IKEA Hyderabad called out for racism, responds after outrage. Details here
‘Only my wife, from Manipur got frisked for goods she bought. No one else before us. And then all supervisory staff came to defend the racism,’ journalist Nitin Sethi tweeted
PremiumIKEA India has been accused of racism following journalist Nitin Sethi alleged that his wife, who is from Manipur, had to face racial treatment at its Hyderabad store. The company came out with a response after the matter caused a massive outrage. Journalist Nitin Sethi, in a tweet, informed “Racist treatment at @IKEAIndia store in Hyderabad. Only my wife, from Manipur got frisked for goods she bought. No one else before us. And then all supervisory staff came to defend the racism. Great show from an 'international store'. Cheers to another usual day. #racism."
Sethi further shared, “The person who checked my wife's shopping bags, even sniggered that we had bought everything, didn't even care to reply why we were singled put. And the supervisors said, yeah call police if you want, we will deal. And it didnt end there. Daily racism that our people face."
Following Sethi's tweet, IKEA India store came out to defend the matter and wrote, “Hej, at IKEA, we believe that equality is a human right, and we condemn all forms of racism and prejudice. We regret the inconvenience caused to you while following the mandatory billing protocol."
IKEA India further wrote back, stating , “As a process, customers who self-checkout are requested for a final check before leaving the store to ensure the billing is correct and customers do not face any problems regarding double charging, repeat scanning of products etc." To this, Nitin Sethi responded, “So @IKEAIndia staff singled out to check only @akoi_Jam for her purchases, passed sarcastic comments and then its supervisors (muscle, security officials) told us off and dealt on side with the police only to ensure we do not face problems of double charging! Slow clap."
After IKEA India's response which stated that the issue was about “mandatory billing protocol", Nitin Sethi's wife shared, “if it was just a simple matter of final checking i won't be tweeting here. kindly refrain from responding without reading properly. makes your company look more irresponsible and insensitive."
The matter has caught the attention of netizens who questioned IKEA India if “frisking a paying customer a mandatory billing protocol?" Another user pointed out, “Most rude and escapist explanation @IKEAIndia is giving by not replying to the charge of the woman being singled out. This is simply not acceptable."
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