2 Smoothie King stores temporarily closed after racial slurs found on receipts
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Two Smoothie King stores in Charlotte, N.C., have been closed until further notice after racial slurs were allegedly added to customers’ receipts.
The incidents reportedly took place at two different Smoothie King stores within hours of each other on Sunday.
The first incident allegedly happened around 2:30 pm, according to a photo of the receipt that was shared on social media. In the photo, the N-word is written as the customer name.
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“I thought it was very disrespectful," Calvin Caldwell, the customer who received the receipt with the racial slur told WSOC-TV. "I thought it was very rude, especially since I'm a paying customer, and I'm a loyal customer because I come to Smoothie King often. I thought it was in bad taste and completely inappropriate to use that kind of language."
The second incident occurred at 6:15 pm Sunday evening to customer Tony Choi, who wrote about the experience on Facebook, the Miami Herald reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I was just in this Smoothie King with my kids. Instead of asking for my name. Zack H. thought it would be funny to put ‘Jackie Chan’ as my name. Being Korean, I find this very insulting. But the 3 employees working there at the time couldn’t stop laughing about it,” the post read.
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The two stores will remain closed during the investigation and until staff undergoes training “to ensure that nothing like this occurs again.” (iStock)
In a statement to Fox News, Smoothie King confirmed the incident and said that both of the employees responsible for the receipts have been fired.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“[Sunday], two instances happened in our Charlotte franchise stores that are totally unacceptable and go against every value that we stand for. Two of our team members wrote inappropriate, racial remarks about our guests,” the statement read.
The two stores will remain closed during the investigation and until staff undergoes training “to ensure that nothing like this occurs again.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“This behavior does not in any way reflect our company’s commitment to creating an open and welcoming environment, and for that we sincerely apologize. Our senior management team is taking additional steps to reinforce and retrain all of our franchisee and store-level employees of our inclusivity policies and best practices,” the statement concluded.