Meijer

My name is Benjamin Campbell and I'd like to file a formal complaint for harassment, profiling. Tonight at 10pm on December 8th at Meijer in Rockford Illinois on McFarland Rd, myself and my 13 year old son wanted to stroll through Meijer to get some Christmas gift ideas. We usually frequent a different Meijer in town in Machesney Park but wanted to see if this location had anything different to offer. When we arrived we entered the building on Fresh grocery side entrance because we planned on purchasing food on the way out. My son and I had been making our way up and down each aisle minding our own business for around 30 minutes when we arrived in the toys aisle in front of all the board games, when we were approached by a red colored hair gentleman named Kyle who worked there. Now about 15 minutes prior to this in the electronics department there wasn't a soul working anywhere in sight because I had been looking for a employee to help me with something. After 10 minutes with no assistance my son and I said forget it and kept strolling to toys. When this employee approached us he stopped and asked if we were finding everything ok to which I replied yes and thanked him. Seemed completely normal because that's what employees are supposed to do at least I thought. Now this is employees name from what I got off his name tag was Kyle but couldn't get his last name because Kyle refused to give us his last name when I asked him later on. So my son and I thanked Kyle and continued shopping when my son says to me "dad I think Kyle is following us". Now let me add that my son was wearing my Make America Great Again hat which honestly I shouldn't even have to tell you what my son was wearing but I wholeheartedly believe that the hat my son was wearing was the root of what transpired as our shopping continued. So from the toys department up and down every single aisle through home improvement section and clothing and food, Kyle
followed us and would stop anytime we stopped to look at something. He would then pretend to be on his employee phone thing and would stand at the aisle end and just stare at us. This went on for the next 45 minutes, Kyle would just very creepy like follow us treating us like we were criminals doing something wrong to the point I actually asked my son if he put something in his pocket by accident, too which he replied "NO"! I figured he hadn't because we are 2 skinny preppy guys grocery shopping like we have done hundreds of times at Meijer because we love Meijer. So this Kyle would then follow us to an aisle that another employee would be in stocking shelves or what have you and would talk about us and talk loudly enough that we could tell it was unacceptable for a store employee/employees to do, especially towards a customer and a faithful one at that. But like clockwork the second we were out of his sight there he was hiding in the next aisle we were in spying on us. Now this finally upset enough to the point that I confronted him politely and asked Kyle mid there was some sort of problem to which he said "Nope" just doing my job.. Now this continued all the way till we exited the building. As we walked up to the self checkout lanes there were two lady employees whose names I didn't get over seeing the self checkout transactions. I immediately asked them both if there was a manager working that I could speak with about how disrespectful and to be completely honest almost creepy Kyle was acting. For all I knew Kyle could have been a pedophile, or a child trafficker which by the way happens a lot in Rockford.. So I asked for a manager and wouldn't you know it but Kyle was apparently the manager tonight. I then asked Kyle if there was a general manager I could speak too to which Kyle replied "No"... I then proceeded to ask Kyle if a manager higher up than him would be there the following day to which Kyle replied "Probably".. I then asked Kyle if I could have the general managers name to which Kyle replied "I don't have to give you that information".. I then told Kyle that I'd be contacting corporate and filing a formal complaint against him for harassment mainly but I know for a fact he was profiling us out of all the customers shopping while we were there, Kyle chose the obvious Trump supporters. We witnessed high school kids clowning around and employees not wearing their face masks in accordance to Meijer guidelines, to lots of shoppers that just from appearance alone acted lots more suspicious than my son and I.. Not that they were doing suspicious activities but using this as a clearly visible analogy. So after a few minutes of paying and leaving the absolute torture and humiliation and embarrassment, especially to my 13 year old son we drove off. Upon getting home I immediately started informing you guys of this interaction. I then read that you recommended as many details as possible so I wanted to ask what Kyle the manager's last name was for my complaint so I called to the store and asked for Kyle... Once he was on the line I asked him for his full name to which he replied that he wasn't giving me this information and then hung up on me. So now here we are and I'm really hoping something will be done pertaining to this harassment we had to sadly deal with.. It's honestly sad times we live in when we get treated like criminals and made fun of all because of our political beliefs. I sure hope this isn't the case but regardless this was uncalled for and I'm just about to the point of discussing this issue to a attorney to see what my options are unless corporate can rectify this unfortunate circumstance.