D. D.
Yelp
It would bring my husband and I joy to never have to go to Wholefoods again, but it's the only place in Savannah to get our 5 gallon water jugs refilled.
Having to deal with constant drama every time we run a simple errand is unacceptable.
We run an online business and are from NYC / California.
Being able to work anywhere enabled us to buy a home in Savannah, which we did during the pandemic in 2021.
Our motive for shopping at Wholefoods comes from being vegetarian over 30 years, boycotting animal cruelty from factory farms and meat processing plants.
We also always buy refillable water in the large bottles because it is sustainable and creates less landfill.
When I go into Wholefoods with him to refill the water there are never any incidents.
However , EVERY TIME he goes by himself to buy water there, he is treated like garbage by the check out people who make insulating aggressive comments and accuse him of stealing the water.
How is he stealing when he is rolling the shopping cart through the check out lane and paying for it?
And at most, the water is only 10 cents a gallon.
So what would be his incentive to steal it?
It's unprofessional and mean for the cashiers to treat him this way.
Traumatizing customers who only want to buy $10 worth of water without drama.
We are very busy , so I would not be writing this review if this wasn't the 3rd time the water drama happened. I'm fed up with his treatment by the employees of Wholefoods.
This time, my husband was standing in the self check out line at Wholefoods with 4 bottles of water and a single doughnut, and our friend coincidentally happened to be in line behind him.
The check out station closest to them became open, and my husband began easily scanning the water bottles himself as he was talking with our friend who stood in line behind him waiting for another self check out station to clear.
The check out lady became aggressive and rudely walked in between my husband and his friend , cutting him off mid sentence.
The check out lady then got in his face , accusing him of not ringing up the water properly.
This also happened the other previous times at Wholefoods when he tried to buy water through the regular line (where the check out person scans the water,) and they still accused him of stealing it.
It's not rocket science to scan water bottles, and a 50 year old man can handle it himself people.
Just, wow.
This time, the check out lady pushed him aside and started pressing the screen prompts for him without him requesting her help.
His friend stood by, astonished by the rudeness and audacity of the check out lady.
Who after ringing up the water for him, the check out lady then stomped away in a huff back to her observation corner, standing like a cop, arms crossed.
Though my husband was now stressed by her pointed attitude towards him, he calmly tried to scan the doughnut, but the prompts jammed and wouldn't type the letters.
He was frustrated but patient as always.
So he politely asked the check out lady if she did something to make the screen stop working.
This time, when he actually did need her help after she jammed the screen, she refused to come back over and help him ring up the final item.
Finally, after glaring at him and stressing him out, watching him try for a few minutes, she walked back and started jabbing at the screen prompts again.
Insulting him by claiming that the reason the self check out isn't working was because he lacked the education to spell spell the word, "doughnut" correctly.
My husband can speak 3 languages, and lived in NYC and Europe for decades.
He is the CEO of our company which is successful enough to make the money to buy a house, so I assure you he can spell the word "doughnut."
Am I writing this review because I'm mean and just picking on a racist that was having a bad day?
Or is there more to this story?
Plot twist folks, my husband is black.
And I'm a tall white lady that used to be a runway model in NYC in the 90's.
Knowing now that we are a mixed race couple, does this change your perspective on this review and these incidents?
There is only one race, the human race.
And i try to have empathy towards anyone who is struggling and who's life is so challenging they lack the patience to be polite (let alone kind), and do the basics that their work with the public requires.
But at the same time we have had enough of dealing with this racist nonsense at Wholefoods.
Life is hard for everyone right now and we don't pay to have the cashiers at Wholefoods make it more unnecessarily difficult for people of color.
Especially when the people without color are employed by Wholefoods, a company that claims to be eco conscious and to support LGBTQ and BLM.