Meredith, who didn’t want to provide her last name, had completed her shopping list and proceeded to the front-of-the-store cashier. As she placed her purchases on the conveyor belt, she discovered that the cashier at Kroger had no plans of ringing her up.
Meredith’s outfit, according to the employee, was a smack in the face, and the cashier was doing everything she could not to cry. So, what was it about Meredith’s top that was so offensive? It said, “Police Lives Matter,” with the phrase “All Lives Matter” beneath.
This wasn’t the first time Kroger was accused of refusing service to a paying customer for the same reason Meredith refused service, and she wasn’t going to let it slide because Meredith was wearing her blue t-shirt that simply said, “Police Lives Matter, All Lives Matter,” for a reason.
Meredith is a police officer’s wife, and she was expressing her admiration for her hero husband, who puts his life on the line every day to serve and safeguard the “offended” clerk and the other inhabitants of Spring, Texas. Unfortunately, the cashier didn’t like what she was promoting and refused to ring her up, despite the fact that the employee is only in charge of operating her cash register.
Meredith immediately informed others about what occurred to her inside the shop, including Kimberly Colley, executive director of the Blue Bow Foundation, which helps police officers and their families. In addition to this employee’s behavior, Kroger’s complete lack of response outraged Colley even more.
Colley expressed that their husbands risk their lives every single time they put on those uniforms; they’re walking targets, and this is the least they can do to show there’s support out there. She also said that her non-profit organization, which previously supported the business, had severed all links with the company.
Meredith said that it’s essential that individuals in the service industry understand that regardless of what, if someone walked in with a Black Lives Matter shirt on, they deserved to be serviced.
This is at least the second time a Kroger employee has been accused of insulting a police officer or a member of their family. When it was brought to their attention, a worker at a Louisiana location apparently refused to serve a female officer, and the business didn’t seem to care.
Any company that does not support police, particularly when they go so far as to throw them or people who support them out of their institution, does not deserve the protection they depend on when called upon by law enforcement.
The police should blacklist these firms and require them to resolve stressful situations on their own. Maybe after a few weeks of this, and a loss of consumers who don’t feel secure shopping there, they’ll realize they can’t depend on angry staff or Black Lives Matter to rescue them.
