The Buckle

Hello, my name is Jazzimine Murray and I am writing to provide customer feedback. On the 30th of December 2019, my family visited the Fire Wheel shopping center. I allowed my two oldest daughters along with 2 other young ladies to shop in a few stores separate from us. The girls are all young teens and were admittedly very excited at being together and spending money. They advised me that after making a "game plan" of who was to chose which outfit for each other - all in the ear shot and clear view of your employees they set out. Moments into looking for clothes they were approached asked what they were looking for, what sizes they needed and for what? All of those are normal retail questions - I can't speak to the tone that was being set but the girls said they felt uncomfortable. I will chalk that up to new shoppers, although I know what it feels like to be assisted by over - helpful workers. The girls had a few items in hand but, before they could try anything on were told "if they were just there to try things on but didn't plan on buying anything, they should leave." It's the last part of the experience that I have a problem with. I don't know if their race or age emboldened your employees to speak to them that way but whatever the reason, that was discriminatory. After we all met back up and had dinner, I asked the girls to re - tell what happened and then decided to get clarification for myself. A few minutes before 8 I came to the store and ask one of your associates (Jaqueline) to speak with the manager on shift - she told me that she was the assistant manager and was happy to help - I conveyed what happened (around 5ish) and she listened politely and assured me that there was no age restriction to entering/shopping in the store and that they offer all shoppers close personal, supervised attention. Michael, another assistant manager, said the girls were approached because he thought they were playing around - I asked if I could see the video to address it and was told no. I understand that not sharing a video feed is perhaps store policy but, that claim seemed to be unverified and was only stated by him - no example of rough housing was offered - nothing was knocked over, and no one was running laps-so I am not sure what qualified as playing around to him. The sales associate who advised them to buy or leave was in a yellow/gold shirt with cream/white pants. When I described her to the Jaqueline and Michael, they said her name was Michelle and she was already gone. No one apologized or offered a reason why they girls were told to leave.
To be clear, I can see past looks, tone, or close surveillance but, being asked to leave if they were not going to purchase before anyone even had a chance to try on one outfit - seems discriminatory and unprofessional. It's a retail location - how do you know for sure that you want to buy if you aren't allowed time to shop and try on. We purposefully chose to live in a diverse and tolerant area to avoid some off the ignorance that so easily prevails in society today, As a family we promote the human race over ethnicity and try to bring that positive value to our community so this was truly a disappointing experience. The girls are members of the National Honor Society, honor roll students - literally awarded with medals by the Mayor for Merit (which is why they were given this treat) so it was important for me to address this matter immediately. The girls visited 4 additional stores on their own - Papaya, Old Navy, Justice, and Candy World where they made purchases and felt very welcome and truly enjoyed their experience. One of the best parts of brick and mortar shopping is the shared experience, the chance to instantly see how you look in something and how it makes you feel. That moment was taken from the young ladies that tried to shop in your store today. Your company's standard was poorly represented, and revenue was lost. My teens are under the impression that Buckle is not a store for teens or at least not young brown shoppers - I know your company is international and publicly traded and that you must value customer satisfaction and sentiment. I'd like to assume that this was a one off incident involving young, less sensitive workers not out to offend still, this was an amazingly bad experience and highly disappointing.

Thank you for taking time to read my concern/complaint. I welcome any feedback.