I visited the store on Mill and Southern in Tempe. I witnessed a man have merchandise purchased for him and he was leaving the store. On the way out, the self-checkout clerk said "Don't come back or I'll call the cops." Not only does that person have zero authority to do this, it's extremely offensive to even me that this person was judged because he was disorderly. This exchange happened after he got the receipt, so he was a customer.
I called a manager to report this, but was met with a ridiculous amount of pushback. This assistant manager, who refused to fully identify themselves, claimed that the self-checkout clerk could call the cops because she had "seniority" in the store. The assistant manager also claimed that it was against store policy for someone to purchase food for someone else. All of these claims are made on a phone call, which I have recorded and attached.
Beyond this, the manager attempted to irritate me emotionally and attack my character. She accused me of accusing him of a crime because he was disorderly, when she was the one to make that jump in logic. That attempt at gaslighting is a direct and recorded example of discrimination against that customer at the management level. There were other attempts to fool me. For example, I was lectured on what is or isn't a "protected category" even though that isn't relevant to the conversation. I was lectured on how irritated I was getting, and my 12 years of practice in HR/AP were ignored completely. I don't appreciate being gaslit when I'm trying to report clear-cut discrimination. Would any reasonable person not be irritated when met with this level of disrespect for others in a customer-facing role?
Since both the assistant manager and the self-checkout clerk are clearly not of the right temperament to judge customers, as the clerk won't *and shouldn't* have access to a trespass list, I decided to escalate this situation. I also don't appreciate the way I was treated, because I am making a direct complaint that is being dismissed in favor of "seniority" which is obviously not conducive to a safe environment.
I understand being suspicious of some people, as I'm no stranger to loss prevention tactics. Still, the fact that I had to explain the concept of equity to a manager justifies me being upset.
Claimed loss: Nothing
Desired outcome: HR review above store manager level for the employee, for dismissal unless proven otherwise. Multi-session training for the manager before facing customers again, none of the behavior witnessed is OK.
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