A local man and his girlfriend say racial bias was behind them being denied a money order at a South St. Louis Schnucks store.
A store employee was fired, and Schnucks CEO Todd Schnuck issued a public apology to the couple, who is African American.
In a series of Facebook videos, Kellen Hill showed an employee rejecting his girlfriend’s $1100 cash when she attempted to purchase a money order for them to pay their rent.
Hill said he went into the store earlier in the day on Monday, but employees told him that he couldn’t purchase the money order with a debit card due to fraud concerns.
He was reportedly told to return with cash. His girlfriend went to purchase the money order with cash, but she too was rejected by a man who identified himself on camera as Travis Donahue. The girlfriend became emotional when asking why she was being refused.
Donahue said he had concerns about fraud, though she was paying with cash. Other customers came to her defense. She was eventually allowed to purchase the money order.
Just over 24 hours later, Schnucks responded with a statement from CEO Todd Schnuck. An excerpt from the statement reads as follows:
“Creating an environment where customers receive exceptional service is one of Schnucks’ core values,” Schnuck said in the statement. “The exact opposite was on display yesterday when a customer attempted to use cash to purchase a money order at one of our stores and was refused. This should not have happened. We have spoken to the customer by phone to apologize. The teammate involved was terminated. I would also like to publicly apologize as well.
I deeply apologize to the customers and am incredibly disappointed in the poor judgement that was used in handling this incident. Although the teammate was focused on the recent increase in fraud, once the customer produced cash for the transaction, the money order should have been sold without further issue. I want our customers to feel welcomed and respected in our stores and I sincerely apologize for how our customers were treated in this instance. We have also extended an offer to the customers to meet with them in person to offer our apologies as well.”
