Staples

I am a professional. During a commute, I realized that I forgot to fax a document and was in luck since Staples was in the driving path of my destination. Upon faxing my item, I see a Black older gentleman in a wheelchair but he was having difficulty figuring out the new fax machine. They respectfully asked the representative behind the counter for help and to a great big surprise, she said, "No" and told him to do it himself, all while looking down to the height of the man whose wheelchair-height is below her waist. This customer's arms were not very mobile, as well. Upon seeing her heartless dismissal, I whispered to the older man that I would help him and not to worry. You can see it in his face that he was sad and maybe even was used to being treated that way. I did privately ask for the store supervisor to assist him and said that the gentleman deserved an apology - but only silence from the store supervisor. I did inquire about the coaching and guidance that should be given to the representative who more than likely violated ADA guidelines by refusing to accommodate an openly disabled person. She never mentioned that the representative was wrong. In the meantime, a person who identified himself as the Tech Department Manager asked how I was doing and I told him not too well considering that I just saw the lack of humanity and comfort with treating someone in a wheelchair like that. With a straight and cold expression, he then explains that Staples has a policy to not help customers with faxes because they should do it themselves since Staples has larger orders to take care of in the print area. If they helped everyone, they would not get their work done. I asked what about simple decency to know that it is okay to know when service needs to be rendered, especially for wheelchair bound persons. No regret, no remorse, just quick to rally behind his co-worker. ALL of these workers were White and ALL looked at this Black man as undeserving of ADA compliance and unworthy of an apology and unworthy of basic respect. His differences were color and his disability - there is no way you can be a customer service oriented store and refuse to provide a service and stay in business. When I asked if the gentleman had the supervisor or the representative apologized, he said "No". These three White workers (2 female and 1 male) actively protected each other, worked together to dismiss the value of a wheelchair bound Black man's plea for customer service. This staple location at 2124 N 2nd St, Millville, needs a Corrective Action Plan, Corporate Training, ADA retraining, and discretionary discipline action.