Racial insults drive American smoothies chain to demand training of staff

Smoothie King, an American chain of beverage-fruit blends, announced Monday that it has temporarily closed two of its North Carolina stores after employees used racial slurs on their receipts to describe their customers.

The Dallas-based franchise company said two employees who had written offensive descriptions about the receipts of an African-American customer and an Asian-American customer had lost their jobs. The fired employees worked in separate stores in Charlotte.

"We have zero tolerance for any action where a guest is disrespected and we have taken immediate and decisive action," Smoothie King Franchises Inc. said in a statement.

The company said it was closing the two stores where the incidents occurred "until franchisees and their respective teams receive additional training on our standards and ensure that nothing of the sort occurs." again. "

These events are the latest example of a major US retailer having forced its employees to undergo training in response to racist incidents in its stores in recent months.

Smoothie King stated that it is still investigating incidents and that franchisees and workers at its more than 1,000 stores, primarily in the US (south and southeast), would benefit from further training on "Inclusive policies and best practices".

The incidents were revealed Sunday, when a customer responded to a Smoothie promotion on Twitter titled "Hi $ 5 Friday", with a photo of a store receipt and a comment saying, "Do I have to be called N- word for reduction? "