Are You Being Served

This week post takes a serious look at profiling and discrimination happening within the retail industry. Sadly, most of us have experienced some sort of retail bias ranging from thinly veiled to blatant discrimination. For example, the sale staffer who watches your every move but refuses to offer any assistance. The elusive store policies and retailers levying false accusations and charges to law enforcement against law abiding consumers because they fall into a “profile” companies often claim doesn’t exist.  Pathetically, these retailers will try to disguise this disgusting behavior as standard loss prevention procedures when in fact, it’s discrimination pure and simple. So what are your options if this happens to you?  You can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission ( https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1). Their mission is to track fraudulent acts, patterns of abuse, and launch investigations into businesses engaging in illegal and shady practices.  If available, you can file a grievance with your state’s consumer advocacy agency typically located within the State Attorney General office. For particularly egregious acts, consider seeking remedy through the courts. Here’s the bottom line, the job of the any brand, retailer, or sales staff is to sell. No one is interested in their geopolitical perception of the world nor their opinion on the racial ,ethnic, or religious make up of the people who live in it. So whether it’s Barneys or Target, the only issue that should  concern them is are you (the consumer) being served.

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