Jay J.
Yelp
Question for the manger: Is your employee, Mat, (scrawny, bald caucasian fella) a person who believes the racist stereotype that all Black people want is sweet wine? Here's why I ask. I visited the Culver City store on Tuesday, Nov. 16th around 12:30pm, maybe 12:45. I shop here often. I was looking for a particular wine, Zweigelt (Austrian), when Mat approached me and asked if I needed help. I asked him if the store carried Zweigelt. He, along with another employee who's name I don't know (Hispanic fella with lots of hair) checked your system and came up with nothing. Mat asked if it was a Cabernet Sauvignon, which immediately showed me he doesn't know a bit about wine. No problem. I informed him Zweigelt is a type of wine varietal, and I started to walk away. As I was walking I heard Matt say to the other employee "I thought for sure it was a Moscato" (or something close to that), which of course is a sweet sparkling wine. Maybe he was referring to something else, maybe not. But I think you should ask him what he meant. What I took from it was that he thinks Black people only want sweet wines, which is considered a racist insult to Black wine professionals. It's a hurtful stereotype that suggests Black people know very little about wine, even though I hold a Level 3 WSET Credential. I didn't say anything to him, but he said it loud enough for me to hear. I think he was a little miffed I pointed out his ignorance concerning Zweigelt. If I'm wrong, and Mat says he was referring to something else - and hair guy confirms it - I'll gladly remove this review. If I'm right, you might want to consider removing Mat from your store. Cheers!
UPDATE:
First, thank you to BevMo for responding to my review and reaching out to me. Sadly, it's all appearing to be lip service. I was contacted by the District Manager, who told me Mat was asked about the incident and denied my story. In fact, he told his bosses a flat out lie, claiming he asked if the wine was sweet when I first approached him. Mat you're lying and you know it. The problem, now, though, is that the DM seemed to be satisfied with Mat's story and framed it as my word vs. his. Well, that's not true at all. As I mentioned earlier, there was another employee who was standing right next to us, also searching for the wine. The DM says she didn't know that guys name. Well, how bout' asking Mat what his name was, then get his version of the story. That seems pretty simple to me, instead of playing if off as my word against Mat's. This is why I suspect BevMo's response was just lip service. If they had any real interest in getting to the bottom of this, talk to all of the parties involved. As you can see, BevMo, you can't do things behind closed doors anymore. You can't sweep problems under the rug. Take care of this problem now, before it turns into something bigger. For instance, if an employee sues you for racial discrimination in the future, this complaint will be part of any discovery. And how you handle this situation could play an expensive part of the outcome... or not.