Colorado store manager calls customer “faggot who voted for Hillary”
James Shawlin says the manager of a local flooring store insulted him in front of his 4-year-old son
An employee at a Highlands Ranch, Colo., Floor & Decor store has reportedly been fired after verbally insulting a gay customer in front of his 4-year-old son. The employee is accused of making disparaging comments to James Shawlin after Shawlin stopped by the store to look at some stone slabs for his home fireplace.
According to Denver area NBC affiliate 9 News, Shawlin had stopped by the store to replace stone for the fireplace that had a manufacturer defect.
“The stones were broken and they were basically gluing them back together and putting them in the box and selling them,” says Shawlin.
An employee at the store gave him permission to check boxes of the stone slabs to make sure they weren’t defective. But another employee complained to the store manager, who came over and confronted Shawlin. Shawlin explained that the other employee had given him permission to inspect the boxes.
“I was a little firm with him, and I just told him, ‘Hey, you know, my husband and I spend a lot of money here. We’ve been using you guys for ten years. We have $3,000 worth of stone,'” Shawlin said. “And he goes, ‘Oh, that explains it now. The faggot that voted for Hillary.'”
Shawlin said another customer in the aisle who’d overheard the exchange expressed his support for Donald Trump. When Shawlin left the store, that customer then followed him and his son outside, saying, “What are these faggots going to do to this child?”
Shawlin later posted a negative review to Floor & Decor’s Facebook page and shared the story on his own page. It was shared more than 400 times.
After initially launching an investigation into the incident, Floor & Decor responded in a Facebook post saying that the employee has since been terminated.
“The individual at issue is no longer employed by F&D,” the company said in its post. “We are an inclusive and diverse company and are committed to treating all customers with courtesy and respect at all times.”
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