A couple of customers were left furious after they received an offensive message from a staff member on a receipt at a restaurant where they'd just eaten.
Stopping in at a Little Caesars for a takeout pizza in Henrico County, Virginia, Rosman Harris and Marcus Robertson (who are cousins) were shocked to read the word "gay" where their names should have been. To add insult to injury, they were not asked to provide a name at the server, although other patrons at the restaurant reportedly were.
"It said, 'gay,'"recalled Harris of the offending receipt, speaking to WTVR. He revealed that while he does identify as homosexual neither Harris, nor his cousin Robertson, revealed to staff at Little Caesars that day of their sexuality.
"I was baffled, and it made me semi-angry because I feel like it’s 2019 and we’re still having to deal with this. It was this preconceived notion of 'Oh, these are gay men.' So, why would you write that on the ticket? I’m not understanding that."
They took the incident to the manager once they noticed the amendment to their receipt, and revealed that the manager did not give them an explanation as to why the word was on their receipt.
Taking to Facebook after the fact, Marcus Robertson posted a picture of the receipt in question, and recounted his own experience of the events. He was just as upset as his cousin, adding that the server had failed to notice that Robertson was deaf.
"So the other night my cousin and I experience something that I’ve never thought I would experience. Like how are we in 2019 and I’m being discriminated against because of my sexually [sic] .
Like I’m hurt, irritated and pissed off like how can you be so rude and disrespectful to a paying customer to label my name as gay when you didn’t even ask my name, so when I told my cousin your excuse to her was that I’m loud and being rude to you. When my cousin explained to you that I was deaf reason for me speaking loud your response was ok."
Robertson's post was posted last Sunday, and over the weekend, the cousins returned to the store to discover that the employee in question was still working the till. Little Caesars, though, responded after this, terminating the employee involved, with Tina Orozco, Director of Communications for Little Caesars corporate, saying that swift action had been taken.
"Little Caesars maintains a zero-tolerance policy against any violations of professional conduct. This is a highly unusual, isolated situation at a store locally owned and operated by a franchisee. The franchise owner took immediate action to investigate this matter and has terminated the employment of the individual involved in the incident."
Despite the employee being fired, Robertson and Harris say they are still waiting for a personal apology from Little Caesars themselves. "For something like this to happen, not only does it impact your business, it impacts your image as well," added Robertson.
