I want to say that I'm usually writing great reviews about Lakeside Mall. It's been a nice place for my daughters and their friends to meet up and do some shopping while I enjoy myself as well. food court and men's clothing wear and shoes. I hate that it has slowed down a lot but we know things change as years go by and Covid19 affected a lot of our businesses including mine so I understand. I pray all the business owners like myself fully recover or reinvent and continue to provide great service and feed their families.
I'm usually not the one to complain about to much, but hey Yelp provides the platform for it so here it goes. I'm an African American male with daughters who had been shopping at the mall for a few weeks now since it reopened. now I'm aware that you will always have your typical stereotypical people who don't think for themselves or just having a bad day. ok, understandable that's fine we're all human.
So, I went into this store this afternoon called, Deals that my daughters wanted to take me to because of great deals, and when I arrived they're true!
It started great with one of the young ladies there helping people out including myself selecting clothes and such. We laughed, tried on some stuff great right!
about 30 minutes into being there another woman comes into the store with her little girls, probably around 6 or 7 years of age. I'm there with my 13-year daughter. As the woman walks around the store I assume she probably was the owner or manager. she speaks in her Arabic language telling the young woman to the effect asking what are you doing and where is the other girl. The other young lady had just gone in the back 5 minutes before she comes into the store. So we mind our business cause, after all, I came for some deals.
I and my daughter noticed the short lady that came in ranting started staring at us and she spoke in her Arabic language to one of the other girls about us. we ignored it and as we approached the check out counter. the young lady that we were greeted by earlier was ringing us up.
This is when things started to get strange. We noticed the little girl facing us from the other side of the counter staring at us over and over.. the lady who came in ranting, obviously was the mother or something. she had her back to us and put her hand inside her purse and spoke to her I assume daughter to watch. but what she didn't know is my daughter speaks Arabic and we both looked at each other. I immediately told the young lady that I'm feeling very uncomfortable right now and ask why is this woman standing there with her back to us with her hand in her purse.
Now I don't claim to be a professor of law or store protocol specialist, but where I'm from that usually means someone is holding a pistol in their hand.
I told the young lady that I didn't want anything at this point and we left. I didn't believe in making a scene at that point because number one I was with my daughter and there were other people in the store. What's disturbing is she didn't have any regard for her daughter. Why would you create a situation and have your small daughter involved in your demented thoughts?
Later after me and my daughter shopped at a few other stores and had to walk by on the way to the parking lot to leave. we saw the nice young lady and the other nice young woman. I told her it's ok and ask her why she would do something like that, she just said she didn't understand why she would do that.
My answer is simple cause I'm black and she has fallen into media conditioning. All blacks are not robbers and thieves, just like all Arabic are not terrorists. Not all white people live in a trailer park, not all Asians own a nail to make Chinese food, not all Mexicans clean houses.
The point is, I didn't make a big deal then but I'm making it known to everyone else. What kind of parent puts their child in risk or danger like that. My last thoughts were I'll pray for her children that they're mom seeks medical attention. I appreciate just the opportunity to share, hate it was this way cause Lakeside Mall overall is the kool spot!
I'm asking all my constituents to not patronize that establishment or any other store chain involved with that brand: "DEALS"
Thank you,
J, Non-Profit Organization, Business Owner read more