City Acres Market — Attraction in New York

I stopped into this store to buy a particular brand of rice on Saturday morning. I scanned my bag + a bottle of kombucha, which rang up at an incorrect price. I called the girl who was at the till over since I was waiting at the self-checkout + she couldn't help, so she called someone else. I waited a fairly long time + as it's winter, kept checking my phone which was in my interior pocket of my coat, near my heart. By the time the person came who was meant to help take the incorrectly priced kombucha off, I'd been waiting for quite some time + said rather quickly, that I'd return after I made my run to nearby Trader Joes, in an attempt to beat the crowd. NOTE: this was also because after the 'helper' arrived to finally help with the wrong price, the original cashier whispered something to her + they needed to have a separate conversation.

The 'helper' then came to me + asked me to open my coat. A few things to note. I'm a black woman + as it was Saturday morning, I was wearing a sweatshirt, not professionally dressed. I was shocked + disgusted to have been profiled as a shoplifter. I'd shopped in this store for specific things many times + had never had this experience. I let the 'helper' know that I didn't need to shop there. I continued on, with disgust, to make my purchases at Trader Joes.

When I returned to get the rice I needed, I made sure that the cashier saw + understood that I was taking my wallet + phone from my chest pocket + NOT stealing. I made it an exaggerated gesture so that there was no question. The 'helper' appeared + tried to convince me that I 'shouldnt be offended'. I told her + the cashier in both their languages (Arabic + Spanish) that to be discriminated against in this way was NOT ok + pointed out that I was the one who called attention to myself whilst shopping + waiting to be helped. WHY would I ever do that if I were shoplifting. Someone else appeared + attempted to deter me from the fact that I had been racially profiled in the store by OTHER WOMEN OF COLOUR. I let them know, in the kindest terms possible, that it was NOT ok to treat people this way, even if those people happen to be Black.

No apology was made, no attempt to right the situation + no response to my having posted this + tagged the store's social media on Instagram. This was an absolute denial of racial profiling + I wouldn't know what else to call it. How absolutely disappointing that this happened not only by POC to a POC, but that it happened in the very beginning of Black History Month + no one seems to think that this is an issue. My guess is, the only dollars that matter are the Asian dollars that shop there.

(I gave the grace of putting a bar over the face of...

Had the worst and very insulting experience today in this store. Being yelled at by one of their staff and forced/threatened to stay where I was.

I was picking up some meat and had to look under the top layer since the ones in the front looks pretty unfresh and rotten. When I was walking away, the man in the meat counter asked me to “fix it”. Even though I don’t get his request as I have already put back everything I moved, I did what he asked anyway and tried to arrange the packs more nicely. After that, I confirmed with him if he was OK now and was about to go to the register when he angrily rushed to me and shouted “Are you serious”. Then the most awful thing happened. He forced/threatened me to stay where I was. Is this a supermarket or a prison? Who gives you the right to “trap” a customer?

And the ridiculous thing is that he tried to ask his friend (who seems to be a store manager) for back-up. I think his friend was pretty surprised that I have not filed a complaint or call the police first.

This is probably the worst shopping experience ever. Would never step my foot in this store again. You got better choices in the neighborhood rather than to tolerant the overpricing and possible...

The staff here are extremely rude and disrespectful. I used to come here every day to buy food and water, but I will not be visiting again since they think it is okay to accuse me of "forgetting to pay for" things and gaslight me. My memory is very accurate, and I know that I didn't buy any bread here, nor did I forget to pay for anything. I don't owe you my money, and I will be shopping at Trader Joe's in the future instead of here. Their bread is better anyway. Oh, and did I mention that when I told them to show proof that I "forgot to pay for" anything, they said they couldn't show it right now and told me to come back tomorrow, and when I came back the next day they still couldn't show anything because they didn't know what the date was. They also attempted to intimidate me when I said they were unfairly accusing me by saying that if I "wanted to do it like that," they would show the camera footage and then I would have to pay for it or they would call the police and attempted to gaslight me again by saying "If you don't remember just say you didn't remember" and "It's not a big deal", "A lot of customers forget to pay for things", etc. Sorry that I'm not terrified of your big scary...