A Kansas City man found a racial slur printed on his receipt after returning a pair of shoes he bought over the weekend.
KMBC's Marcus Moore reported that Keith Slater, 22, bought a pair of shoes from a store called Journeys. Slater later returned them after finding a cheaper pair at another store. Slater did get his money back, but it was what was printed on the receipt that he and his family found disturbing.
"That makes me upset. I don't want to look at that (receipt,) that makes me so upset. Why would you say that?" said a woman who was shown the receipt.
"Have they been fired? I mean, this is absolutely crazy," said a man who saw the store ticket.
The receipt, which shows "Cust: Dumb" and then the n-word, is what Slater received after returning a pair of shoes to Journeys at Oak Park Mall.
"When he showed me that receipt, I could not believe it," said Slater's mother, Linda.
By the time the Slaters noticed the racial slur printed on the receipt, the store was already closed for the day.
Moore reported that he went by the store, but no one would talk to him about what happened. A spokesman with Journeys corporate office would only say that the matter is being investigated. But later Tuesday, Genesco, which owns Journeys, released this statement:
"While we are continuing to investigate this incident, it now appears that an employee in one of our stores entered highly inappropriate statements in a form used to process a merchandise return. Needless to say, such an act was not authorized by Journeys, and will not be tolerated. This employee has been terminated.
At Journeys, we pride ourselves on valuing and respecting every customer. We are shocked and sickened that a former associate could be responsible for an act so out of keeping with our culture and our values. We profoundly regret this incident."
"He couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. None of us got any sleep just thinking about it," Linda Slater said.
Hoping to get answers about how the words got on the receipt, the Slaters returned to the store. But they said they never got a full explanation, only that the employee entered a generic code.
"And it pulled up six or seven different choices, and the choice that she (the employee) chose was the very last choice," said Slater's father, Keith.
"I really don't doubt that this is the first time it happened. I'm sure it's happened before, but this is probably the first time that somebody noticed their receipt and came back and asked about it," Linda Slater said.
The Slaters said they are waiting for answers.
"To me, the appropriate thing to do is to terminate the employee because it's just inappropriate for that to be there, and then to have that deleted from their system," Keith Slater said.
The Slaters also filed a complaint with mall security.
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VIPPER2008-12-09 16:14
>>5
Moore reported that he went by the store, but no one would talk to him about what happened. A spokesman with Journeys corporate office would only say that the matter is being investigated. But later Tuesday, Genesco, which owns Journeys, released this statement:
>>5
>Hoping to get answers about how the words got on the receipt, the Slaters returned to the store. But they said they never got a full explanation, only that the employee entered a generic code.
>
>"And it pulled up six or seven different choices, and the choice that she (the employee) chose was the very last choice," said Slater's father, Keith.
Wait, so "Dumb Nigger" is an option available to print on a receipt at Journey's?