Westwood QFC Deli Rant

[tanyar23]

I am upset with my experience a couple of weeks ago at Westwood QFC deli. I waited for service and the white male who came after me (I am a woman of color) was served first (with neither him or the Deli girl saying anything). I told the deli girl that I was waiting and had been there first. She said , that “she didn’t see me”, like it was my fault or as if I was lying. I complained using their web site. Nothing has ever happened. I am saddened and angry by what I see as racist behavior. They should switch to a pull your paper with a number ticket system. Sigh…and by stating this, I feel like someone somewhere is surely going to say that I am being too sensitive about it.

Since then, I have passed on going to this store.

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[Kevin]

Sorry you feel this way, but I will be the first to agree with you that you are being too sensitive about it.

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[flowerpetal]

Is it possible that she didn’t see you as being there first, as she said? Using the website to complain doesn’t mean your complaint wasn’t read or that QFC doesn’t care. I doubt they can answer every email they receive.

And was the person at the counter a girl? I imagine she was an adult and probably wished to be treated as a woman, not a girl.

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[JoB]

tanyar23…

happens to women who aren’t of color as well.. and more often as you age.

I don’t know how or why we became invisible.. but there you go.

the phenomenon may have a lot more to do with your gender and possibly your age than with your color.

Kevin…

If this happened to you on a regular basis you would quickly realize that it is more than annoying…

it is doubly annoying when you realize that it is not in the vendors best interests to favor men..

women make the majority of purchasing decisions.. and they spend more. Yet..men are favored…

i have left both the deli and meat counters in groceries and gone straight to the manager to tell them why i wouldn’t be shopping in their grocery that day only to be treated like a whiny female.

This behavior is so pervasive and so accepted that i have not been offered store credit or even been apologized to once when i have complained…

and believe it or not… i complained very sweetly.

there are stores i will no longer shop at all because of this behavior.

do they miss me? i don’t know.

But i don’t miss them.

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[JoB]

flowerpetal…

a woman can refer to another woman as a girl without calling her one…

or treating her like one.

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[biankat]

Happened to me (Caucasian gal) at Nouveau. Annoying, but whatevs. I wish the counter gal would have noticed and corrected herself, however the man (also Caucasian) was obviously in need of a twice-baked almond croissant more than me.

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[Escondido]

tanyar23, sorry about your experience. As JoB stated earlier, many of us are invisible to others, especially as we age/put on pounds. I’ve gotten to the point when I’m in a situation like the one you were in, I keep my head up and work to make eye contact and then smile and acknowledge them. I often try to make conversation with them which is about them…. I think the employees are often invisible to the customers.

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[flowerpetal]

Thanks JoB. And my apologies to tanyar23. I spoke without thinking.

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[HelperMonkey]

I have been a victim of poor service (being ignored, being spoken to rudely) at the QFC deli. I assumed, and I assume correctly so – that it is just POOR SERVICE. everyone there looks unhappy to be there and acts as if your request for potato salad is a huge burden and you just ruined their whole day by asking. I hope that’s all it was for you, tanyar – just poor service by poorly managed workers rather than something personal or racially motivated.

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[KBear]

This might be a case of misunderstanding on tanyar23’s part, but QFC screwed up 3 times here. First, they ignored her in the store. Then the deli clerk missed her opportunity to provide excellent customer service when her mistake was pointed out to her. Then QFC didn’t respond to tanyar23’s complaint. Race may or may not play a part in this, but QFC sure isn’t trying very hard.

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[Kimberley]

Anyone else think that the other customer should have spoken up? Clearly they knew that they weren’t first in line and it would have been easy for them to say something, a quick: “Has this lady been helped?” would have been sufficient. I’ve actually had others thank me when I’d been acknowledged ahead of those waiting before me and pointed out to the person behind the counter that I wasn’t first in line. It’s often not reciprocated, but oh well.

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[JustSarah]

Yes, Kimberley, that was my first thought as well. As KBear pointed out, there were multiple failings on QFC’s side, but the other customer also shoulders a significant amount of fault here. The clerk was likely doing something else when the customers approached, and thus did not see in which order they arrived. Yes, she should have asked who was next, but since she apparently didn’t, the man should have ushered Tanya ahead; he must have known she was there ahead of him. Then when Tanya spoke up, he again had a chance to be a good person and apologize for having his head up his butt. He sounds like a class act.

I’d place the brunt of the racism/sexism blame on him, personally. The clerk may have exhibited latent tendencies as well, but most likely simply doesn’t provide great customer service.

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[Dunno]

Not trying to be funny at all. I’m a caucasian

male and have had this experience numerous times.

Not at this store but many others.

I usually try to let the clerk know and most of the time and get little or no response.

More than once I’ve been the person who is being helped before another too. If I know that to be the case, I let the clerk know that person was here before me. (something we should all be aware of but with our busy lives sometimes don’t notice)

Only writing this to let you know you’re not the only one and I wouldn’t let this stop you from going in there.

At the Westwood QFC Deli, I’ve only had good experiences. I remember one lady worker who kept giving me samples of this and that and was

the nicest clerk I’ve ever run into.

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[MousePotato]

As a white male in my 40’s I’d like to add my 2 cents to this. To start with, I shop at this QFC out of convenience, not choice. In general the customer service here is fine but I ALWAYS dread the days that I need something from the deli. I’m very cognizant of the ‘line’ and who was there first. I don’t jump in front of anyone and if a clerk attempts to help me before someone that was there first I will point this out and wait my turn. They always appear oblivious to any order of who was there first….

I’m usually there to get something from the meat/cheese section and this is definitely their Siberia. I can see 2 or 3 people helping at the hot section of the deli and maybe one or 2 people working in the background but it always takes some time for someone to make there way down to me. When they do they usually finish their current task, wash their hands, and don new gloves before they walk over and acknowledge me. I’m never quite sure if they are on their way to help me or sweep the floor. While waiting on a recent trip, a young man in the deli walked past me as he was putting on his gloves, joked with the cupcake girl next door for a good 30 seconds before finally turning around to even acknowledge that I was there. 30 seconds may not seem like a long time but I’d already been there for 2 or 3 minutes without any notice.

To be fair I have not made any formal complaints to QFC so my addition here should be taken with a grain of salt.

I’d also like to point out that the meat counter is a completely different world. They are always quick to acknowledge my existence and are always very helpful and thorough. The deli should take some classes from them….

Like I said, I’m a white male so I may be oblivious but I doubt that their lack of attention has anything to do with race.

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[JoB]

hubby would say that it’s the difference between being taller and shorter and that men are mostly taller so they are noticed first.

I don’t know. I don’t believe that is the whole story because a short man will be waited on before me.. as will a young attractive woman:(

i do know that if he is with me clerks can’t rush over fast enough. I should take him shopping with me more often…

or better yet.. turn the chore over to him:)

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[KBear]

Maybe the other customer didn’t see her either. I’ve cut in front of people by mistake. Clueless people aren’t necessarily racists. She didn’t say whether the other customer knew he cut in line, and he can’t apologize if he doesn’t know he did anything wrong.

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[JoB]

Why are so many of us so willing to assume that the discrimination was in the mind of the shopper and not a reality?

it turns out there is plenty of research on how gender and race affects buying decisions..

but relatively little on how it affects the shopping experience…

this is what a short scan revealed…

discrimination against the obese

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/ru-osm033105.php

color discrimination

http://www.consumerequality.org/pubs/09_Shopping_While_Black.pdf

race and gender discrimination in car buying

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic185351.files/ayressiegelman.pdf

if tanyar23 overweight, black and female she struck out on all counts:(

the elephant in this room deserves more study..

i couldn’t even find articles on age discrimination in the marketplace ..

excepting of course..

discrimination against teens…

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[TDe]

I agree with KBear. QFC Westwood isn’t trying very hard to retain a customer. Even if they disagree with what happened, or don’t have a clue, they could at least acknowledge the customer’s concern. That doesn’t take much effort. If they aren’t willing to put out even the tiniest bit of effort to retain a customer, they deserve to lose business.

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[KBear]

“Why are so many of us so willing to assume that the discrimination was in the mind of the shopper and not a reality?”

I wasn’t ASSUMING to know what the reason was. I was just pointing out that there were other possible scenarios, and the other comments on this thread point toward all around bad customer service, not racism.

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[mrhineh]

This happens all the time in todays world of fast, faster, fastest. I just go with the flow and try not to let it ruin my day. Its more of an ignorance problem than race. And don’t even get me started on the cashier who opens a new checkout lane and says “who’s next?”, and everyone else thinks they said “who’s FIRST?”

HAGD!

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[MousePotato]

I wasn’t assuming it was not race related. I was just pointing out my experience as a (tall thin) white male and that my service there is almost always lousy.

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[shihtzu]

I agree with mousepotato. I hate any deli counter. I swear every time I want to buy something there is some sort of confusion about who’s first.

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[waterworld]

I agree with a lot of what’s already been posted here. I have (like many of you) gotten passed over when I was at a counter first, and if find it difficult not to wonder what factors into that phenomenon — whether it’s age, race, sex, appearance, or some other equally offensive and ridiculous reason.

I do want to add my two cents’ on the issue of speaking up, though. Another way to handle this is to speak up right when it’s happening to you, as opposed to expecting or hoping that the server or the other customer are going to recognize that you were there first. I say something like “excuse me, I believe I was here first,” and that usually takes care of it.

I’ve also been in slightly different situations where there was obvious racism involved in how customer service providers handled their customers. I am white and a couple of my long-time coworkers, with whom I have traveled a lot, are black. I often get free upgrades at hotels or car rentals when we approach the counter, and my coworkers generally don’t. One time, in a hotel in New York, my coworker and I were side-by-side at the check-in counter, being helped by two different clerks. She saw that the the clerk helping me was giving me an upgrade, and she said to the clerk helping her “I’d like what she’s getting.” It was obvious we were together, but her clerk wouldn’t give her the same kind of room I got. This has happened over and over again. With cars it is even worse. One place we went to a lot always gave me a really nice car, but when my coworker was helped by the exact same people, they grilled him, demanded to see his proof of insurance card, and wanted to know where he was staying. I finally stepped in and said he was with me, and they stopped. It was awful. There’s no doubt in my mind that there is often racism involved in these situations.

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[charlabob]

Let me put in another pitch for speaking up, no matter what the situation. In this case, the person who WASN’T next in line should have been the first to speak up. Followed closely by the OP. Sometimes you have to push it (and sometimes you have to be borderline rude.) I’m every demographic that faces discrimination, other than a person of color, and I can tell you, speaking up works.

I’m a little curious why we’re so quick to dismiss the possibility that racism is a part of this equation. I’ve had the same kinds of experiences that waterworld describes and more often than not the “offenders” overlook their impulse to discriminate against fat old women when they have an opportunity to snub a person of color. Sad, but very true.

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[JoB]

you have a point charla.

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[Author]

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