What a sad experience my mother and I had at this store today. Let me start off by saying that, I'm 3 weeks postpartum and had been looking forward to taking my mother, who is visiting from out of town, here, on one of our last days together. It's been hard to get out of the house due to having a brand new baby, but we put World Market at the top of our list of places to go to, during our hour long outings when we can leave the house. We looked forward all week to come here.
Walked in, checked out the silverware section. Made our way to beer and wine. Grabbed some beer. Then stopped in the section we were there to see. Imported treats! We took our time looking at each treat, seeing which country they were from etc. just enjoying bonding time with mother and daughter. 5 min in, we are met by an employee asking if we need help. No, we don't. He leaves. Another 5 minutes, another employee asks. No thanks. 5 min later another employee comes by us to "tidy up" aka pretend to push items back on the shelf. She says nothing but I already decide what the motive is so I move in better sight of her, so she can see that I'm just browsing. 5 min later, same employee from earlier comes back and asks if we need help. This time she stands in the aisle next to us, with another employee and just watches me and my 61 year old mother in the candy aisle. Eventually we confront them and let them know that there are plenty of other customers who may need help and to stand and watch us is awful. They look at each other and then look at us. No words. It was at that moment that I knew I was being racially profiled and these workers decided that my mother and I were there to steal candy and cookies from their store. We let the manager know, who also had no words for us. Just pathetic. As I suggested to the manager, better training is needed. Especially in a store so close to the East Side of Aurora- predominantly black and brown community.. World market is a store that people will spend much time in, especially in the imported foods aisle. Just a total disappointment. Especially disappointed to come home to my 3 week old son and know that he will most likely experience this ten-fold when he is old enough. Even more upset that I used my 1-hour away from him, to be treated like a criminal because of my skin color.
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