Too many times.
Once when I was about 13 I was shopping with my mom (a schoolteacher that dresses like a schoolteacher) and we heard our descriptions over one of the rent-a-cops walkie talkies. My mom was like, "Are you supposed to be looking out for us? You'll get real far using that method." We just laughed at those idiots wasting their time tracking us and being dumb enough to loudly broadcast who they were looking for.

Yup, worked at Banana Republic while an undergrad. Went to the mall with my friends and we went into a different Banana Republic than the one I worked in to make a return. We were followed and I wasn't allowed to make my return and basically made to feel VERY uncomfortable. I didn't tell them I also worked for the company. I knew all the policies, procedures and phone numbers. I just called the company HQ instead and spoke with a VP of customer relations and that manager was suspended. So there.

It didn't stop me from feeling really angry,offended and sad that entire afternoon though. Of all the people to be considered a thief or whatever, I'm least likely.

P.S.: the POINT of an allowance is to get kids to understand money. They can save and work hard for something big they want. They should have a bit of flexibility in that area.

That's what Suze Orman and Jean Chatzky say

Oops. tabbed browsing.

I've had more incidences with customers who think I work at stores. Because Gap employees wear suits and I should get off my phone to help some dumb heifer find something. Please.

6′3 boyfriend
hot!

I'm not often followed, but I am asked frequently whether I work at wherever I'm shopping. The last time it happened I was in Bloomingdales on fifth avenue with a (South Asian) friend of mine talking simultaneously to her and to another friend on the phone trying to arrange to meet up. I had come from work and was wearing a navy blue JCrew suiting skirt and a bright yellow sleeveless top — hardly the all black department store attire. This woman tapped me on the shoulder like, five times and started to get indignant like "excuse me, why wont this girl get off the phone and help me?" I guess it didn't occur to her that I wasn't just slacking on the job, it was well within my rights to talk on the phone because I DIDN'T WORK THERE! Also, who puts their hands on someone they dont know to get their attention? She jabbed me VERY aggressively! My friend was super embarrassed but I told her thats nothing new. You should see when my mom and I go shopping in the winter time. We will have heavy snow covered jackets and other winter paraphernalia on, and somehow, these women still assume that we are not transient shoppers but are there to serve their every entitled whim.

I am not sure if it is my demeanor or my complete obliviousness to the sales staff but I am rarely followed in stores, although often approached to inquire if I need assistance. It would take a salesperson being very obnoxious and obvious to EVEN recognize that I was being watched for potential shoplifting.

This being said, should it ever happen to me, I always keep this in the back of my mind. After working years of retail, I have always remembered this: Although, laws may vary by location, most places require that ONE person MUST witness the shoplifter take the item, conceal it and exit the store without paying for the merchandise, all while never taking their eyes off the shoplifter. Only then can that store employee apprehend the shoplifter without force.

Without this first hand account, it is very difficult to prove shoplifting. If you are detained the very first thing to do: Ask for the store employee who witnessed the theft AND for the STORE MANAGER. With both the witness and manager present, remind them of your rights and of the necessity of a first hand witness. Ask the store employee to point to the area where the merchandise has been concealed. If they are incorrect, warn the staff of your rights and of the likelihood, that further detainment could result in a discrimination suit should they continue to harrass and insult you. The onus is on the store to provide a witness of the supposed crime.

Always remember to keep your cool in these situations. Unless you are guilty, there is little reason to be upset and your calm confidence will be a warning to the staff that you are not to be underestimated.

Be sure to write a letter of complaint to the HQ and and cc: the store manager of your complaint.

Its happened to me many times. Even just last week at a drug store. And it really doesn't matter how I'm dressed or if I'm holding expensive shopping bags. I also used to get the assumptions that I work for the store often. I try my best to not get angry but I get upset. Especially when I'm wearing close that cost more than anything the store sells. (Old Navy, Walmart)
a little off topic but last month I went into a store to have the nose pads for my eye glasses replaced the woman told me it was $10. I started to ask if they replaced both sides or one and she huffed and said thats the cost I can't lower it for you do you want it or not. I couldn't help it and had to raise my voice another staff member who heard the conversation came over and apologized. Later the woman came back and told me how she loved my glasses I couldnt even pretend to be civil with her.
Just way to many issues when shopping while Black

Recall Dave Chappelle on Def Comedy Jam: when you know you're being followed, that shit will make you look like a thief (turns head back)

Oh yeah. I've been there.

Back when I was in college, I worked at Victoria's Secret (VS) in a mall. I arrived early for work and decided to hit up Bath and Body Works (BBW) before starting work. I went in there with a bag that had my lunch and CDs. The woman at the register was eyeing me and then finally asked if I'd needed any help. I told her "No, I'm still looking." Then she said, "Well…let me take your bag so that you can have a better shopping experience." I was shocked. A moment later, I told her "I don't see anything that I want here" and then walked out. I want to work and complained to some managers and they told me that she was in the wrong. The Limited Corp. owns BBW and VS so they follow the same preventative measures for boosting. That woman from BBW was out of line and went against company policy by incriminating me.

I told my friends about it and they both C/S the woman from BBW. They claimed "Well, that mall does get hit up a lot," "She was only doing her job," and "Racial profiling is just part of protocol depending on the area." I was like "But it's a damned mall. How isn't it expected of any customer to walk in that store or any other store without a shopping bag? It is a mall. Most ppl aren't walking around empty-handed. Does she take everyone's bags when the store gets busy? This ain't no ghetto business where they take your bag and give you a ticket." They said nothing after that cuz I was right.

And for the record, that bag I brought into BBW with me was too packed for me to even try to boost.

Yeah. It's curious that I get that too, especially at the local J Crew. It infuriates me because the one I went to in grad school was just absolute perfection.

The other half of the time, you don't exist. Really, I'm in head to toe J Crew a lot (chance. it's always sales stuff just got some $25 jeans, dark, boot cut). How are you going to ignore someone who is obviously a frequent customer. It's amazing because what I hear them say to the white women is whether they want water.

I've been followed once at a Gap at a mall outside of New Orleans. It happened once when I was with a friend of mine who happens to be deeper brown in complexion than I am. This sales chick trailed us so hard, I told her outright that we didn't need any help thanks and to go away. She let up, but my friend said that she gets followed all of the time.

A pet peeve of mine is when people (always white) will walk up to me and ask me for help when I'm in the department store, like I work there.

Back here in my native New York, I was told by a white sales girl at an upscale department store that she didn't understand how I could afford to buy an expensive winter coat, when she couldn't. Yes, she said that. Without missing a moment, I shrugged, gave her my debit card, and told her, "it is because I am on this side of the counter, and you are not." The nerve.

Once at Bloomingdale's where they work on commission, a white clerk acted indifferent to helping me. I intentionally bought something expensive, and she smiled. Ten minutes later, I walked back and said I changed my mind. The stupidity of just trying to shop.

I don't get watched, but I do sometimes get ignored. I'll walk in to a store and the clerk will look right through me, but if a white woman walks in it's all smiles and customer service.

If I'm really heated by the clerk's behavior I walk up to the counter and ask why I wasn't addressed in the same fashion the other customer was. I've gotten nothing but flabbergasted stares in response. I believe that they think black people have to take such treatment and are blown away when we stand up for ourselves w/o getting loud or stupid.

Never happened to me.
Am I the only one?

I've been asked more times that I can remember, for help. When I was younger I was more polite in my response. Now that I'm older - no. I've been in gym clothes and been asked for help. What store are you at, that's not a sporting goods place, where the salespeople wear sweats as their uniform?

Daria, Superstarprincess:

White retail workers HATE when a black person walks into their store and can afford shit that they can't. They can't even control the emotions on their face. It's quite comical and sad and inspires me to be cruel:

"So, Jenny, how much do you make here? Minimum wage? Don't you find it hard to survive on that? Shame. Anyway… would you happen to have that cashmere sweater in a medium?"

My biggest problem is being ignored. It's especially prevalent in the Buckle where I live in Oklahoma. It's a shame, too, because I refuse to purchase something where the workers don't have the sense to speak to me. I usually wait around for more customers to enter, and if white customers come in and receive a warm greeting, I leave. If I have merchandise in my hand, I put it back. I find it hard not to get angry at things like that, so I find it best to bite my tongue. I did, however, question some employees in Mississippi why I (and my black friends) were ignored while white customers weren't. If I recalled correctly, we got a weak apology.

I've seen them following a very Kanye black guy at the same mall (Copley-Prudential). Give me a f-ing break. If I or anyone wanted to steal something, it wouldn't be at raggedy a– The Gap. There are LOADS of designer stores. Gap is definitely the lowest of the low in terms of price and quality. C'mon. Even klepto people aren't going to steal a $16 t-shirt when they can go to Saks or Bloomingdales and steal a $100 one. Jus sayin. No one in that mall is lusting after Gap crap.

To *M* - Consider yourself very fortunate for real, and please let us know where you shop! (smile) We need to start a list of Shopping While Black friendly retailers.

Blackmistress Diva- I'm going to have to keep that line in my arsenal…very very smart!

Another idiotic moment happened at Sephora up here where I live in suburban NYC. This woman wanted me to show ID when I used a stupid credit card, claiming it was some new store policy..claiming it was to "protect the customer from fraud." Fine and good, but when I saw that she hadn't asked the chick in front of me who had just made a credit card transaction- I called the manager…spoke in a rationale tone about what I considered to be racial profiling- and the problem was solved.

Maybe this is why I love to shop online.

Of all places, I was in the "United Nations" of retail… United Colors of Benetton.

Simply looking for a white blouse. I was in there for about 20 minutes when I realized NO ONE had addressed me or asked me if I needed help or anything. The store was not that big, so I know it wasn't like they didn't see me.

I left and came back about an hour later, just to make sure I wasn't crazy.

*silence*

So, I called the manager that following day and told them what happend. She sounded uber-shocked and apologized profusely and asked if I wanted a gift card for the trouble. I just said no and told her I wouldn't be that store.

*returning to* that store.

My very best shopping exerperience was in Manhattan. Apparently, I looked like I could afford the Dolce and Gabbana gowns I looked at (I most certainly can't.) and nobody questioned my desire to try them on and went so far to start calling other stores to find my size. People walked me from department to department, introduced me to the next person who would work with me and remembered my name when I came back the next day. I got introduced to makeup artists in OTHER stores, who designed my eyebrows and mixed my makeup. It was bar, none, the best experience I've ever had and it more than makes up for every other bad one.

I still don't get it. The only thing I can attribute it to was the fact that everyone kept asking was I on Days of Our Lives.

superstarprincess
I shop at
Abercrombie and Fitch
Macys
Old navy
and forever 21 mostly.

I love shopping, and thus far I've only had two incidents — once, when I was accused of theft in a dollar store (?) in H.S. and when I got trailed in a Dillard's. I'd been to Dillard's a ton of times w/o incident, but that time I was with a multiracial bunch of kids from school, and in an unfamiliar area. As soon as I was alerted to the situation — by them, because I'm also an oblivious shopper — I said, just loud enough for her to hear "Yeah, when I'm not at ______ University, I just love to steal shoes!" Yaah, I know, I'm a bitch. *shrugs* When I'm at the BSS/drugstore fondling small objects, or when I come in with something that I bought from somewhere else, I use the video surveillance to my advantage and wave it in front of the camera to prove that I came in with it/am not in the midst of an attempt to abscond with it. As for the customer service, I actually prefer it when salespeople leave me alone to do my broke-assed browsing, but they never seem to.

My experiences are similar to Blackmistressdiva. Usually I'm ignored when I first enter the store, but moments later a White or Asian woman enters and it's like everybody is tripping over each other to help her. Then when I make my purchase and they ask who helped me, I said very firmly that nobody helped me and I'm looking dead in their eyes. That tends to surprise them. None of y'all getting any commission off of me. That actually happened not too long ago at Ann Taylor. If I were being followed, then I would just flat out leave, but first I would dramatically examine a couple of item and then walk out.

It is wierd but in the headquarters of Prepsters(Boston), they arent used to preppy Blacks. At least that is what I tell myself when I am followed around the Rugby/Polo store…

I love in NYC, just moved from California Bay Area. Since i moved to NYC i generally shop in Soho (Zara, Urban Outfitters) or at vintage/thrift stores. I get ignored all the time. It's amazing how the next (white) person to come in will only be trailing me by 3 or 4 feet and they get a lovely greeting. I KNOW you saw me come in this store.*sigh* It sucks but it means i wont buy anything, even if i wanted to.

It's crazy how much more money the stores would be getting from us if they didn't hire racist ass people.

There's a store called Prepsters? Why is that funny (and kinda lame) to me? LOL.

I could have written the very same account at every store you all mentioned. In fact, I am sitting here looking at the Anthropologie gift card sent to me last week after my mother and I were shopping there and were treated like hardcore criminals. We walked in the store (in Westport, Connecticut) and the alarm goes off. Now, please keep in mind this is Westport, Connecticut. Buffy, Rory and Flopsie walk in and out the store with the alarm going off ALL DAY LONG (not to mention with half the store in their underwear) and not a soul bats an eye.

So, again…we walk in the free-standing store and the alarm goes off. As we walk IN the store the alarm goes off. A free-standing store. Not in a mall. Not even in a shopping center. A free-standing store. Next to a car dealership and a food market. Now, logic would dictate at some point we have to get OUT the store (unless our plan was to live in the store indefinitely) so we would have to be some seriously deficient 'Home Alone' type criminals to walk INTO a store with stolen merchandise. Can yall wait til we get out? So here they come SWARMING. "Would you please come over here and empty your purse?" Empty our purses? Huh? So, my mother looks at this girl like she is 96 kinds of crazy [which she was] and politely tells her we don't have anything, there will be no emptying of the purses today, and we will be proceeding on to the sales rack just as we had planned. Please tell me why 3 employees follow us all through the sales racks (the sales racks being 3 inches apart. smh) So, here they come with all their fake SWAT team Bringin' Down the House, whitegirl TaeBo maneuvers, rolling through the sales racks like we're not supposed to notice them. *BLANK STARE* So, my mother pulls the one salesclerk aside who initiated this and who gathered her coworkers together (a brown woman of unknown racial origin — Fillipina maybe) and my mother politely says through her teeth "I pray you never have to be treated the way you are treating us." Scared the stew out that girl. Bet she didn't sleep for a long time. smh Long story short, I notified corporate and they had the Westport store send me a gift card. I'll be there tomorrow.

I could go on & on about this but I have gotten to the point where I refuse to let these people ruin my shopping experience and I refuse to get emotional. Do not follow me. What is your name Who is your supervisor How do I reach corporate N-n-next. And we are off to Sephora (where they can follow me, too.)SMH

Sephora did that 'ask-for-ID' mess to me, too…. yep, after I also just stood in line for 149 hours and saw nary a white woman get asked for no doggone ID. Got a $25 gift card out of them, too. The list is too long…

Its happened once or twice, both time I embarrassed the crap out of the person following me (I made them hold my basket since they were worried I was stealing and made them HAVE to follow me)

BUT…
6'3' boyfriend?

As an ex Gap employee, I have to tell ya. If it was a girl and your beau was in a clothing store….it wasn't racial. Ive knocked over co-workers to help some tall glass of water in the pants section.

It was the best part of that job!

Ive knocked over co-workers to help some tall glass of water in the pants section.

LMAO. That'd be me too.

i always get followed, but it's probably because of the way i shop. i walk down every aisle, i inspect the craftmanship/quality of every clothing item i buy and i am a very indecisive shopper. normally i say, "when i need your help, i will ask you" or some other cheeky thing like that. i also frequently get shoppers assuming i am working when i am shopping, but it doesn't really bother me as much as (i guess) it should.

can we talk restaurants for a moment? i like to go out to eat and also love to cook as well…
anyway, i go out with my 6'4" boyfriend (just sayin is all) for an early dinner at a somewhat trendy spot in brooklyn. maybe it was just my imagination but the waiters (a guy and girl) seem to be literally arguing about who was taking our table. not sure– but it seemed like it. the guy ends up taking us and rather blandly takes our order, didnt crack a smile at any of my corny attempts at levity, and otherwise acted like he'd rather be doing aaaannnything else. i saw him being jovial with other tables. we went on with our meal but wanted to hurry along to coldstone for dessert. so i asked for the check and when he brought it i went ahead and gave him my cc. he snapped "just let me clear the table!" now i have actually waited tables at 3 different restaurants and you never make people wait to pay. and since i was asking him to do it, obviously that was what was most important to ME the customer. i tipped 20% as i usually do since i was sure he was thinking the whole time that we would tip very little if at all. and us, restaurants, and tipping im sure could be a whole other post… i think i will write a letter to the manager b/c just today we spent $200 on lunch at a really nice restaurant where we were treated very very well, and quite frankly i see myself going back there before i return to the $50 rude place.

definitely do not shop in the denim department at Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC if you remotely think you need any kind of help. I was on my knees looking through piles of jeans and i had at least 3 employees walk by me without asking if i needed help.

i always get followed, but it’s probably because of the way i shop. i walk down every aisle, i inspect the craftmanship/quality of every clothing item i buy and i am a very indecisive shopper.
That's how personal shoppers shop. I also shop like this because I'm not about to get some crap with the little money I have.

definitely do not shop in the denim department at Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC if you remotely think you need any kind of help. I was on my knees looking through piles of jeans and i had at least 3 employees walk by me without asking if i needed help.
I went there with my rich friend It was really organized. If you need help, ask for it. They SHOULD come to your rescue tif you have to do all that work to get to the clothes. It's Saks after all. If it's the sale stack at Marshall's, then you're on your own boo, but if you're about to drop $200 on jeans, they better help you find it in your size and color. You shouldn't break a sweat there.

Well, I hope that everyone that's talking about the crazy experiences that they have had at these stores… no longer patronizes them.

Prime example why we need our OWN.

I find your posts quite interesting.

HOWEVER, I think you should consider something.
Everyone keeps seems to think that by "not" shopping at the racial profiling stores, that they lose money and will quit their B.S.

THE TRUTH is that they want shoppers like us to stop shopping at their stores. Since many of these places are big corporations, they don't mind giving up a few "minority" buyers.

BUT WHAT IF, after you complain, you return to that same store and shop. Because you complaned, they will be FORCED to treat you differently (no store wants a lawsuit).

STORES' RACIAL PROFILING won't change, unless WE MAKE THEM CHANGE. Sure we could threaten to shop somewhere else, BUT DON'T WE DESERVE TO BE TREATED WITH RESPECT AT ANY PLACE WE SHOP? Why let them breathe a sigh of relief and say "Go shop somewhere else then!"

WE SHOULD COMPLAIN, and still go back to that store. They will be compelled to treat you better - or risk you complaining again. It will help us, AND others like us.

- THEANSWER