with women and other minorities, specifically racial minorities. Clearly, he could also use training on how to properly train his employees, and also how to properly enforce store policy, if what he was saying was indeed store policy.
He accused me of abandoning my groceries (that I had JUST spent almost 2 hours gathering) and said that I was gone too long according to store policy. So I asked him what that store policy was; he couldn't answer. I then stated that I was only gone for 5 minutes to retrieve my debit card, and asked what the "policy" on tampering with someone's groceries was; I kid you not, he literally said, "5 minutes." This is when I lost my sh*t. I told him that he was a bold faced liar, and that he only said 5 minutes was the time limit because that's how long I said that I was gone; I then told him that if it was "store policy" for employees to not accept carts to watch them for a customer, then he should've properly trained them to not do so when he hired them. Not only had they taken my cart and put back all of the items I had spent hours gathering, they removed my PERSONAL belongings from the cart WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, and left them on the floor, out in the open, for anyone to come by and take. UNACCEPTABLE!
The manager began to wildly motion with his hands as he was speaking, and raised his voice at me in a clear attempt to intimidate me into leaving. But I wasn't leaving until I got the information to report him to his superiors. I will also be following up with the FTC and BBB to make formal complaints against this manager and this facility. It is 2017. Racism and stereotyping is SO 1917. It's no one's fault but YOUR OWN that you're not smart enough to be able to transition to this decade.
I will NEVER step foot in this location again. In the end, I had to redo the 2 hours of grocery shopping at a different store, which, in turn, made me EXTREMELY late for work, and wasted 2 more hours of my time. read more